In York County, Pennsylvania’s “Pretzel Country,” The Pretzel Company bakes hand-twisted soft pretzels to order and ships them fresh nationwide. Founded by two brothers and their friends as York City Pretzel Company on December 5, 2014, the family-owned bakery grew from a 1,200-square-foot shop into an online business with a team of more than two dozen and baking capacity three times its original scale. Its pretzels are still made by hand in small batches with six simple ingredients, then individually wrapped for delivery.
Martin’s PretzelsSince Henry Martin began baking pretzels on his Akron, Pennsylvania, property in 1932, Martin’s Pretzels has remained a family-run bakery making Lancaster County hard pretzels by hand. Now led by Christine and Dwayne Martin, the next generation continues the original recipe and hands-on method, producing more than 22,000 pretzels a day without mass production. The bakery still operates in the building Henry rebuilt in 1946 after a barn fire, and ships its old-fashioned, stone-oven-baked pretzels nationwide.AKRON, PA
Tom Sturgis PretzelsTom Sturgis Pretzels is a Shillington, Pennsylvania bakery making crunchy, stone-hearth-baked pretzels with old-fashioned techniques adapted to modern equipment. Established by Tom M.D. Sturgis in 1946, it remains a Sturgis family operation, with fifth-generation descendants of Julius Sturgis producing pretzels today and the bakery at its current location since 1970. The company traces its roots to America’s first commercial pretzel bakery, founded by Julius Sturgis in Lititz in 1861, and still bakes some pretzels on soapstone hearths.READING, PA
Scratch Made PretzelsScratch Made Pretzels is a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania food manufacturer making handcrafted specialty foods, with a focus on soft pretzels. Founded in 2016 as a small proprietary restaurant commissary, the company has grown into a full manufacturing facility supplying products through retail channels. Its pretzels are made from fresh dough and hand-rolled and braided.HARRISBURG, PA
Unique SnacksFrom Reading’s “Pretzel City,” Unique Snacks makes slow-baked pretzels and other crunchy baked snacks from a secret Pennsylvania Dutch family recipe. The sixth-generation, family-owned business is best known for its original split-open Splits and hollow Pretzel Shells, developed through more than a century of family baking and experimentation.READING, PA