Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Nestle Crunch Crisp

Crunch CrispI had really high hopes for the new Nestle Crunch Crisp bar. I found it on Friday while I was filling my gas tank and wandered into the convenience store because it was so freakishly hot. (Okay, maybe it’s not freakishly hot, it was the end of June in Southern California, what should I have been expecting at four in the afternoon?)

The blue metallic wrapper is promising and describes this as “Crispy Wafers, Chocolate Creme.” Sadly, it also doesn’t list chocolate as an ingredient. Which leads me to wonder what the essential element is to be called part of the Nestle Crunch line of products ... apparently it’s not chocolate, it’s crisped rice. I’m sure there are volumes of marketing research that prove this.

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The bar consists of sturdy planks of bland wafers filled with a greasy and grainy chocolate cream, topped with some crisped rice and a slurry of thin mockolate (63% of your daily value of saturated fats!).

Here are the ingredients:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Alkalized Cocoa, Nonfat Milk, Crisped Rice (rice flour, sugar, barley malt, salt) and 1% or less of High Fructose Corn Syrup, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Vanilla Flavor, Salt, Baking Soda, Lactic Acid Esters, TBHC and Citric Acid, Ground Peanuts.

While this all comes off as rather negative, I think I might find this tasty when the ambient temperature is below 90 degrees. Even at 85 degrees, however, the bar was a slippery mess (this is one of the differences between mockolate and most chocolate). It was certainly creamy and the crispy wafers were distinct and crunchy. But the mockolate and chocolate creme just weren’t up to delivering any flavor to the mix. It wasn’t too sweet though, as the bland wafer and crispies were a good counterbalance to the mockolates. Honestly, the crispy wafers were good.

This would be an awesome bar if it were real. If there were some sort of real chocolate on there, something with character and depth, I could completely get behind it. In the mean time, I’m going to stick to my also-high-in-full-hydrogenated-oils Chocolatiers.

Candy companies are still getting the hang of this internet thing, so you can go to the website listed on the package, ForTheKidInYou.com, but I couldn’t find any mention of this bar there. On a slightly related note on the mockolate front, here’s an article from Reuters ... that Cebele May they mention, that’s me (plus Emily from Chocolate in Context!).

Related Candies

  1. Baby Ruth Crisp & Nestle Crisp Bars
  2. Q.Bel Crispy Wafer Bars
  3. Wonka Tinglerz & Nestle Buncha Crunch
  4. Nestle Milk Chocolate
  5. Nestle Crunch (Now Even Richer Milk Chocolate)
  6. I Miss: Bar None
Name: Crunch Crisp
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Shell station (Hollywood)
Price: $.85
Size: 1.74 ounces
Calories per ounce: 137
Categories: Mockolate, Cookie, United States, Nestle

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:08 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I had one of these the other day and quite liked it. I guess there was enough going on with the wafers and crispies that I didn’t really notice the fakeness.

    Comment by Grace on 7/03/07 at 1:58 pm #
  2. I love your brilliant writing on candy.

    I am moved to point out, because I wish you a long and healthy life as the world’s formost candy critic, that of all candy ingredients which are potentially harmful to health, the worst are no doubt the hydrogenated fats. In the Nestle Crunch Crisp, hydrogenated fats are the first two listed ingredients.

    I think you should be a little cautious about candy which contains these fats. Maybe just taste them. Don’t eat them in quantity. Maybe make the point to your readers that some candy may be better to eat than other candy.

    Comment by Mike on 7/03/07 at 2:13 pm #
  3. I really liked this bar.  The wafer cookies reminded me of the me, the wafer cookies were pretty high quality.  Kind of like the standalone creme filled wafer cookies you can buy in stores.

    Comment by Justin on 7/03/07 at 3:17 pm #
  4. Grace & Justin - the wafers are really great, super crispy and substantial. It just seems like Nestle, who is known for their great chocolate in Europe could do a little better for us in the States.

