One of my favorite snacks will soon be available in Seasoned Pretzels varieties and a Zesty Ranch flavor. (Is it sacrilege to mix Hot Buffalo with Zesty Ranch?)
One of my favorite snacks will soon be available in Seasoned Pretzels varieties and a Zesty Ranch flavor. (Is it sacrilege to mix Hot Buffalo with Zesty Ranch?)
I don’t trust a person who doesn’t enjoy Goldfish. You’re never not the right age to snack on a handful — or a bag — of Goldfish crackers.
Cheddar is the obvious go-to flavor, but I’ll occasionally pick up a bag of the confusingly named Original flavor too. (Did they used to be called “Saltine” or am I pulling a Berenstein/Berenstain here?) But there’s a great, big world of Goldfish flavors beyond those two options — you can even get them bursting with Old Bay or Awesome Sauce flavor.
The pretzel flavor of Goldfish often seems to be the forgotten variety. This flavor brings all the magic of a crispy, crunchy pretzel in the delightful form a Goldfish cracker.
Pepperidge Farm is about to make 2026 the year of the pretzel Goldfish. The company recently announced a new line of Seasoned Pretzels, with Goldfish Honey Mustard Seasoned Pretzels and Goldfish Hot Buffalo Seasoned Pretzels leading the way.
Not content to rest with a revitalized line of Seasoned Pretzels, the crackers will soon be available in Goldfish Zesty Ranch in addition to Goldfish Toy Story Cheddar Crackers featuring Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
“As we head into 2026, we’re bringing new flavors and formats for the whole family in ways that only Goldfish can, making snacking even more fun for everyone in the household,” Mike Fanelli, senior director, Goldfish, said in a statement. “From Seasoned Pretzels to our Toy Story collaboration and Zesty Ranch offering, we’re introducing craveable flavors and playful experiences that are sure to delight snackers of all ages.”
You better believe I was excited to rip into four bags of Goldfish at once ...
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The Seasoned Pretzels line of Goldfish has a suggested retail price of $3.89. Zesty Ranch and the limited-edition Toy Story variety should retail at $3.69.
My thoughts
With Seasoned Pretzels being the big new innovation, let’s dive into these two bags of Goldfish first.
If I was starting a line of seasoned pretzels, honey mustard and buffalo sauce are absolutely where I’d start things off. Two classic flavors that never don’t mix well with a bunch of pretzels.
Goldfish Seasoned Pretzels Honey Mustard
Both flavors of Goldfish Seasoned Pretzels are thoroughly coated with seasoning, something that’s super obvious upon pouring out a handful of the Honey Mustard option.
The yellow dust covering these pretzel Goldfish packs the very sweet and spicy punch advertised on the back of the bag. This is a fantastic combo of flavors, and I could have easily eaten the entire bag if we didn’t have to leave for one of our daughter’s classmate’s birthday party on Sunday afternoon.
Snack score
🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪 (5 out of 5 cookies)
Goldfish Seasoned Pretzels Hot Buffalo
I love buffalo sauce. As a Western New Yorker (go Bills), buffalo sauce was a major food group during my formative teenage and young adult years. My friends and I would post up at Buffalo Wild Wings every night. I’ve been to Duff’s, Anchor Bar and even the Bar-Bill that opened in Rochester. Buffalo sauce is an element of nature.
Goldfish added just the right amount of powdery buffalo flavoring to this version of its Seasoned Pretzels, giving them enough kick to make consuming them exciting while not enough where a tentative palate would be scared away.
Snack score
🍪🍪🍪🍪 (4 out of 5 cookies)
Goldfish Zesty Ranch Flavored Crackers
If you told me that Goldfish was rolling out a flavor “packed with bold, savory seasoning from onion, garlic and parsley,” I’d ask you if Pepperidge Farm was working on a prestigious new line of the classic cracker.
It turns out that’s just a fancy way of saying “Zesty Ranch.”
Oh boy, these are dangerous. The regular Goldfish shape was already highly snackable, and now Pepperidge farm added America’s most popular ... um ... dressing? Dipping sauce? Condiment?
While other Toy Story favorites like Jessie and Rex are featured on the bag of the bag, this special edition variety of Goldfish only features the faces of Buzz and Woody once you get into the bag.
I’m trying to do the math on how this bag of Goldfish relates to the standalone Lightyear movie — crackers based on the movie based on the story of Buzz Lightyear? — but that’s way too much work for this snack.
Snack score
🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪 (5 out of 5 cookies)
OK, I know this is sacrilege among Western New Yorkers, but hear me out ... what if we mixed the Hot Buffalo Seasoned Pretzel Goldfish with the Zesty Ranch Goldfish?
I know — I KNOW! — that blue cheese is the proper dipping sauce for Buffalo wings, sanctioned by God and Josh Allen, but since Goldfish isn’t rolling out a blue cheese flavor at the moment, I’m going to say that introducing the Hot Buffalo Goldfish to the Zesty Ranch Goldfish is OK in this one scenario.
Yeah, this is a fantastic combo. I want a mixed bag of these two flavors.
Goldfish Seasoned Pretzels Honey Mustard, Goldfish Seasoned Pretzels Hot Buffalo, Goldfish Zesty Ranch Flavored Crackers and Goldfish Toy Story Cheddar Crackers were provided to Snackology for this independent review.
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Snackology is written and produced by Bill Kuchman. Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.
The Omnicosm founder. Popculturology, Deep SNL Thoughts and Snackology writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
