The Sweet Kirkland Brand Snack That Will Actually Impress Your Palate

When snack time rumbles around, day or night, options can take on oversized importance: Crunchy or creamy, sweet or savory, salty, nutty, fruity? There are so many choices to consider. If you shop at Costco, the decision multiplies many times over. Warehouse shopping, whether online or at a Costco store, provides a parade of tasty snacks in quantities to (ideally) keep you snacking for weeks to come. But how to choose between the company's iconic Kirkland brand goodies?

We can help with that, given Tasting Table's curated list of Costco sweet snacks, ranked from worst to best. Our taste tester found the top-spot best snack is one perching often in my own pantry: praline pecans. This Kirkland concoction takes a simple offering from Mother Nature, the humble pecan, and transforms it into a sweet, savory, and salty treat that's both creamy and crunchy in every bite. Pulling off that glorious mixture of textures and flavors is a feat to be admired. 

It all starts with the pecans themselves, which you'll notice on the packaging to be "fancy pecans." That's actually more than just marketing-speak; it's an industry term for shelled pecans in which four classifications reflect the quality of the nuts based on things like coloration, full-bodied size, and a healthy kernel structure. A "fancy" designation means it's the most desirable, followed by choice, standard, and amber. Costco coats those high-grade fancies in sea salt, then smothers them in a delectably sweet praline coating. 

As a child in America's Deep South, where pecans trees routinely dot backyard landscapes, including my own family's, we paid little attention to grades, colors, or sizes. Scooping up endless fallen pecans, with pseudo tree sap lightly coating our hair and clothing, we only cared about cracking the extraordinarily tough shells to reach the aromatic nutty goodness tucked inside. But as an adult on the West Coast, with not a single pecan tree in sight, I've learned a thing or two about buying pecans. Regardless of the specific pecan variety, Costco's choice of "fancy" grading is what defines its praline pecans.

The Costco praline pecan ingredients are pecans, sugar, butter, brown sugar, sea salt, natural flavor, and high oleic sunflower oil as a processing aid. The Kirkland brand's exact technique is undisclosed, but experimentation with homemade praline versions could get you pretty close. Some praline home-cook pros suggest using a mixture of brown sugar and white granulated sugar for less-grainy but slightly chewy texture. You'll likely want some form of milk for creaminess, plus a touch of vanilla extract for extra flavor. However, the reason you're buying these snacks from Costco is probably because you'd rather they made them than having to do it yourself at home.

Do keep in mind that Kirkland praline pecans aren't necessarily just for snacking; pop them into a pecan pie, or crush and sprinkle over ice cream or cupcakes for a dessert with a flourish. Or maximize their savory-dish enhancing potential by mixing crumbled pecan pralines into fruit salads or breakfast waffles. You can also blend them to a fine consistency for pie crusts and cocktail rims.