Peanuts Rule (Snickers Cruncher)

Member Name: SlyClone2k

Product:	Snickers Cruncher
Date:	08/05/03 (953 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great tasting peanut based chocolate snack

Disadvantages: Poor coating of chocolate, Not as satisfying as its older brother

-------Introduction-------

Rarely have some many opinions been written about one food stuff as they have about Chocolate. Chocolate and chocolate based products get more attention here than a 8 week old puppy in a house full of dog lovers. Personally I don't understand the fascination, of chocolate that is. It's just another food stuff and those enzymes don't seem to attack my system and make me desire chocolate above all else. That said I do quite like the odd bit here and there.

But, talk to me about peanuts and you have yourself a follower. The common or garden peanut is a source of delight in all its many products. Monkey, dry roasted, plain salted, honey roasted, peanut butter and probably many more but for the purpose of this opinion, Snickers. Not to be confused with sniggers. There is nothing funny about the Snickers chocolate bar, apart from perhaps it's stupid name.

Now you could read an op on how the Snickers was first introduced by Mars in 1930, but I don't want to bore you to death with how great Mars are for inventing this bar. I also don't want to frustrate you with how the bar changed its name from its original English name of Marathon, it's a tragedy but global branding is where it's at. What I would like you to know is that Snickers are great. No matter when they were invented or when they changed their name.

--------Relevance--------

Much as I'd like to refer to Snickers as Marathon for the rest of the op I will refrain. For two reasons. Firstly I first came into contact with Snickers in Germany circa 1980. You often could find me buying them during the hot summer, they would be half melted as the NAFFI shop or the corporals mess shop had no kind of air conditioning and were often several degrees hotter than it was outside. I'd get my Snickers and then play Atari Battle Tank or occasionally Tempest, Snickers in mouth, letting the chocolate melt away to reveal th
e best p
art. The nutty smooth caramel and nut insides. *Drools* Secondly I don't want to talk about the actual Snickers but its new younger brother. Snickers Cruncher.

--------------It-------------

The Snickers Cruncher is like the evolution of Snickers. Away go the smooth peanut nougat and thick chocolate. All that remains is nut. Well almost. Snickers Cruncher is not too far removed from a peanut flavour Toffee Crisp. In fact given that it is crisped rice bound by caramel and peanuts coated in chocolate it *is* essentially a peanut Toffee Crisp but with the Snickers mastery.

The bar should have been crying out to be noticed on the shelves, the traditional blue Snickers wording remains, but dispenses with the brown wrapping in favour of bright orange metallic packaging that stands out against its contemporaries. The Cruncher is slightly smaller than its brother too, both in dimensions, although this isn't noticeable until you actually open the wrapper, and in weight. At only 40g the Snickers Cruncher is decidedly unsatisfying in the weight department. Perhaps because of its measly dimensions there is already a lot of work to be done, psychologically, for this bar to stand a chance at providing a satisfactory experience. So how does it get on?

Open the wrapper anywhere within about 18 inches of your nose and the smell of fresh peanuts overwhelms the nostrils from the off set. You know this is going to be a peanut delight. Peanut is the bouquet. No chocolate. Just.. well you get the picture.
The bar itself looks like any other, covered in chocolate so the first bite should tell all. Well there is plenty of texture, nice crispness from the rice (15%), good chewyness from the caramel (27%) and the all important woodiness (someone I know believes that nuts are very woody, who am I to argue, I'd never thought about it before so this is a good as any description to me!) of the peanut (21%). They taste good too, mos
tly peanut bu
t with a smooth chocolate and caramel finish.

Inside the chocolate bar we can see the guts. No doubting that the bar is smaller as rather than have the Double-Decker approach of its brother it goes for the simple mix of toffee, rice and peanut blend wrapped in a couple of millimetres of chocolate. On the whole it doesn't look satisfying, the chocolate coating is very thin. Possibly the thinnest chocolate coating I've ever seen on a bar from Mars. It melts extremely quickly on to your fingers, you really need to keep the wrapper on this one. The lack of layers means that the caramel and nougat are both missing in quantities that you might hope to see them. But nuts are prevalent and in abundance.

----------Satisfaction-------------

As a chocolate bar it leaves a little too much to be desired for it to push Snickers off my favourite spot. But despite the measly portion, the virtually transparent covering of chocolate and missing layers of nougat and caramel the bar works very very well. As long as you are looking for a bar that tastes like peanuts. It really does taste like freshly roasted monkey nuts and there is nothing finer for a peanut officianado.

--------Will it make my bum look big?--------

Well there is nothing on the wrapper to indicate its fat content. But I bet it's a long way off that of the Mars or Snickers. With all the caramel I'm sure its got plenty of carbohydrate to make up for it. Also, of course, it'll be protein friendly. But I notice missing from the packaging are the words *may contain nut traces*. I would have thought that this should be put on just in case (I jest here, Lorks!)

Summary: