Candy Bar Lab

The Smash! packaging caught my eye right away. It appeared to have little chocolate covered ice cream cones flying around with little candy bar particles floating in the background. I wasn’t exactly sure what was in the candy bar though. Instead of reading the ingredients, I decided to jump right in and take a bite. For a moment, I thought there actually were ice cream cones smashed up in it, but I realized the pieces were too salty. Then it hit me. Smash! is filled with crushed up bits of Bugles. Now the packaging makes sense because Bugles look like little ice cream cones.

Structure
A molded milk chocolate bar with crushed up pieces of corn chips mixed in.

Texture
The bar crumbles apart as you bite through. Because there are so many corn chip bits incorporated throughout, the structural integrity of the chocolate is compromised. That’s not a bad thing though, because the bar is thick and would be difficult to bite through if it were solid chocolate. The corn chips provide a ton of crunchiness. Overall, the Smash! is very similar to the Ritter Sport Corn Flakes Bar, though these pieces are a little lighter and crispier than regular corn flakes.

Taste
The milk chocolate is very good. It’s creamy with a deep flavor. The corn chips bits are noticeably salty and the corn flavor pokes through on the finish. The chocolate and chips work well together.

Verdict
A very solid effort. My only complaint is the thickness of the bar. It should have been a little thinner. All in all, a very good tasting candy bar though.

I haven’t been posting many reviews recently. Okay, I’ll admit, I haven’t posted ANY reviews recently. At the same time, my collection of candy bars has been growing steadily. This weekend I received a big shipment of bars from a friend traveling in Australia. That put me over the top. I decided I need to do something about this and make a push to get some reviews out on the site. So, I’m announcing that I’ll be reviewing 50 candy bars over the next 50 days. Here’s a picture of what’s in store for me between now and mid-January.

This particular candy bar was brought to me from Venezuela, though it can be found throughout the US. To my knowledge, there’s no variation in this product between South and North America. I’m excited to try it out because I’ve always liked the taste of a regular Butterfinger, but I’ve found the crystallized, flaky core of them to be a little off-putting. Hopefully, the Crisp version will be more to my liking.

Structure
Four layers of wafer separated by three layers of “Butterfinger” cream topped with a layer of crispie pieces - all enrobed in milk chocolate.

Have you ever noticed how artificially orange the inside of a Butterfinger is?

Texture
The Butterfinger Crisp is light and crisp (go figure!). The layers crumble apart as you bite through. It’s very similar to another Nestlé product I’ve reviewed, the Crunch Crisp, except this one is a little thicker. The crispies on top add some extra crunchiness and the peanut buttery stuff is a little chewy. All together, there’s a nice balance between the different textures.

Taste
Butterfingers have a distinct taste and this product definitely has it, though the Crisp is not as sweet as a regular Butterfinger. That is because the tasteless wafer layers temper the sweetness of the peanut butter filling and chocolate.

Verdict
The Litmus test for derivative products is to compare them to the original and in my opinion, the Butterfinger Crisp is superior to it’s ancestor.