| Product: |
Mars Bar |
| Date: |
01/09/08 (64 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Good price, chunky size, you know what you're getting
Disadvantages: Too sweet, contains pure glucose, not enough cocoa in the chocolate
The Mars bar is almost too well known to merit a review, but here goes.
This iconic slab of milk chocolate filled with layers of caramel and nougat was introduced in 1932 and was probably the first chocolate bar in the UK to be other than a solid block of chocolate. A potentially risky innovation that must have repaid its creator, Forrest Mars, many times over. The famous slogan, "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play", was allegedly invented by Murray Walker (yes, the Formula 1 Murray Walker) in his ad man days but this has been cast into doubt, the slogan predates his involvement with the brand. Besides, there's no way Murray could have reached the end of such a long sentence without erupting into incoherent hyperbole. A change of ad agency at the end of 2001 saw the introduction of the more risqué "Pleasure you can't measure". The current slogan "Work - Rest - Play" is perhaps a kind of SMS version of its famous original.
The bar itself was slimmed down a little in 2002 with lighter nougat and thinner chocolate on top, though at 62.5 grams (standard bar) or roughly 2¼ ounces in old money it is still bigger (and possibly more satisfying) than the average chocolate bar these days.
Taste-wise I find the Mars bar extremely sweet and the milk chocolate lacks any real cocoa taste. They are initially filling but this effect wears off quickly leaving me craving another one (probably because it is playing havoc with my glucose levels). The fact that Mars uses glucose as well as sugar (sucrose) in its formulation would tend to exacerbate the sugar-high followed by sugar-low sensation: sucrose takes longer to metabolise in the body.
There have been various special variants of the Mars bar, with white or dark chocolate for example, while the Mars Bars sold in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are different again. Perhaps the nearest thing to the Mars Bar is the Milky Way, a lighter and smaller bar more suitable as a light snack.
Interestingly, the Mars bar has been adopted by some economists as a measure of inflation. Its price relative to prices overall has remained remarkably stable. For example, when I was a young kid the price was 4d while a basic small car (the original Mini) was about £500 or 30,000 Mars bars. Today a Mars bar is around 45p so a Mini (now MINI) should cost around £13,500. In fact it costs a little less at £11,925, which reflects the fact that cars have become better value and are less highly taxed than they were 45 years ago.
The only question that remains unanswered is: will they ever put a Mars bar on Mars?
Summary: A classic with a future
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Last comment:
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SusanLesley - 01/09/08 Too sickly for me I'm afraid, Susan |
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