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Kcal 250 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 24.0gI'm not going to pretend that I haven't read a thousand reviews on this chocolate bar already. Indeed, I have been keep a watchful eye on all my fellow chocolate bloggers websites, watching one-by-one as their reviews have slowly trickled in since its launch in the US. Candyblog, SugarPressure, RodzillaReviews, GiGi Reviews, whilst all these reviews have all written with each bloggers wonderfully unique writing style, one thing has remained consistently the same - the Snickers Peanut Butter Squared has largely disappointed!!
Last week I finally got try one of these for myself, and as predictable as this all sounds I have to side with my fellow candy bar critics. So how have Mars managed to under deliver on a proposition that sounds so tremendously good!? 'Two squares filled with peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, nougat, & nougat, covered in milk chocolate' sounds like a combination that should be knocking on the door of an elusive ChocolateMission 9.0 out of 10 rating! The issues for me began with the presentation of the bar. The yellow coloured wrapper looked nice enough and differentiated from the normal Snickers, however I was not liking the way the bar had been produced in the two Square format and felt that it made the whole product feel less substantial and 'Un-Snickers' like.
Cutting into one of the pieces the usual array of gorgeous Snickers peanutty scents did give me hope that I had something special at hand, though it also became clearly evident at this point that there had been a disproportionate cull when it came to the nougat layer. As seen in my review of the Snickers Maximus recently launched here in the UK (See HERE), one thing that Mars don't need to mess with when it comes to the Snickers is the proportion of nougat. It's skimpy implementation here came across as lacklustre and each bite felt lacking in substantiality in contrast to the usual chewiness offered by a standard Snickers. Moving on to my critique of the peanut butter element, I can be less harsh in my damning as it tasted altogether 'OK' with it's buttery roasted nut flavours enhanced by intermittent small real nut shards. The fact of the matter though, was that the peanut butter just wasn't comparable to Reese's. Comparing the two, the peanut butter here was less flavoursome in it's roasted nuttyness, and it lacked the saltiness that it needed to fully take advantage of the potential contrast with the sweet flavoured caramel layer. The 50.0g two piece totality was still a relatively fulfilling chocolate bar, though compare the experience to a normal Snickers and I can assure you one would leave you feeling a lot more satisfied than the other.
Overall I would have loved it if I was able to write a review totally contradictory of all that have gone before but I just simply cant. Anyone who has been reading this website for any amount of time will know that I'm a massive fan of both Snickers and peanut butter, so you can just imagine my expectations when I heard about this latest Mars creation. Despite me reading the various reviews posted by my fellow bloggers stated above, I genuinely did approach this bar with an open mind willing to form my own opinion, though as you will have read my thoughts are almost entirely aligned to theirs. Fundamentally, Mars have managed to fowl up a bar that had fantastic pedigree. It isn't a bad bar of chocolate by any means, but lets face it - things should have been a whole lot better. Quite why they chose to mess around with the proportion of nougat or format of the bar I really don't know - why didn't they add the peanut butter incrementally rather than taking away from other key constituents? You may think that it was me with expectations hoping the peanut butter was going to be Reese's comparable, but at the end of the day I don't see a reasons for why it couldn't be just as good. As much as I tried not to be, I was ultimately left feeling disappointed - oh what could have been!
7.0 out of 10
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54 comments:
I was wondering when this was going to get a review. Its good to see it finally get its long awaited CM review. I had seen some of those other reviewers ones before so I wasn't expecting anything in the region of high 8 or 9. I thought it would get a bit higher than this though. It can't be that much different from the normal snickers can it?
Dx
This sounds so yummy I can't believe the rating is so crummy. I would still jump at the chance to try one if I ever saw it.
Jim did they send you any extras? Im desperate to get one of these. Snickers are my favourite I would more than happily send you some monies for one.
Please help me out.
Jim did they send you any extras? Im desperate to get one of these. Snickers are my favourite I would more than happily send you some monies for one.
Please help me out.
I get the point of the peanut butter but what were they thinking about when it came to chopping it up in to squares? There wasn't anything wrong with it in the first place? I sorta understand why they make the duos when they make them in bigger sizes, but its not like this one was made any bigger than normal. Its not a big issue for me it just doesn't make sense.
Booo hissss this post just serves as a massive reminder that we have such a black hole in this country when it comes to PB chocolates. I will never for the life of me understand why kit kat stopped making the peanut chunky version.
I do like a good Snickers bar so this would be a must buy for me if I ever saw it.
