Candy Bar Lab

I love the packaging for this bar, which is simply called Cuba. The candy bar itself is wrapped in gold foil, which is then covered in plastic - twisted off on the ends like a Tootsie Roll wrapper. The Cuba logo type is clear plastic, so the gold foil shows. I’ve never seen a candy bar wrapped like this before and I award them points for creativity. As for the candy product on the inside, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from the Norwegian description, but I could figure out that it had chocolate and almonds in it from the ingredients.

Structure
A molded high cocoa percentage milk chocolate with a soft chocolate filling containing small pieces of almonds.

Texture
The chocolate shell is thin and snaps apart nicely as you bite through to the soft center. The filling is light and fluffy like a mousse or a whipped ganache. The almond pieces are chopped very fine and add a little bit of crunchiness. I also noticed some small sugar granules suspended in the filling.

Taste
Cuba has a deep, intense chocolate taste with a bit of saltiness - a welcome shot of flavor in contrast to some cheap, tasteless chocolate I’ve had recently.

Verdict
This bar is a definite thumbs up. It’s more like a truffle you’d find at a chocolate shop than it is a candy bar you’d expect to pick up at a convenience store.

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.

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.