I like PayDay. Consisting entirely of a dense caramel centre covered in salted peanuts, it’s delightfully peanutty and chewy, with a really satisfying combination of sweetness and saltiness that sets it apart from the competition. It’s also the rare candy bar that’s chocolate-free, which adds to its distinctive charm.
Enter: Chocolatey PayDay, which takes the classic bar and adds a “chocolatey” exterior. In case the word “chocolatey” wasn’t a dead giveaway, the bar features mockolate rather than the real deal. Oddly, chocolate is present towards the end of the ingredients list — but not enough to avoid the dreaded “chocolatey” designation, or to avoid the telltale waxy texture and lack of personality that you get from the fake stuff.
It’s fine. I’m not sure if they’ve just covered a standard PayDay in a chocolatey coating or if other modifications were made, but it tastes like the latter to me. I’m pretty sure there are less peanuts, and while the original hits you in the face with the sweet/salty combo, the level of salt is much more restrained here. It’s definitely there, but it’s in the background.
This makes a bigger difference than you’d think; the bar tastes noticeably sweeter, and the nutty flavour is much more muted. It doesn’t help that the mockolate coating basically adds nothing, and only detracts from the bar (unlike a lot of candy bars covered in mockolate, there’s a thick enough layer here that the waxy texture is quite noticeable).
The whole thing is inoffensive enough, but it takes something distinctive and makes it generic; it basically tastes like an inferior version of an Oh Henry.
Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 260 calories, 14 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 100 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fibre, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, peanuts, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil, corn syrup, chocolate, skim milk. Contains 2% or less of: whey (milk), salt, lecithin (soy), carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, vanillin, artificial flavor.
