Snickers Satisfies: A Showdown

In our continuing coverage of the Chocolympics here on Cocoa-Heaven, we bring you today’s challenge: Snickers Showdown. Seriously folks, can the classic Snickers flavor stand the test of time, especially when facing formidable ingredients such as dark chocolate and almonds? Mars must have felt that it could, splitting the audience apart to find the Snickers that suits their taste buds. Well and the fact that the Snickers is best selling candy bar worldwide of all time. Though I’m not sure about the adding of caffeine and vitamins…that’s a whole other battle.

Today’s event is a marathon, in honor of the UK/Irish moniker that Snickers used to carry in those countries.

The first leg of the race is: Packaging Front

Just looking at these bars from the top we can see that original Snickers means business. Bigger font, bigger size and BOLD. The Almonds Snickers bar has gone for the details by incorporating actual almonds into their font, though in size pales to the original. Dark Snickers has a sinister look (results on the doping tests pending), a Batman-esqe font and while it looks to be the same size as Almond, is slightly bigger. A closer look at the competitors confirms this suspicion: original Snickers 2.07oz, while Dark weighs in at 1.83oz and Almond at 1.76oz.

Winner: Original Snickers
Strong start off the blocks, but this is a marathon, so will it be able to hold up to the end?

Second leg: Packaging Back

Now that they’ve settled into their stride, let’s check out the junk in the trunk. Once again, original Snickers is punching us with their bold font and big letters. But “peanutopolis?” That’s not a real place. Almond sacrifices their backside for ingredient listings. Everyone knows you put that on the inside flap! Dark Snickers goes with the classic “Snickers satisfies.” Straight, to the point.

Winner: Dark Snickers
While Original was trying to make up words, Dark pulled up alongside.

Third leg: Appearance

Original Snickers had caramel leak out, creating a mess inside the wrapper. The size is certainly appealing and the smooth milk chocolate texture and color looks delictable. It tries to make up for the earlier “peanutopolis” blunder by offering a meager description on the inside wrapper.

Almond Snickers has kept all the insides inside, already off to a good start. The size is slightly disappointing, but the chocolatey swirls atop the bar are perfection.

Dark Snicker has a wonderful color and the swirl goes from top to bottom in one continuous swirl. Beautiful. Insides are inside and no strange language litters the wrapper.

Winner: Almond and Dark Snickers
Original is getting sloppy and messy.

Forth leg: Inside the stadium- last lap

Original Snickers looks to be all that it promises, packed with peanuts, caramel and a layer of nougat. The top chocolate layer is nice and thick, with much promise of a satisfying experience.

Almond Snickers has only two almonds visible and a very thick caramel layer. The nougat layer is also well represented and the chocolate, while not as thick, is holding in all the layers very nicely.

Dark Snickers shows of the same peanuts, caramel and nougat layers, but the chocolate coating appears to be thinner than either of the other bars. Dark chocolate is stronger than milk in flavor, perhaps this is a strategic move on Dark’s part to come ahead in the taste category?

Winner: Original
Face it, you want to eat that one the most.

Fifth leg: Taste- crossing the finish line

Original Snickers does taste delicious, all the flavors well represented, not too much, not too little. The chocolate is a bit crumbly after a bite, but the caramel anchor is doing its part.

Almond Snickers tastes sweeter, probably due to the fact that there is more caramel in the bar to make up for fewer almonds in the almond bar than there are peanuts in the original bar. The nougat and chocolate layers don’t disappoint though and the nutty almond taste compliments it well.

Dark Snicker has the promises of the Original bar, peanuts, caramel and nougat, but it all comes down to the dark chocolate. The peanuts actually taste slightly burnt, while Mars advertises roasted peanuts, these are either over roasted or the dark chocolate is throwing the flavor off. While this might be a fluke bar, this is the Chocolympics and you never send anything but your best!

Winner: Original
What can I say? It satisfies.

Results

Gold -Original (3)

Silver – Dark (2)

Bronze- Almond (1)

Well there you have it folks! Original Snickers really can stand the test of time and distance! Congratulations to it and all it’s fans!