Reese’s Whoppers

After reviewing the Strawberry Milkshake Whoppers a couple weeks ago, I felt I had to give the new Reese’s Whoppers a shot. The Reese’s line may be Hershey’s most popular, and they’ve expanded well beyond the classic Peanut Butter Cup over the past few years. I’m actually surprised that the strawberry flavor hit the market before these. Peanut butter is a crowd-pleaser, and it’s a natural place to take malted milk balls.

I wasn’t thrilled with these, but I didn’t have high expectation, so that’s okay. The peanut butter coating is greasy and waxy, keeping in line with other Whoppers products. It a bit too sweet for me. The malt and the peanut butter aren’t distinctive enough. I felt like I was eating sugary cereal… this is probably what the Reese’s cereal tastes like.

For me, the peanut butter and malt are two sides of a triangle, and they really need chocolate to serve as the missing leg. I think Hershey should have gone with the classic peanut butter and chocolate combo as opposed of simple peanut butter.

Overall, not bad, but not worth it.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 17 pieces. There are 190 calories, 8g of fat (7g saturated), 19g of sugar, and 4g of protein per serving.

Rating: 5/10

Name: Reese’s Whoppers
Brand: Hershey
Store: Wal-mart
Price: $0.99
Weight: 3.5 oz.

Reese’s Pieces Pastel Eggs

I love milk carton packaging. It makes sharing and saving for later very easy. It also makes an excellent noise maker musical instrument, much to some parent’s annoyance.

The Reese’s Pieces Eggs are quite pleasing to the eye. They are very uniform in size and the pastel colors fit the season. The shell is very smooth on cool on the tongue. It’s a thick shell, so it’s hard to peel off with my teeth.

Not so long ago I said that problem with Reese’s Pieces is that they don’t taste like much unless you eat a handful at once. The Pastel Eggs solve that problem. The larger size lends a much bigger peanut butter punch. These are Reese’s Pieces of course, so the filling is sweet and smooth, unlike the salty, crumbly interior of a Reese’s Cup.

This is a nice way to get your Reese’s Pieces fix, if you require that for nostalgic reasons like me. I can see myself picking up a container of these each Easter. I think it would be great to mix these with some Hershey’s Eggs.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 12 pieces. There are 180 calories, 8g of fat (7g saturated), 22g of sugar, and 4g of protein per serving.

Rating: 8/10

Name: Reese’s Pieces Pastel Eggs
Brand: Hershey’s
Store: Target
Price: $0.99
Weight: 3.5 oz.

Nestle Easter Eggs

Here are more molded, filled eggs, this time by Nestle. I know that the Wonka Egg has been around the past couple seasons, but I’m not sure about the other two.

Butterfinger Crème Egg: I almost passed this up because I thought it was a solid chocolate egg studded with Butterfinger pieces, ala the Nestle Christmas fare. But no, it’s filled with “Butterfinger pieces and peanut butter crème.” The filling is grainy and, well, a bit too solid to be called a crème, I think. The peanut butter crisps add a nice touch.

For as much peanut butter filling as there is, this didn’t have a super-strong peanut butter taste. I think my taste buds may have been whacked, as I did eat this just after recovering from a bug. In the end, I don’t care for Nestle chocolate, and I’d rather have a Reese’s Egg. Rating: 5/10

Nestle Crunch Crème Egg: This one contains chocolate crème, caramel, and of course, crisped rice — that’s what makes it a Nestle Crunch! Again, I think the crème is too solid to be called so. It’s like a light, maybe aerated, chocolate that doesn’t differentiate itself much from the shell. It‘s quite sweet, and the pocket of caramel adds to that. The caramel is salty and buttery, and I quite like it. However, it’s not enough to save this for me, I’m just not a fan of Nestle chocolate. Rating: 6/10

Wonka Golden Crème Egg: This piece has a little more novelty. It’s a tie in with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in which Veruca Salt demands the goose that lays the golden eggs… and subsequently takes a trip down the garbage chute.

It contains chocolate crème, caramel, and graham cracker bits. Hmm. Wait a minute. It’s the Nestle Crunch Egg all over again! Disappointing chocolate shell? Check. Not-so-crème-like chocolate crème? Check. Butter, salty caramel? Check. The only difference is that the crisped rice is replaced by graham cracker bits, and to be fair, there is a noticeable graham flavor. I love graham crackers, so I like this change, but it’s not enough to really change my opinion. (Though I do wish more candy would use graham..) Rating: 6/10

Name: … more eggs!
Brand: Nestle
Store: Walgreens and Target
Price: $0.50 each
Weight: about 1.1 oz each

Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter and Chocolate

When I bought this, I hardly registered what it was. It was robotic. I thought ‘candy… new…’ and my arm automatically reached for the box. Such is the fate of a candy blogger… we’re like machines, except we run on sugar instead of fossil fuels.

