nuts Archives - Page 4 of 11

December 27, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Snickers Peanut Brownie Squares – Tasty, But Not Enough Brownie Flavour

Candy Bars

I can’t think of a single candy bar that wouldn’t be improved by cramming a brownie into it. Think about it: picture a candy bar. Any candy bar. Now picture brownie inside of it. It’s better, isn’t it?

So obviously the Peanut Brownie version of Snickers (which features peanutty brownies covered in a layer of soft caramel and coated in milk chocolate) is good. How could it not be?

The biggest problem here is that the “brownie” isn’t particularly brownie-like. It basically has the taste and texture of a cocoa-tinged version of the usual Snickers nougat. Looking at the ingredients reveals a lack of flour or butter or any brownie ingredients outside of cocoa (aside from egg whites, which are already present in the nougat you’ll find in a regular Snickers).

Still, it’s tasty; it’s essentially a normal Snickers bar, but with more cocoa flavour. Nothing wrong with that — though like with the original, it’s a bit sweeter than it needs to be.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (2 squares, 34 grams): 180 calories, 8 grams of fat (4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 85 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin), corn syrup, sugar, peanuts, chocolate, milkfat, semisweet chocolate (sugar, chocolate processed with alkali, chocolate, cocoa butter, milkfat, soy lecithin, natural flavor), less than 2% – cocoa powder processed with alkali, invert sugar, palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, egg whites, artificial flavor.

December 24, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Mallow-Top Peanut Butter Cups – A Tasty Combo

Candy Bars

Marshmallow and peanut butter is an odd combination. I can’t think of another candy in which those two flavours are combined, and the very idea of it is vaguely funky. Mostly, however, I think the combo is off-putting on a textural level rather than a flavour level.

The people at Hershey seem to agree with me, because the “mallow-top” here is entirely about flavour rather than texture. The packaging uses the term “marshmallow flavored creme,” which makes me think of stuff like Mallo Cups and Valomilk. But it’s basically marshmallow-flavoured white chocolate (it’s technically mockolate, hence “creme” instead of “white chocolate”).

It’s a lot better than I thought it would be. The “creme” has a decent amount of sweet marshmallow flavour, which works surprisingly well with the creamy peanut butter. There’s also the milk chocolate, which obviously complements the marshmallow and the PB quite nicely. And the mild saltiness of the peanut butter does a great job of rounding out the sweetness of the chocolate and the creme.

It’s everything you want an offshoot of a candy to be; it’s tasty in all the same ways that the original is tasty, but with something new to mix it up. It’s great.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 cups, 34 grams): 180 calories, 10 grams of fat (4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 115 mg of sodium, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 16 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Peanuts, milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lactose, lecithin (soy), PGPR), sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), dextrose, skim milk, corn syrup solids, contains 2% or less of: lactose (milk), salt, natural flavor and artificial flavor, lecithin (soy), PGPR, TBHQ and citric acid to maintain freshness.

December 23, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

M&M’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Minis & Peanuts – Stop Being Stingy with the Peanuts

Candy Bars, Chocolate

I’ve already reviewed the M&M’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Minis & Crisp Rice, which I thought was decent enough, but lacking in crispiness. Well this is basically the same thing, but instead of not having enough crispy rice, it doesn’t have enough peanuts.

It’s a bit better than that one, I guess. If you get a square with both M&M’s and peanuts, it’s pretty tasty. But the amount of M&M’s and peanuts is dispiritingly anemic — particularly the peanuts.

I guess they’re trying to cut costs? But just charge a bit more and give me more peanuts. Look at the photo of the cross-section of the bar. No rational person could possibly believe that there are enough nuts there. Look at it. Look at it and weep.

