Friday, April 24, 2009

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Peanuts (plus Mr. Goodbar)

Hershey's Milk Chocolate with PeanutsOne of the most confounding stories from last year was not that Hershey’s degraded the recipe of some of their most favored & oldest chocolate bars including the Mr. Goodbar. No, it was the introduction of the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Peanuts.

Hershey’s spokesman insisted that consumers actually prefer the new formula of the Mr. Goodbar, which has a strong, salty & burnt peanut taste over the earlier Hershey’s tangy milk chocolate flavor combined with fresh roasted peanuts. So, why, if so many people like it would they introduce a new bar that is basically the old bar instead of keeping the old bar the way it was an introducing a new bar that tastes like the old bar’s new formula? (I told you it was confusing.)

Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Peanuts

The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Peanuts bar was introduced and sold exclusively at WalMart. I got mine at the 99 Cent Only Store. I don’t know if they’re supposed to be carrying it or these are just WalMart overruns.

So, what’s inside? First, the bar is 1.45 ounces. A standard Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar is 1.55 ounces ... so this nutty Hershey’s is even smaller.

The ingredients are:

Milk Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, vanillin), Peanuts. (45 mg sodium 1.45 ounces)

The bar has a soft snap, like most Hershey’s chocolate products. It smells like peanuts, but not quite the same soft scent of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. On the tongue the first flavor I get is not chocolate or peanuts but salt. The chocolate is a bit fudgy and grainy, but has a rather smooth dissolve on the tongue. The peanuts don’t taste as dark and charcoal-ish as the new Mr. Goodbar. But the saltiness made it taste like fake butter.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate with PeanutsIt’s not a bad bar ... and it’s not Mr. Goodbar. It’s just some other new bar that’s not distinct enough to warrant being more than a something in an assortment of miniatures. Which brings me to the fact that this Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Peanuts is not even, technically, a new confection from Hershey’s. I first had it when I bought at bag of Hershey’s Nut Lovers Miniatures in January of 2005. (Here’s a photo.)

I feel like the victim of an elaborate shell game where actually finding the ball under the right shell doesn’t actually mean that you get anything satisfying ... like your money’s worth. This new bar is nice enough, but why is it 1.45 ounces (same as the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds) instead of the 1.55 of the Milk Chocolate bar. Did peanuts suddenly become more expensive than chocolate?

Just for the record, here are the iterations of Mr. Goodbar:

Hershey's Mr. Goodbar (2008)Mr. Goodbar made with chocolate and peanuts

Ingredients (as of 2008): Sugar, peanuts, vegetable oil (palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil) chocolate, whey (milk), nonfat milk, contains 2% or less of milk fat, soy lecithin, salt, vanillin. (60 mg of sodium 1.75 ounces)

In this new mockolate version the bar tastes like it has more peanuts, the peanuts have a darker roast that gives it a slight bitterness that’s moderated by heaps more salt than before and what tastes like some sugary fudge/wax with very little cocoa taste.

Hershey's Mr. Goodbar (2006)Classic Mr. Goodbar peanuts in milk chocolate

Ingredients (circa 2006): Milk Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, lactose, milk, milk fat, soya lecithin and PGPR as emulsifiers and vanillin, an artificial flavoring) and Peanuts.  (20 mg of sodium 1.75 ounces)

If you really missed the classic Mr. Goodbar, the new Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Peanuts will probably make you happier than buying the current mockolate Mr. Goodbar. (Unless you’re on a sodium restricted diet.) I’d like to say that there’s an alternative, but peanuts & chocolate are kind of the domain of Hershey’s & Reese’s ... it’s sad that they don’t have something to offer that’s better.

Related Candies

  1. Hershey’s Website Inaccuracies
  2. Rising Cost of Candy - A Brief Study of Hershey Prices
  3. Hershey’s Special Dark Miniatures
  4. Hershey’s Miniatures
  5. Hershey’s with Crisp Corn Bits
  6. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Filled with Creamy Peanut Butter
  7. Nestle Crunch with Peanuts
Name: Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Peanuts
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only (Sunset Junction)
Price: $.40
Size: 1.45 ounces
Calories per ounce: 145
Categories: Chocolate, Peanuts, United States, Hershey's, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:39 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I’m sorry, but this does not sound too yummy to me.  The peanuts in Mr. Goodbar always tasted rancid to my tongue.

    Comment by Susan on 4/24/09 at 11:27 am #
  2. I had one not too long ago and it made me
    think of chocolate icing instead of milk
    chocolate.

    Comment by Charles Blakeney on 4/24/09 at 12:12 pm #
  3. Man, I do miss the old Mr. Goodbars. :( I actually had no idea that they changed the recipe, but did notice a slight change in taste to the point where I decided they weren’t worth my money anymore. Strangely, I had attributed this change as my own tastes changing!

    I haven’t seen these, but it is odd that Hershey’s is pushing two products that are essentially the same thing.

    Comment by toast on 4/24/09 at 4:47 pm #
  4. Try a Cadbury Roasted peanuts or Roasted almonds, they are really nice and value for money! Can you buy them over there? smile

    Comment by Sweet Pursuit on 4/24/09 at 7:14 pm #
  5. Are they still selling these at Wal-Mart?  I haven’t seen them at the Wal-Marts in my area, but I really wasn’t looking for them, either.

    And when I saw the title of this entry, the first thing that went through my head was, “Wasn’t this what the Mr. Goodbar was?”  That was before I read the entry.

    Comment by Johnny Carruthers on 4/25/09 at 8:35 am #
  6. I agree with the questions:  What is Hershey’s thinking?

    Comment by Pam Walter on 4/25/09 at 3:31 pm #
  7. If the re-formulations to mockolate instead of chocolate are to cut costs, why then re-issue a new bar using chocolate?  That kind of defeats the cost cutting goal.

    Comment by AJT on 4/27/09 at 4:26 am #
  8. Complain to the company and tell all your friends not to buy this adulterated crap. If the company gives a damn and I am not sure they do, they will bring the original Goodbar back. Shea butter, used to cheapen the product, is a prime ingredient in cosmetics . What is it doing in a candy bar?

    Comment by Eric Freutel on 10/27/09 at 3:15 pm #
  9. Sad… it was my favorite candy. I’m all set with Hershey.

    Comment by Coco Puff on 10/28/12 at 11:29 pm #
  10. I remember having an original Mr.Goodbar
    in 1970. The unwrapping of the foil
    combine with the true taste of milk chocolate and couldn’t wait to get my combination peanuts bite.Breaking one bar
    off at a time not knowing if I would get
    so lucky. Now I remember when I bought a
    new recipe bar not knowing they changed the recipe and NEW it had changed.I was almost sad that they just somehow had took
    my childhood memories and replaced them with something I will never experience again.Somethings should be left alone .

    Comment by James hahn on 12/01/14 at 5:01 pm #
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