Imagine my disappointment (just disappointment, not surprise) when I got home and noticed that this utilized no chocolate, but “chocolate candy” instead. Yeah, you know, “mockolate.” The fake stuff. It’s the pyrite of the candy world.

It’s particularly disappointing because this is a pretty good idea: candy-coated peanut butter candies mixed with candy-coated chocolate candies. It should be the Reese’s Cup that melts in your mouth, not in your hand… but it’s not. The chocolate candy just doesn’t taste very chocolate-ty. It’s sweet with a mild cocoa flavor, but just isn’t very good. The Reese’s Pieces are their classic selves, a sweet peanut butter candy, which has always reminded me a bit of peanut butter fudge.

Reese’s Pieces were a favorite of mine when I was younger, even more so than Reese’s Cups. It’s odd really, considering that I’ve always been a huge chocolate-lover. These days, Reese’s Pieces disappoint me. They’re not bad — not by far — but they don’t taste like much unless you pop a bunch at once. That’s just not my style. I’m a sorter — each color gets it’s own pile, and then I methodically eat them one by one. Still, I’ll always have a soft spot for them.

The Reese’s Pieces are in their traditional colors of orange, yellow, and brown. The chocolate pieces are dressed in red, green, and blue. I found this disappointing as well; I hoped it would be like roulette — you don’t know if it’s chocolate or peanut butter until you bite into it. They should have just mixed up some Reese’s Pieces and Kissables. Then we could have gotten some real chocolate, at least.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 46 pieces. There are 2.5 servings per box. There are 190 calories, 9g of fat (6g saturated), 25g of sugar, and 3g of protein per serving.

Rating: 4/10 for the mix, but 6/10 for Reese‘s Pieces alone.

Name: Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter and Chocolate
Brand: Reese’s (Hershey) (USA)
Store: Wal-mart
Price: $0.99
Weight: 3.5 oz

Snickers Nut ‘n Butter Crunch

First, I think Nut ‘n Butter Crunch is a terrible name. What’s even worse is the description: “milk chocolate, peanuts and creamy peanut butter taste.” Um, peanut butter taste? What on Earth is that?

Honestly, I can’t really tell you what peanut butter taste is, even after eating the bar. I guess Mars couldn’t think of anything better to call it either. To me, it’s a cross between caramel and nougat, which is fitting because those are the components of a regular Snickers. It’s chewy, slightly sticky, and tastes like peanut butter — though not as strongly as I expected.

It’s very good, though I don’t think it’s better than a regular Snickers. It’s well padded with peanuts, so it is pretty crunchy. With all the peanuts and peanut butter, I expected it to be a little saltier. It’s sweet and quite satisfying, even though it’s a little smaller than a regular Snickers.

It’s labeled as a limited edition — I hope they change the name if they decide to add it to the regular line. I’m not sure when this came out, but it’s already been covered by Cybele at Candy Blog and Sera at Candy Addict. I may be a little late, but that’s okay.

Ingredient Watch: Contains high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and partially hydrogenated oils.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is one bar. Each bar contains 250 calories, 15g of fat, 21g of sugar, and 5g of protein.

Rating: 7/10

Name: Snickers Nut ‘n Butter Crunch
Brand: Mars
Store: Walgreens
Price: $0.69

Choxie Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffle Bar

Another Choxie truffle bar! (Oh, and there are many more to come..) Today we have the Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar, which is milk chocolate and a peanut butter center with bits of pretzel and roasted peanuts. This came in the Milk Chocolate Lover’s Gift Collection.

The bar smells strongly of peanut butter, and that’s because there is a lot of it. It’s super creamy and smooth – too smooth to be pure peanut butter, in fact. I’m sure it’s mixed with white chocolate, which is listed among the ingredients.

So, the peanut butter is nice, smooth, and sweet. The bar is quite enjoyable. But there is a serious problem: there are no pretzels! I came across only two pieces of pretzel, both too small to add any flavor. There were a few more peanuts, but those were sparse as well.

This is a real shame. The peanut butter is very sweet, being mixed with white chocolate. Salty pretzels would have been the perfect crunchy compliment.

So, this bar was enjoyable but disappointing. Were this called the Peanut Butter Truffle Bar, it would get a 7 or 8. But Pretzel is in the name, so it’s docked to a 6.

Ingredient Watch: This contains palm kernel oil, which is not a trans fat, but is high in saturated fat. Oh, and the non-existent pretzels contain partially hydrogenated oils.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is half a bar. There are 210 calories, 15g of fat, 14g of sugar, and 2g of protein per serving.

Rating: 6/10

Name: Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffle Bar
Brand: Choxie (Target)
Store: Target
Price: $1.66 (in a set of 3 for $5)

Nestle Meets Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town

Santa Clause Is Comin’ To Town is one of the classic stop-motion Christmas specials — you know, the one with the Burgermeister Meisterburger. I’m not exactly sure how it ties in with Nestle, but let’s just go with it.

