peanuts Archives - Page 6 of 8

September 13, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Twix Peanut Butter – Obviously Delicious

Candy Bars

Twix Peanut Butter is one of those things that you don’t even need to try to know that it’s going to be good. I mean, it’s chocolate, peanut butter, and cookies. That’s going to be delicious by default. You’d have to work hard to mess that combo up.

And yeah, it’s good. Of course it’s good. Again, it’s chocolate, peanut butter, and cookies. How could that be bad? The chocolate is nice and creamy, the cookie is crispy and sweet, and the peanut butter has a decent amount of saltiness that helps to balance out the sweetness of the bar.

I think the cookie might be slightly different than the cookie in a standard Twix bar? That one has a buttery, shortbready quality to it, but this one seems a bit lighter and crispier. That might be my imagination, however, and either way the cookie here compliments the rich peanut butter quite well.

My only real complaint is that I wish the peanut butter were smoother and creamier. It’s certainly tasty enough, but it’s quite dry and crumbly. Alas, that’s par for the course for a candy bar. I think the only mass market chocolate bar I’ve ever had that featured peanut butter with the consistency of actual peanut butter was PB Max (R.I.P. PB Max; you were too beautiful for this world).

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 pack, 47.6 grams): 250 calories, 14 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg of cholesterol, 130 mg of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 25 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milkfat, soy lecithin, artificial flavour), peanuts, wheat flour with folic acid and iron (ferrous fumarate), sugar, palm oil, maltodextrin, less than 1.5% – hydrogenated rapeseed and cottonseed oil, modified corn starch, salt, glucose syrup, soy lecithin, baking soda, propyl gallate to maintain freshness.

August 26, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Old Faithful – Chewy Marshmallow and Crunchy Peanuts

Nut Clusters

I’ll admit that I hadn’t even heard of Old Faithful before a few weeks ago, but apparently it’s been around since 1925, so clearly it’s doing something right.

It has a traditional bar shape, but Old Faithful is actually a peanut cluster a la Goo Goo Cluster; it features chewy marshmallow creme, lots of peanuts, and a generous coating of milk chocolate.

It’s pretty simple, but also pretty tasty. The chewy marshmallow, crunchy peanuts, and creamy chocolate are a winning combo.

The marshmallow is maybe a bit too chewy (it’s slightly rubbery), it’s extremely sweet (it’s a throat-burner), and there’s something slightly off about the flavour that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I otherwise enjoyed this. The quality of the chocolate is pretty decent and the big peanut chunks add a ton of flavour. It’s easy enough to see why it’s been around for almost a hundred years.

Manufactured by: Idaho Candy Company
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43 grams): 220 calories, 12 grams of fat (4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 30 mg of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, soy lecithin (added as an emulsifier), and vanilla), sugar, corn syrup, peanuts, egg albumen, gelatin, salt, and vanilla.

July 22, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s: Milk Chocolate, Peanuts & Reese’s Pieces – Candy Crammed into Middling Chocolate

Chocolate

Hershey sure loves to cram things into a Reese product, or cram Reese products into things. I’ve already reviewed Reese Outrageous! Stuffed with Pieces and Reese’s Stuffed with Crunchy Cookie, and now here’s a Hershey chocolate bar stuffed with Reese’s Pieces.

Hershey’s chocolate has a pretty unmistakable flavour. It’s quite sweet, and it has a mild but distinctive sour tang that may or not share chemical properties with vomit (no, really). It’s certainly not my favourite, but if it’s the only chocolate around, yeah, sure, I’ll eat it.

The problem here is the addition of Reese’s Pieces. That sounds delightful (Reese’s Pieces are delicious, after all), but in practice it’s a bit much. Hershey chocolate is very, very sweet; so are Reese’s Pieces. Combine the two with nothing to balance them out (the tiny peanut bits are barely even noticeable and definitely do not perform this function) and you’ve got a recipe for sweetness overload.

The texture wasn’t great either. I don’t know if it was the addition of the chunks or if Hershey chocolate is always like that (it’s been a while), but the chocolate wasn’t particularly creamy. It’s actually pretty grainy.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43 g): 220 calories, 12 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0 g of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 27 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 25 g of sugar, 3 g of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lecithin (soy), salt, natural flavor), sugar, peanuts, partially defatted peanuts, hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, soybean oil), contains 2% or less of corn syrup solids, dextrose, palm kernel oil, corn syrup, artificial color (yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, red 40 lake, blue 1 lake), cornstarch, salt; confectioner’s glaze, lecithin (soy), modified cornstarch, carnauba wax, vanillin, artificial flavor.

July 12, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Wunderbar – Chewy, Crunchy, Crispy, Peanut Buttery, and Delicious

Candy Bars

Wunderbar is a classic — known as Starbar in the UK, it’s been around since the ’70s, but has apparently never been sold in the States. This is clearly America’s loss. It’s so good.

If you’re an American and have never been blessed with the deliciousness of the Wunderbar, it features crunchy peanut butter mixed with puffed rice that’s surrounded by chewy caramel and milk chocolate.

I haven’t had one in years, but it’s just as delightful as I remembered it being. It’s got everything you want in a candy bar: it’s chewy, it’s crunchy, it’s crispy, and the sweetness is perfectly tuned — it’s delicious.

The puffed rice is a stroke of genius; it gives the bar a memorable crispiness that sets it apart from something like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup. Between that, the very chewy caramel, and the crunchy chunks of peanuts, you’ve got a bar with a really satisfying contrast of textures.

The layer of decent quality chocolate on the outside is substantial enough to add a decent hit of flavour which — of course — works nicely with the peanut butter. I mean, why wouldn’t it? Peanut butter and chocolate are best friends. The rich caramel only adds more flavour, and the bar has a very mild saltiness that rounds things out.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (58 g bar): 290 calories, 17 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 105 mg of sodium, 32 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 26 g of sugar, 4 g of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup peanuts. modified palm oil, modified milk ingredients, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, modified vegetable oil, rice, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, salt, malt extract (barley wheat), soy lecithin, baking soda, calcium chloride, monoglycerides, natural and artificial flavor.

November 20, 2011January 10, 2021 Michael

Reese Fudge – Sweeter and Softer Peanut Butter Cups

Candy Bars

I don’t think I’ve ever had a variety of Reese Peanut Butter Cups that I’ve outright disliked. And there have definitely been a lot of them. There’s something about that oddly crumbly peanut butter combined with chocolate that I just can’t resist.

Which is to say that I definitely enjoyed Reese Fudge, but at the same time, it’s one of the weaker Reese varieties that I’ve had.

The first thing that I noticed is that these cups are even greasier than standard Reese Peanut Butter Cups, which are already fairly greasy. After I photographed these, they actually left a grease stain on the piece of paper I had them on (!), which has never happened before, and which is a little bit disturbing, quite frankly.

The chocolate fudge coating, which is softer than usual, definitely has that distinctively sweet taste that you associate with fudge, with a muted chocolately flavour. The peanut butter is just good ol’ Reese peanut butter, so no surprises there.

Basically, this is just a sweeter, softer, slightly less chocolately version of standard Reese Peanut Butter Cups. It’s not bad (because, like I said, it’s hard to go wrong with the Reese formula), but I really don’t see any situation in which I’d want to eat these instead of the original version.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I like Reese Peanut Butter Cups – but couldn’t they be sweeter?” then these might just be the candy for you.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (3 cups, 51 g): 260