May 30th: 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp

Kcal 170 Fat 9.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 20.0g (per double finger bar)

Following on from my Oreo Brownie review last week, I have great pleasure in bringing you another American product review courtesy of my pals at Yankee Soda & Candy. One of the first ever American products I reviewed on this site was Mars' 3 Musketeers bar, which I wrote about way back in Fenruary 2008. To this day it still remains at number three on the ChocolateMission leaderboard, and is a bar that I sometimes go out of my way to import in to the UK from time-to-time. This long winded introduction leads me nicely on to the focus of todays review - the 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp. Available in the US and Canada, this bar is positioned as a lighter option to the nougat heavy original, and comes described as 'whipped-up chocolate truffle on a crisp layer enrobed in milk chocolate'.

This bar came in a 31.2g size that was split in to two separate fingers. On the packaging the bar brought attention to that fact that it contained only 85 calories per finger, but made little reference to it containing 6.0g of saturated fat within it's light-weight constituents. I'm not complaining that this was overly high, however I was surprised to see that it was more than the original 3 Musketeers given that it gives the impression it is a lighter alternative. Boring nutritional details aside, I was still very impressed by the quality of the packaging, and I liked the standout of the silver foil and non-cluttered nature of the branding and on-pack visuals. Inside the finger pieces were similarly impressive, with the bottom crisp and upper truffle layers very pronounced in their distinction.

Having been kept in a nice foil packet the malty chocolate smells that emerged were pleasantly forthcoming and reminded me of hot cocoa powder. Snapping one of the fingers in half I was a little surprised at the consistency of the lower crisp layer, which appeared to break apart like a cross breed between a wafer and rice cereal base. When bit into the base broke with a satisfying crunch, whilst the upper truffle layer conversely yielded far more easily providing a nice bit of variance texture wise. In regards to the taste test the outer milk chocolate did the fair standard job I was expecting it to, with the taste heavily rooted in sweet condensed milk like flavours. Out of the truffle and base crisp layers the truffle element was the first to contribute flavour wise, and it added a further raft of cream and minor vanilla fudge like hints to the taste. The lower crisp layer provided a fitting end to each bite, and brought strong notes of malt and honeycomb, which went nicely with the creamier chocolate and truffle components. For such a light weight bar the satisfaction it delivered was brilliant, and it was a fantastic size and amount for an afternoon snack.

Overall my love affair with the 3 Musketeers brand continues to roll on - this was a product that I savoured from beginning to end. What I really appreciated about this bar, was that despite it being an altogether different proposition to the standard 3 Musketeers bar, it still managed to remain some of the originals qualities. Just like the normal 3 Musketeers offering, the variance in textures from outer milk chocolate, inner filling and crisp base were nicely differentiated, whilst the taste still played off the decent combination of cream based chocolate and malt. Here in the UK I think this bar would be tremendously successful, and would appeal to Malteser and MaltEaster lovers especially. Looking across other review sites it appears I'm not the only blogger to rate this bar - take a look at GiGi's review HERE and Jess's review from Foodette Reviews HERE. I really wish that Mars UK would get off their backsides and treat us to the 3 Musketeers bar here in the UK - I'm sure it would go down a storm.

8.7 out of 10

Fancy trying this bar for yourself? Head over to Yankee Soda & Candy - CLICK HERE