These come in Nestle Crunch and Butterfinger. The wrappers feature jolly old Santa, a few snowflakes, and the North Pole pole. Nostalgic. The chocolate medallions also feature Santa, which is a little weird. I feel bad eating this with Santa’s little molded face staring back at me. I don’t want to end up on the naughty list!

Butterfinger: Regular Butterfingers are covered in lackluster mockolate. This however, is made with real milk chocolate. That’s a necessity, because this is mostly chocolate. There are plenty crispy little Butterfinger bits that bring the salty peanut butter flavor, but it’s nothing close to the full on peanut butter blast of the Butterfinger.

I like this and I’m glad to have tried it with real milk chocolate. That being said, Nestle chocolate isn’t a favorite of mine, so I feel pretty ‘meh’ towards it.

This contains partially hydrogenated oils (most likely in the Butterfinger bits). The label does note that this “adds a trivial amount of trans fat.” So a slight tip of the hat to Nestle for at least noting that. (160 calories, 8g of fat, 18g of sugar, and 2g of protein per medallion)

Rating: 6/10

Nestle Crunch: So, this is pretty much a round Nestle Crunch; we’ve got the familiar sweet Nestle chocolate and crispy rice bits. I may say that I’m not crazy about Nestle chocolate — and I’m not — but the Nestle Crunch always wins me over in the end. It’s slightly malty, and I love malt. It’s familiar and good, but still, I want more from it. With a little more flavor, a little more maltiness, I would reach for these more often.

To it’s credit, this is free from any suspect ingredients. (170 calories, 9g of fat, 19g of sugar, and 1g of protein per medallion)

Rating: 7/10

Name: Santa Clause Is Comin’ To Town Butterfinger and Nestle Crunch
Brand: Nestle
Store: Walgreens
Price: $0.50

Newman’s Own Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

I’d been curious about these, so I was especially excited when I found them. I love peanut butter and dark chocolate, so the combination could lead to nothing but love, right?

Well, color me disappointed.

Each package contains three cups housed in a plastic tray. The cups are smaller than a Reese’s Cup. They are sturdy, due to the very thick layer of dark chocolate that surrounds the peanut butter. I’d say the proportion here is 66% chocolate and 33% peanut butter… heck, there might be even less peanut butter!

That lack of peanut butter is the downfall of this candy. The chocolate completely dominates the peanut butter… so much so that I can’t say much about the peanut butter. I didn’t taste it that much. It’s smooth and needs salt. That’s all I can say!

The chocolate is fine. It’s slightly sweet and not at all bitter. It’s fruity but lacks a chocolate punch. The thickness gives it a nice snap, but that’s not what I’m looking for here.

With 60 calories to each cup, they’re good if you’re watching what you eat and can exercise portion control. Dark chocolate and peanut butter are the healthier candy ingredients, after all. Also, it’s all organic, which is a plus.

If you are looking for a dark chocolate peanut butter cup, this may be it. If you are looking for a peanut butter cup with lots of chocolate and little peanut butter, this is probably it. But it’s not what I was looking for or expecting. I’ll wait for the limited edition dark chocolate Reese’s that are supposed to be coming, thanks.

These get a 5, which is what I give products that aren’t bad, but I don’t care for. Sorry Newman. I’m still interested in your Peppermint Cups and Ginger Os!

Rating: 5/10

Name: Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Brand: Newman’s Own
Store: Walmart
Price: $0.50

Goo Goo Peanut Butter

The Goo Goo Cluster is made by the Standard Candy Company in Nashville, TN. It’s one of the few surviving regional candies. I’m not sure if you can find them outside of the South. I’m in the New Orleans area, and I can find Goo Goos at discount stores and the “mom and pop” grocery store (a dying breed themselves) in my town. I don’t ever see them at the big grocery chains.

The Goo Goo Cluster comes in the original, Supreme, and Peanut Butter version. I’ve tried the original and Supreme before, but this is my first Peanut Butter. I picked it up at a discount store even though it was due to expire in a month. I kind of regret that now, because it would probably get a better review if it were fresh. But I’ve got to take what I can get.

A Goo Goo Cluster is peanuts, marshmallow, and caramel covered in milk chocolate. The Goo Goo Peanut Butter is just peanut butter and peanuts covered with milk chocolate. It’s not very attractive — it’s just a plop of ingredients — but it has it’s charm.

The peanuts obviously weren’t fresh. They weren’t crunchy, but they were awfully salty. The whole thing was too salty for me. The chocolate didn’t add enough sweetness on it’s own. I think they should have added (or rather, kept) either the caramel or marshmallow from the original Goo Goo. This would have added more sweetness and kept it more true to the original. It’s just too much peanut butter.

While this bar has definite problems, I know it would have been better had it been fresh. I’ll consider giving it a second chance if I find a fresh one.

Rating: 5/10

Name: Goo Goo Peanut Butter
Brand: Standard Candy Company
Store: Big Lots
Price: $0.40