Still, it’s not bad. The chocolate is middling, but tasty enough, and when the bar delivers on what it promises, it’s good. The slight crunch from the peanuts and the M&M’s works very well with the creamy chocolate. But then you get a square that’s just plain, mediocre chocolate, and why? Why is this happening? As if 2020 hasn’t been bad enough, now I have to deal with this? Come on.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1/3 bar, 37 grams): 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 25 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, artificial flavour), M&M’s® Minis milk chocolate candies [milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavour, flavour), sugar, colour (with tartrazine), corn syrup, tapioca dextrin, cornstarch, carnauba wax, modified coconut oil and/or modified palm oil (medium chain triglycerides)], peanuts (peanuts, palm oil).

December 20, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Eat-More – It Tastes Better than it Looks

Candy Bars

Eat-More is, on a surface level at least, one of the more unappealing candy bars you can find. Between the frumpy retro packaging and the appearance of the bar itself (I’m too classy to say that it looks like nutty poop, but I think we all have eyeballs and can see what it clearly looks like), the makers of Eat-More seem to have no interest in making you want to eat their candy bar.

The wrapper calls it a “dark toffee peanut chew.” I’ve always been under the impression that it had zero chocolate, though a quick perusal of the ingredients reveals unsweetened chocolate right near the top. I guess they melt it right into the toffee, and now that I know that, yeah, I can kind of taste it in the background.

I haven’t had an Eat-More in years, and I actually think it’s slightly better than I remembered. It’s chewy, peanutty, and satisfying. The sweetness level is surprisingly restrained, with a slightly bitter flavour that has way more going on than the one-note sugariness of so many candy bars. There’s no molasses in the ingredients, but it definitely has that flavour, with a nice roastiness from the peanuts and a subtle chocolately kick.

As for the texture, it’s chewy but soft; it definitely doesn’t have the intense sticks-to-your-teeth level of chewiness of something like a Tootsie Roll. It’s quite different from pretty much any other candy bar, but I guess that’s part of the appeal.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 240 calories, 14 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 65 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 18 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fibre, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, unsweetened chocolate, modified palm kernel oil, high fructose corn syrup, modified palm oil and modified vegetable oil (shea, sunflower and/or safflower), modified milk ingredients, dextrose, high maltose corn syrup*, corn starch, salt, sorbitol, mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin, artificial flavour, invertase*, sulphites, disodium phosphate*, TBHQ*, citric acid, colour. *may not always be present.

December 13, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Take 5 – Sweet and Salty Goodness

Candy Bars

Reese’s Take 5 was formerly just known as Take 5, but last year Hershey crammed the Reese name onto it, because apparently all candy bars have to be affiliated with another candy bar. Think about it: pretty much every bar under the sun has about a billion variants (there are about a thousand different Kit Kat and M&M varieties alone), but when was the last time one of the major candy companies came out with an all-new candy bar?

By 2032, all candy bars will converge into one mega-flavour that will cause the universe to fold into itself and reset: a new big bang that’ll start this whole rigmarole over from scratch. Which, let’s face it, is probably for the best.

Until then: Reese’s Take 5, a combo of pretzels, peanuts, peanut butter, caramel, and chocolate.

It’s pretty good, though if you don’t like chocolate-covered pretzels you’re probably out of luck, because that’s clearly the dominant flavour here. I do like that combo, so I quite enjoyed it. In particular, the nice hit of salt you get from the crunchy pretzels does a great job of balancing out some of the sweetness from the rest of the bar. Which is a good thing, because Take 5 (sorry, Reese’s Take 5) is a scorcher; it’s intensely sweet. The caramel is probably superfluous, but the combo of chocolate, peanut butter and pretzels is so delicious that it barely matters.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 210 calories, 11 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 210 mg sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 18 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), peanuts, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, canola oil, and/or safflower oil), high fructose corn syrup, chocolate, hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, coconut oil, soybean oil), partially defatted peanuts, skim milk, contains 2% or less of: dextrose, whey (milk), salt, corn syrup solids, dairy butter (milk), glycerin, corn syrup, lecithin (soy), sodium hydroxide, mono- and diglycerides, artificial flavor, baking soda, carrageenan, milk fat, yeast, TBHQ and citric acid, to maintain freshness, disodium phosphate.