The Snickerometer says... (Snickers Bar)

Member Name: davidbuttery

Product:	Snickers Bar
Date:	30/10/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: chunky and satisfying, nice peanut taste, good value

Disadvantages: very high in calories and fat

If you're as ancient as I am, then you'll remember this bar as the Marathon before it came into line with its American parent in 1990. In fact, there *is* still a bar bearing the Marathon name in the United States, but it seems to be some sort of strange "energy bar" variant bearing little resemblance to the bar I'm looking at in this review. "Snickers" is an entirely ridiculous name - being, as it is, American English for "sniggers" - but somehow we seem to have got used to it. I suppose we can live with these things if the actual chocolate is tasty, so let's see.

The first thing you notice is that this is a *big* bar. It's not quite as large as it used to be, having shrunk from 62.5g to 58g within the last couple of years, but it's nevertheless very much on the chunky side, and good value for the 48p I paid. That, of course, has its drawbacks on the nutritional side of things, with a single Snickers bar packing a waistline-expanding 296 kcal! It's also blessed (or cursed) with a mighty 18.5g of fat, so I think we can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that Mars (or Masterfoods, or whatever they're called this week) are not aiming Snickers at the diet-conscious!

Rather obviously, given all those peanuts, the Snickers bar is not suitable for those with nut allergies. It is once again suitable for vegetarians, though, the company having seen the light after a brief and ill-advised dalliance with animal rennet a couple of years back. (This also applies to Mars bars, but for other brands you do need to check each and every wrapper, as some of the company's range remains out of bounds if you're veggie.)

The wrapper design is clearly not the area on which the most time has been spent. It's functional and obvious, with the instantly recognisable Snickers logo - blue italicised capitals on a white background - running most of the length of the wrapper. Ripping said wrapper to bits, as I'm sure any self-respecting member of the target audience would do, reveals a similarly simple construction to the bar beneath. It's of a no-nonsense cuboid shape, with ripples of chocolate quite prominent along the top.

The chocolate coating is quite acceptable, if not exciting, and there are no surprises in its taste. This bar is really all about the filling: a generous helping of surprisingly tasty peanuts, a good dollop of caramel and some nougat to round off the set - though the nougat does not have all that strong a flavour, and is really more important to the texture than to the taste. That texture is just right for a bar like this: you can take great big bites from it without using the whole bar up in one mouthful!

Clearly a Snickers is not something to buy if you just want a little bit of chocolate. It's firmly anchored at the "big bite" end of the market, and as such is a good choice to carry on a walk on a winter's day for when you feel the need for a serious calorie injection. I doubt anybody would claim that this was the most exciting or beautifully crafted bar on the shelves, but it serves its intended market well and makes a satisfying, filling snack.

Summary: Best reserved for when you're *really* hungry!