A recent viral TikTok contains quite the accusation: that a fluffy, baked and salty mall treat might be swindling innocent customers with lies on top of the lye it takes to make it.
On Nov. 4, TikTok user @margaretgarvey posted a now-deleted video that quickly went viral. In the video, she presents two cups from pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s: a small cup, overflowing with Pretzel Nuggets, and an empty large cup. Then, she presents a stunning hypothesis.
“Y’all they’re the same thing!!!” reads the overlaid text on the video as she pours the small cup of Pretzel Nuggets into the larger one, with a few nuggets peeking from the top of the larger cup. “Pls buy the small and save your $2,” reads the caption on the TikTok, which has garnered over 3.3 million views, 336,000 likes and hundreds of comments sharing their own perspective on what they just witnessed.
“No literally i worked there and the difference is like 2 nuggets,” claimed one commenter.
“They never fill the smalls that much tho they usually either barely full or not even to the brim,” wrote another TikTok user.
“If they gaslight u into saying they only have larges out just ask them to pour the large one into a small one and they get real quiet,” said a third commenter.
“I can’t tell if this is satire,” said one TikToker, suspicious of the overflow on the cup in the video. “The smaller size is overflowing so much idk what aunties y’all be buying from.”
Some went a station further on the accusation train, claiming that the workers themselves are in on the squeeze.
“I went there once and asked for a large and he grabbed a small, poured it into the large cup, and then handed it to me,” said one user.
“Literally i ordered a large and they dumped a small into a large right in front of me,” said another commenter, mirroring other claims on the thread. “NEVER AGAIN.”
We had no choice but to conduct our own pretzel-based investigation.
As the indomitable Oprah would ask: So what is the truth?
Auntie Anne’s tells TODAY.com that it does indeed offer two distinct sizes with different nugget quantities:
“As a brand standard, Auntie Anne’s offers a Small 16 oz. Pretzel Nuggets cup, which generally includes approximately 18-20 pretzel nuggets, and a Regular 21 oz. Pretzel Nuggets cup, which generally includes approximately 25-27 pretzel nuggets. Since Auntie Anne’s only serves freshly-baked, handmade, hand-cut pretzels, it is possible that some nuggets are bigger/smaller than others so the nugget count may vary slightly from cup to cup.”
TikToker @margaretgarvey did not respond to a request for comment.
To be truly, absolutely and positively sure about the matter, I decided to conduct my own investigation.
Driving to my local shopping mall, I sauntered over to Auntie Anne’s and purchased a small $6.59 order of Original Nuggets and a $7.69 order of Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Nuggets in a “regular” (what TikTok users have been calling a large).
Admittedly, when I ordered the small set of Original Pretzel Nuggets, the worker who helped me took a regular-sized cup full of Original Nuggets and dumped it into an empty small cup.
It wasn't quite the same situation as TikTok commenters claimed, but I did gasp thinking it happened to me too until I realized this would probably net me more nuggets, not less.
Once I paid, I sat down at a table to take a visual survey of my salty-and-sweet haul. To me, it seemed like I got way more Cinnamon Sugar Nuggets than Original, as intended, but I poured the larger set of nuggets into the smaller cup to be sure.
And well, the proof is in the pudding, folks: There was really no space to fit all of my larger sized nuggets into the smaller size.
I also tried fitting the smaller order of Original Nuggets into the larger cup, which didn’t end up having the same visual effect the viral TikTok did.
Still, to be 100% sure, when I got home, before I dipped my nuggets into into some mustard and/or icing, I physically counted the pieces in both of my orders.
After painstakingly counting each of my items, I saw that I received 16 nuggets of various sizes in my small order of Original Nuggets and 21 nuggets in my regular order of Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Nuggets. Certainly a bit short of what Auntie Anne’s brand standard dictates, but honestly I’m full after about 15 of them anyway.
All in all, what it comes down to is if you’re willing to pay an extra dollar for a few more nuggets.
“That two dollars makes me feel like i’m getting more and makes me happy,” one TikTok commenter wrote. What an optimistic way to think about it.
