May 6th: Nestle Butterfinger Crisp

Kcal 250 Fat 14.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 31.0g

Its amazing how many peanut butter based bars they have on the market in the US compared to our nonchalant approach in the UK. Thanks to the kind people at http://www.americalicious.co.uk/ I have been able to sample yet another offering in this area the 'Butterfinger Crisp'.

You may recall me reviewing the original 'Butterfinger' way back in February - I wasnt overly impressed with that bar and really didnt take to texture and sugar based flavour of it too much.

The 'Butterfinger Crisp' came in a largish 50g bar - it certainly did the job fufilling my hunger which isnt normally the case with a lot of wafer based bars. On pack it describes itself as 'Wafers and Butterfinger candy creme'. In more detail the bar had a several interspersed layers of peanut butter creme and wafer all coated in milk chocolate with small pieces of chopped nuts on top.

On closer inspection of the ingredients it was evident that sugar was infact the most prominant, followed by vegetable oils....oh dear...Montezuma's clean cut organic ingredients this is not...at least roasted peanuts was third on the list!?

Opening the wrapper I was met a mixture of feelings....one being 'damn this bar looks ugly (see above!!) but two...'damn this bar smells awesome'. Yes indeed it looked terrible but had a very appealing nutty aroma.

Texturewise the bar as you can imagine was very crispy. The wafer had a nice solid crunch whilst the creme layers provided a cool smooth variation. Due its crispy nature the bar was a little messy eating - bits of wafer, chopped nuts flying all over place which you can imagine isnt the most fun. The chopped roasted nuts on top gave the bar an extra element of crunch - despite their ugly appearance.

Tastewise it wasnt half bad. Unlike the original 'Butterfinger' where the main peanut flavour was a very highly sugar based one, this was avoided here and the peanut butter creme took more of a roasted slightly salty flavour. This was slightly helped due to presence of the chopped nuts on the top of the bar which really added to the overall nutty taste. The wafer had a nice biscuity malty flavour and the chocolate, despite its backseat in flavour prominance did a nice job of providing a creamy coating.

Overall despite my reservations due to the original Butterfinger I really enjoyed this bar. It avoided the pitfalls the original fell into and despite sugar being the main ingredient it wasnt the prominant taste. The peanut butter flavour is done really well with both the creme and chopped nuts providing a creamy yet slightly salty taste that is at least on par with the better peanut butter bars out there. Unfortunately its the looks of the bar that let it down - my word this bar is ugly...this is not the crafts work of the finer chocolatiers and a redesign should really be considered by Nestle. This small issue aside this is a great tasting bar that you should really try if you fancy the sound of it.

8.0 out of 10