peanuts Archives - Candyrageous

July 27, 2021 Michael

Snickers – The Most Popular Candy Bar in the World

Candy Bars

On one hand, it’s kind of odd that I’ve gone this long without reviewing plain old Snickers. On the other hand, who needs a review of Snickers? Is it really any kind of public service to review a candy bar that literally every person on the planet has tried? If you’re unfamiliar with Snickers, I’m going to assume you’ve just emerged from an Encino Man scenario, and probably have better things to do than read a candy blog.

Snickers consists of nougat, caramel, and peanuts, all covered in a generous layer of milk chocolate. But of course, you know that already, because it’s Snickers. It’s the top-selling candy bar in the world (or at least it was a few years ago).

It’s good. There’s obviously a reason why it’s so popular: the nougat and the caramel have a satisfying chewiness, the peanuts add a nice crunch, and the creamy chocolate rounds it all out. It’s aggressively sweet, though the slightly salty peanuts do a decent job of offsetting that a bit. It’s certainly not my favourite candy bar, but it’s easy enough to see why it’s such a big deal.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 250 calories, 12 grams of fat (4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 125 mg sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, modified palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, dried egg-white, artificial flavour.

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 30, 2021 Michael

Planters Salted Caramel Nut Bar – Like PayDay, but Better

Candy Bars

At first glance, the Planters Salted Caramel Nut Bar looks like it should be identical to a PayDay. Like PayDay, it consists of salted peanuts, caramel, and a nougat centre (well, PayDay is technically caramel all the way through, but the “caramel” base is actually quite nougat-like).

It tastes quite different, however, thanks to the nougat centre, which is delightfully soft and creamy, with a fluffy consistency and an almost marshmallow-like flavour. It’s very sweet, but it’s perfectly balanced by the salted caramel and the very generous amount of salty peanuts, which have a nice roasty flavour that adds a lot to the bar.

It’s kind of like a cross between a PayDay and the Pecan Log Rolls they sell at Cracker Barrel (which, FYI, are amazing — the next time you find yourself in a Cracker Barrel, buy one. Trust me, you’ll thank me later). It’s crunchy and creamy, sweet and salty, and it’s delicious.

Manufactured by: Planters Peanuts
Nutritional info (1 bar, 85 grams): 390 calories, 22 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 10 mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 44 grams of carbohydrates, 36 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fibre, 9 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, palm oil, reduced lactose whey (milk), salt, coconut oil, natural and artificial vanilla flavouring, soy lecithin, modified soy protein, invertase, natural antioxidant (canola oil, rosemary extract, natural mixed tocopherols, sunflower oil).

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).

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).