peanut butter Archives - Candyrageous

June 24, 2021 Michael

Reese’s White – A Downgrade from the Original

Candy Bars

The three major types of chocolate, ranked: dark chocolate > milk chocolate > white chocolate. I’m sorry, but that’s just a fact. White chocolate is okay, but if you prefer it to milk or dark then you need to come to terms with the fact that your opinions are bad.

But of course, like so many would-be white chocolate confections from the major candy-makers, this isn’t actually white chocolate — it’s “white creme.” There’s no cocoa butter in the ingredients, so the word chocolate does not apply.

It’s fine? I guess? Even if it were great quality white chocolate, I don’t think this would have been anything too special; the chocolate/PB combo is magical for a reason, and removing the cocoa flavour from that equation diminishes it quite substantially.

Still, it’s tasty enough. The salty peanut butter does a great job of balancing out the sweetness from the white creme, and with the quantity of PB here, the waxy texture from the fake chocolate isn’t all that noticeable. The whole thing is a clear downgrade from a standard Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but it’s not bad.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 cups, 39 grams): 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 150 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Peanuts, sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), skim milk, dextrose, corn syrup solids, lactose (milk), contains 2% or less of: salt, lecithin (soy), TBHQ and citric acid to maintain freshness, vanillin, artificial flavor, PGPR.

May 26, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk: Peanut Butter Cookie – As Delicious As You’d Hope

Chocolate

There are some chocolate bars that you can tell are going to be good just by looking it. Peanut Butter Cookie Dairy Milk is one of those bars. Dairy Milk: delicious. Peanut butter cookies: delicious. Chocolate + peanut butter: delicious. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is probably going to be delicious.

And hey, what do you know: it’s delicious. Who could have predicted that??

The wrapper describes this as “milk chocolate with cookie pieces and peanut butter chips.” The biggest surprise here is that the cookie pieces aren’t actually peanut butter cookies — all of the PB flavour comes from the peanut butter chips. This works out fine, however, with a nice combo of crunch and peanutty flavour. It’s not as peanut buttery as something like a peanut butter cup, but the flavour is there and is unmistakable.

The sweetness is surprisingly restrained, mostly thanks to the crispy cookie bits, which aren’t as sweet as you’d expect, with a fairly distinct wheaty flavour.

And of course, the milk chocolate is classic Dairy Milk, and is as tasty as always.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (10 squares, 42 grams): 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 22 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (milk, sugar, cocoa butter, skim milk, whole milk powder, unsweetened chocolate, butter oil, soy lecithin, artificial flavour), Cookie pieces (wheat flour, sugar, palm oil, natural and artificial flavours, glucose syrup, corn flour, salt, soy lecithin, baking soda, com starch), peanut butter chips (sugar, modified oil (palm and palm kernel), peanut flour, modified milk ingredients, peanuts, dextrose, salt, soy lecithin, lactose).

May 16, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Big Cup with Pieces – A Very Tasty Combo

Candy Bars

Though Reese cramming their Peanut Butter Cups with stuff has become old hat at this point, I’m pretty sure that Reese’s Big Cup with Pieces was the first time they did this. So basically, it’s the Neil Armstrong of putting stuff into a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Unless I’m wrong about it being first, in which case I guess it’s the Buzz Aldrin of putting stuff into a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?

It’s easy enough to see why this thing kickstarted a trend — it’s delicious. The Big Cup itself is quite good, with a much more peanut buttery flavour than a standard Reese Peanut Butter Cup, and a very satisfying balance of sweet and salty.

The Reese’s Pieces bring a nice bit of crispiness that compliments the creamy cups really well. And they aren’t just there for texture; they add a decent amount of their very distinctive flavour. It all adds up to something that seems like it should just be a novelty, but is actually quite tasty.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 cups, 79 grams): 390 calories, 22 grams of fat (10 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 230 mg of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 3 gram of fibre, 41 grams of sugar, 8 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, unsweetened chocolate, lactose, lecithin (soy), polyglycerol polyricinoleate), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, partially defatted peanuts, modified and hydrogenated palm kernel oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup, salt, colour, corn starch, confectioner’s glaze, lecithin (soy) modified corn starch, corn syrup, THBQ, carnauba wax, artificial flavour.

April 25, 2021 Michael

Abba-Zaba – Ultra-Chewy Taffy with Peanut Butter

Candy Bars

Abba-Zaba has been around for almost a hundred years (since 1922), so it clearly has its fans. I can’t say that I’ll ever buy one again, but if you’ve been around that long, you must be doing something right. It’s basically just a big old hunk of ultra-chewy taffy, and if you’re into that, you’ll probably enjoy it.

It’s odd; the shiny white bar looks plasticky enough that after I opened it I assumed it had some kind of inner wrapping, but nope, that’s just the bar. It’s certainly not the most appealing looking candy bar ever.

It’s filled with a decent amount of creamy, slightly salty peanut butter, which is where most of the flavour comes from. It’s otherwise surprisingly restrained in its sweetness, and is mostly notable for how incredibly chewy it is. It’s actually kind of aggressive in its chewiness, like, “oh, you want to chew me? Good luck with that, pal.” It made my jaw tired almost immediately.

I wasn’t crazy about it, but then I’m not a huge fan of taffy in general, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Manufactured by: Annabelle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 51 grams): 210 calories, 4 grams of fat (2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 45 mg of sodium, 41 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 22 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Corn syrup, liquid sugar (cane sugar, water), peanut butter (dry roasted peanuts, sucrose, hydrogenated rapeseed and cottonseed oil, salt), fully hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, soybean oil), dextrose, salt, mono- and diglycerides, BHA (antioxidant).

April 14, 2021 Michael

Reese’s Pieces Peanut – A Big Downgrade from the Original

Candy Bars

Cramming a peanut into Reese’s Pieces seems like it should be a match made in heaven — Reese’s Pieces are one of my favourite candies, and Peanut M&M’s are objectively the best M&M’s. So combining the two must be the greatest thing ever, right?

You’d think.

In practice, these things just aren’t that great. It’s weird; adding a peanut seems like it could only enhance an already delicious candy, but it throws off the balance. It muddles that distinctive Reese’s Pieces flavour. It does add a nice roasted nuttiness, but it turns out Reese’s Pieces doesn’t need that. It was already perfect on its own; the presence of a whole nut waters down what was already great about it.

It doesn’t help that the candy shell is slightly thicker than a standard Reese’s Piece (what, isn’t a single one of these a Reese’s Piece? Or does this always have to be plural?), which gives it an unpleasantly assertive crunchiness that’s a bit over-the-top. It’s not a big deal, but again, the balance is thrown off. The addictive, “just one more piece” quality of the original is diminished.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (13 pieces, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 30 mg of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, dextrose, corn syrup), peanuts, partially defatted peanuts, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, palm kernel oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, confectioners glaze, corn starch, modified corn starch, salt, lecithin (soy), carnauba wax, artificial flavour, titanium dioxide, tartrazine, sunset yellow FCF, allura red, brilliant blue FCF, milk ingredients.