The limited edition we have out at the moment is so pants its not even worth contemplating. What sort of idiot takes the nougat out of the snickers bar, I never got why they bothered coming up with that one im afraid.
I could tell this was american as soon as I saw what it was called. Only they would put peanut butter in a snickers lol.
They could have made this so much better couldn't they :-( If I had seen this without the review I probably would have made strides to get one shipped over.
I defo wont be bothering anymore. It just doesn't look like its worth the effort tbh.
I know I haven't mentioned it before but I have been wanting to see a review of this bar for ages. Its one I have seen on food importing websites a few times but they are always charging an arm and a leg for just one bar. I think I saw on one website that it was like £2 without postage. A nice little mark up they are making themselves eh!?
Its unlike the Mars US limited editions not being any good. They have done some well good ones recently I think. coconut M&Ms and Twix Java were two good ones.
Nooooooo how did they stuff this one up. Disappointing Mars.
This is going to make me sound like a complete weirdo but I love peanuts but hate peanut butter. I think I will forever just stick by my normal snickers. I don't think I have ever tried a variation of it that I have liked better than the normal one.
Are they still selling this? I have been meaning to try and buy one for ages when I saw it on the internet last year.
This may not be very good but at least people in America are given the option of having it. I doubt this PB squared will ever come about in the UK. Its a shame because its a bar I would buy without thinking about it twice.
My idea for the snickers was to create one called 100% NUTS.
Peanut flavoured white chocolate
Peanuts
Caramel
Peanut flavoured nougat
All in the one bar. Now tell me that wouldn't be amaze!
All this needed to be was the same old snickers bar with an extra dosage of peanut butter. The other changes they made didn't need doing.
I don't like the new shape of this bar. Have they done that to all the snickers in the Us or is it just this one? Its a well stupid decision if it is across them all. It just means they get away with having less chocolate I guess.
Oh god this is something that would never get anyone near my lips. Im much more in to my finer chocolates these days. This looks like the definition of junk food if ever there was one.
I do like snickers but I never buy them because I feel embarassed lol. I think its the fact they have focused so many of the recent advertisements on it being for men. They haven't been as explicit as the like of Yorkies 'Not for girls' but the Mr T stuff they have done is just as repulsive for women. Nevertheless I still love a good chocolatemission review hun ;)
Rxxx
Peanut butter is so disgusting. Its just like lard, i've just never understood the appeal of it.
Is it me or does the caramel look really thin now? I know people are saying that this looks cool because they haven't taken anything out but I would disagree. Looking at Jim's picture it looks like they took a load of the caramel out to make room for the peanut butter.
I loved the review today but I more want to see how good the new Twix Coconut is. Are you likely to review that or shall I just buy one and tell you if its worth doing? I love coconut so my views might be a little bias.
Hi Jim,
I know i'm going against your recommendations and I normally wouldn't, but please please please can you suggest a good place to buy these. My b/f and i both love anything peanut butter and have been obsessing about trying this Snickers for months now.
Any help would be amazing.
Liz
x
Grr its so unfair. They always get so much better stuff from mars in the US. Here we consistently just get a load of old rubbish.
'Two squares filled with peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, nougat, & nougat, covered in milk chocolate' sounds like a combination that should be knocking on the door of an elusive ChocolateMission 9.0 out of 10 rating!
Sounds to me like someone had lofty expectations mr chocolate mission :P
You may think that it was me with expectations hoping the peanut butter was going to be Reese's comparable, but at the end of the day I don't see a reasons for why it couldn't be just as good. As much as I tried not to be, I was ultimately left feeling disappointed - oh what could have been!
*passes the kleenex* don't wory Jim it will all be ok. Just go comfort yourself with some Hotel Chocolat 85% love.
LOL sorry for my teasing this does sound very disappointing. V good review.
I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here but have you tried the snickers ice creams Jim? Honest mate they are LUSH. I can't recommend then enough and would well wanna see a C M review. Thats a good point, are you willing to do ice cream reviews or are you still deciding? Last time I asked you said no :(
I hate that wrapper it looks horrid. I think its the yellow colour it just doesn't make it look very snickers like. I think they would have been better off going for something totally out there like coloured light blue (like skippys PB).
@Nick lol'd at the comment about them splitting the bar in to two seperate ones. There wasn't a reason for doing that whatsoever. It just makes them look tiny now.
If this wasn't a right pain in the arse for me to buy then I wouldn't think twice about trying it. Since its a load of hassle though I doubt I will ever make all that effort tbh. Thanks for the review matey.
