Wildly popular Dot's Homestyle Pretzels now come in candy bar form

Diehard fans of Dot's Homestyle Pretzels would likely agree that the beloved pretzel born in North Dakota doesn't need much improvement.

But Dorothy "Dot" Henke, the snack's creator, has big ideas for her brand found in gas stations and hardware stores across the Midwest.

Enter the Mr. Dot Bar. Three flavors (milk chocolate with toffee, dark chocolate with toffee, and "white candy bar") incorporate Henke's signature garlic and onion-seasoned buttermilk pretzels. You read that right. The pretzels are fully dressed in their usual tangy spices, then enrobed in chocolate. Talk about sweet and salty.

"You wouldn't think that would work, but it does," Henke said. "It depends on your taste buds, of course."

The buttery pretzels are crushed into fine crumbs, and in the milk and dark chocolate bars, added to shards of toffee that make for a crisp bite akin to a Crunch bar. The dried onion flavor comes through the most when paired with the milk chocolate.

"It's intriguing, it's yummy, and it's just unique in its own way," Henke said.

The Mr. Dot Bar originated much the way the original Dot's pretzels did.

"We did a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and we just kept messing around with it till we got what we liked," she said.

In this case, the experiment was for her husband Randy Henke, whom Dot describes as a "chocoholic."

Last summer, the Henkes met a candy maker who, coincidentally, shared their last name. Together, they decided to collaborate on the Mr. Dot Bar. They introduced samples at a convention this past March and the bars began rolling out in April to distributors of the pretzels. Look for them in the usual Ace Hardware stores with more to come.

What's next for the homegrown snack brand?

"We are seriously working on a new flavor," Henke said, but wouldn't give a hint as to what that would be. Her hope is to have it on shelves by Christmas.

"It's a combination of many flavors. I just want it unique and distinct. I want people to go out there and think, 'Oh, it's this; oh, no, it's that.'"

Kind of like the Mr. Dot Bar. It's chocolate. Oh, no, it's onion.