It cant be as bad as the maximus craptastic limited edition we got dished up.
I felt cheated when I tried that one. It was like it was one of those mis-manufactured bars that you sometimes get when they make a defect at the factory. Wheres the nougat man.
I like smooth peanut butter but not crunchy. I thought this might be the opportune time for them to make a smooth peanut butter filling but obviosuly not :( I will have to continue to not having snickers then. What a pain, they could have done away with the bits of peanut altogether.
I've not tried this one yet but I found one called the Snickers Cruncher a few weeks ago in my local savers store. I didn't think that much of it to be honest. The chocolate tasted different to normal and had a dusty dryness to it. In short I would just tell people to ignore it if they see it. I can't imagine anyone saying they would prefer it over the bog standard original.
No one is ever going to beat the nutsrageous so theres no point then even trying. I will stand by that bar till the day I die. If I were writing for this site I would make it the highest scoring one.
What a great opportunity they had to create something special. I can't believe they mucked it up lol. What muppets.
Damn man. I would have liked to have seen this get a better score from you so I had an excuse to pay the excessive postage fees from these importing companies. I don't think I can justify the rates just to try this one though.
I like the idea Ben has come up with about the 100% nuts bar is a good one I think. If you are reading this people at Mars I hope you can make it happen.
It was probably a little much expecting it to be as good as anything made by Reeses. They are the experts when it comes to peanut butter. Its a shame that they didn't do a collab effort now I think of it.
How can something that looks so good in your photos underachieve so badly. Oh well, its not like any of us were ever going to be able to have it anyway. Its normally uber annoying seeing the limited editions they get in america but I can deal with us not getting this one.
I had this as a stick on 8.5 minimum so its very surprising to see what its actually achieved. I get the feeling that the best snickers is just forever going to be the plain ol milk chocolate normal one. It doesn't need to tampered with, I think its just perfect as it is.
I also am a huge fan of peanut butter in chocolate, shame this didnt live up to the standards you were expecting. They were probably trying to go for the whole Reese's cups theme by splitting their bar into 2 chunks! Should have just stuck to their original snickers!
Awesome review man its just a pity to see that the bar wasn't up to what it could have been.
I hate to be negative about it but the wrapper sucks and I agree with the people here who are saying that breaking into two seperate blocks was a silly idea. I hope they attempt another go at it soon. Who knows they might learn from their mistakes :) Now there would be a thing lol.
Im shocked!
It looks so yummy in your pictures. What on earth did they do to get it so wrong. Back to the drawing board for them me thinks.
I had my first bag of Reeses pieces the other day. OMG where have they been all my life.
They are like smarties but a million times nicer. M&ms will never taste the same to me again. Its reeses or nothing from now on.
This would never hit my radar really as I dont like Snickers (I think the nougat is my least favoruite bit as it tastes of nothing!). Never understood the Snickers love personally lol. I quite like the Squares idea, more interesting than just a bog standard bar.
Having said that - @John Jims reviewed those Snickers Crunchers before, I cant remember if he liked them or not. My sister bought a 3 pack yesterday in the pound shop. We thought they were really nice, easily the only Snickers bar I'd bother buying often. It reminded me of a Toffee Crisp but with peanuts lol.
I wasnt overly keen on the Snickers Maximus, even though I shouldve liked it.
This would never hit my radar really as I dont like Snickers (I think the nougat is my least favoruite bit as it tastes of nothing!). Never understood the Snickers love personally lol. I quite like the Squares idea, more interesting than just a bog standard bar.
Having said that - @John Jims reviewed those Snickers Crunchers before, I cant remember if he liked them or not. My sister bought a 3 pack yesterday in the pound shop. We thought they were really nice, easily the only Snickers bar I'd bother buying often. It reminded me of a Toffee Crisp but with peanuts lol.
I wasnt overly keen on the Snickers Maximus, even though I shouldve liked it.
You were obviously expecting a lot from this one weren't you.
Do you think your score could be a little harsher than it might of been had you not had them so high?
Im not doubting your review im just curious to get an opinion on things from that perspective.
I've been waiting for your thoughts on this one, Jim. Glad to see we had similar sentiments - it adds weight to my own review!
I guess I will have to combine a traditional snickers with a reeses cup to get the taste I was looking for :D
Sounds like I will love this bar - I have never been keen on nougat so this sounds right up my alley! :-)
Like lots of other JCMheads I looove all things PB so it's a shame that this product didn't fulfil it's massive potential. I hope Mars take heed of this constructive criticism! ;). Speaking of US chocs, my friend's Stateside at the mo & I've given him a list of chocs recommended by you. He said he's already got me a 3 Muskateers bar so am v excited. Thanks for another top review - have a brill w/e Jim! x
@ Steven_F - I so agree re the PB Kit Kats! Bring them back!!
My urge to try this has now been completely depleted after reading this.
Im not sure I would ever have got around to buying one but I now I know its not worth it for sure I will just stick to my reeses pb cups. My only issue with them is that the chocolate isn't that good. If only we could just get one perfect peanut butter chocolate that would be awesome.
Have a nice weekend m8.
Looks like you didn't like this one then Jim. If you have any left you know I will take them off your hands for you. Just give me the nod and I will help you out with that ..... no need to thank me lol.
Hi All,
Im surprised to see so many comments given the beautiful sunshine that is out today :D Get out there and enjoy it whilst it lasts folks - lap it all up.
Im going to quickly take a look over your comments but there is a beer garden with my name on it.
A lot of you have responded with comments along similar lines today, discussing how disappointing the bar has scored given its proposition. Indeed this bar could have been far far better than it was. Some of you have alluded to me having high expectations, though I would respond to that by sending you in the direction of my fellow chocolate reviewers who all seemed to be equally as disappointed with it as I was.
ANON - I do have a couple of sample bars still in my posession. I might well just run a competition soon.
NICK - I wasn't a fan of making it two smaller bars either but hey you can't blame them for trying something a little different. I don't get the point of it I have to say, lets hope they revert to the normal format going forwards.
DAVID - Some of those websites are rather bad aren't they. Keep an eye on AmericanSoda. They have reasonable prices but don't have the bar in stock yet. Let me have a word with them.
ANDY - Indeed their limited editions have been pretty good recently. Coconut seems to be the flavour of choice at the moment.
ANON - Yes it hasn't been out in the US for that long actually. These were sent as samples from Mars.
BEN - That could be a very interesting bar you have there. Could you really call it 100% nuts when there is chocolate and caramel in there though?
ROSS - No don't worry the 'Squared' format has only been implemented on this bar.
RACHEL - You think the Mr T stuff is a turn off for Women!? More like a turn off for everyone :D I'm not a fan of it myself. I think its run its course and needs changing. I don't enjoy them in the slightest.
WARREN - Indeed the caramel is way less plentiful, as is the nougat. The peanut butter does take up a lot of space.
JAMIE - I got sent the Twix Coconut last week chap. Look for a review soonish.
LIZ - I would tell you to hold out for www.americansoda.co.uk to get these instock but if you are desperate there is a bar called AmericanSweets.co.uk that currently has them. Expect to pay a premium price mind you.
KATIE - You are nasty to me aren't you :D Don't worry I have more than enough samples to comfort eat my way out of this disappointment.
GLENN - I'm still considering where I stand with ice cream reviews. That would be a right pain in the bum to photograph ... not to mention messy! Let me think about it.
ROBERT - Did you not gather from the wrapper that it wasn't going to have nougat in it? Thats harsh criticism considering it hardly withheld the fact it didn't it.
JOHN - http://www.chocolatemission.net/2010/04/april-12th-snickers-cruncher.html
LOTOCHOC - That could well have been the idea splitting it up. I still don't think it was the right thing to do though.
ALAN - I don't think I have come across anyone that has had much positive to say about the Maximus. I don't think its that bad myself. Saying that I wouldn't ever buy it over the normal snickers now I've tried it.
HENRY - See comments above regarding expectations effecting score.
RODZILLA - Indeed our thoughts were rather aligned weren't they. I think everyone was disappointed by it at the end of the day! Good idea about the frankenstein Reese's/Snickers.
ROXY - Cool cool! I look forward to hearing your views on the 3Musketeers bar! As you can tell by my rating its one of my favourites from the US.
KP - Remember my views are only my own! You may well end up really enjoying this one.
PETER - Haha I do have 3 left I think. I might well run a competition soon.
Thanks all. Now get the hell of this site and get your backsides out in the sun. Have great weekends.
JIM
Boo that is disappointing. I've been keeping an interested eye on the growing peanut butter chocolate options here, like our local Tesco just started carrying Reese's PB cups instore. In fact I've noticed the trend ever since reading that Asda survey that the CM news linked to, that just proves what CM readers already knew -- PB is an underexplored + popular flavor.
@Rodzilla that is a great avatar
PS *ahem* that invisible Maximus lover would be me, in fact I left glowing feedback about it this very week...and you say you read all our comments ;)
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