    Mike - I share your concern about bad fats, which is why I mention them in reviews (but leave it to folks to make their own decision). These, in particular, were fully hydrogenated, so don’t contain trans fatty acids. But of course they’re still saturated.

    If it helps, the rest of my day I ate a Lara Bar (dates and cashews), some Good & Plenty, for dinner a large salad of greens, cucumbers, tomatoes and feta with a half a grilled chicken breast (no dressing), a handful of plain tortilla chips and a chocolate dipped banana. I try to balance out my “bad candy” throughout the week, and sometimes stretch it over several days. (Over the weekend the worst thing I ate was a small piece of wedding cake ... no candy at all!)

    Comment by cybele on 7/04/07 at 7:18 am #
  5. I had the same problems with this bar.  There was loads of potential, but it didn’t deliver any solid chocolate kick.  Great crunch, though.

    Comment by william on 7/05/07 at 3:59 pm #
  6. This bar tastes really good, if you don’t eat it in the desert. What chocolate bar holds up in the heat? This bar will go far!

    Comment by william on 7/18/07 at 7:41 am #
  7. I also had high hopes for this bar and hoped it would be similar to a Bar None.  I found the chocolate to be just awful though.  It was waxy and just unappealing.  I later tried a regular Nestle crunch for comparison and the chocolate seemed much better?  Did they change the formulation for this bar, that doesn’t make sense but neither did this bar.

    Comment by cheri on 7/19/07 at 1:52 pm #
  8. fake/outdated. I love Nestle crunch bars. Where did they go? The most recent ones I got were 4 for a buck at Longs Drug Store. 2 of them touted a contest. I opened the wrapper and found the look of the crisped rice rather odd. I read the ingredients. No crisped rice just some strange flour recipe resembling dough bait for catching fish. The wrapper once opened. no familiar foil, revealed that the contested ended last year. So, Shame on Longs for selling dated merchandise. That’s an old Rite-Aide trick. And shame on Nestle for farming out production to Brazil. I ate the bars with milk over 4 days trying to imagine what they really should taste like.

    Comment by bob on 7/22/07 at 11:23 am #
  9. I really like this bar.  It is lighter than most candy bars that leave me feeling bloated.  I like the crispy wafers and the chocolate coating is not too thick or too sweet. I’d definately buy it again.

    Comment by Christine on 10/08/07 at 10:04 am #
  10. I found these candy bars mind-blowingly good.  Maybe it’s just because I’m not a big chocolate fan, but I loved that it had some vanilla flavor coming through.  And the wafers.  They were just delicious.

    Comment by Rita on 10/19/07 at 10:15 am #
  11. How can I buy a box of Nestle Crisp?

    Comment by Carol Kumataka on 10/24/07 at 11:10 am #
  12. Carol ^
    Amazon recently started making Nestle products available for free shipping (@ $25).  Here are the wonderful Crunch Crisps

    http://www.amazon.com/Nestles-Crunch-Crisp-Single-Candy/dp/B000V9G7MA/ref=sr_1_3/002-5544460-3635236?ie=UTF8&s=gourmet-food&qid=1194490207&sr=8-3

    Comment by Justin on 11/07/07 at 3:51 pm #
  13. I had one of these given to me in my stocking by someone who had picked one up while visiting the states(We are in Canada). Tried it tonight and I actually quite liked it.. maybe the temp. stayed low enough for the whole trip(it’s winter), and that kept everything in tip top shape.

    Perhaps I’m just biased as I like Crunch bars quite a lot(I love gourmet items, I just have a soft spot for things I had as a kid I guess), but even with it being just a simple, and probably horrendous for me, chocolate bar.. it still hit the spot smile

    I seem to be able to find the Crunch bars now at the gas station near to my workplace, which is nice because for many years, I couldn’t find those things if I went to the damn moon

    Comment by Nicole on 12/25/07 at 6:51 pm #
  14. I normally agree with Cybele on most things, but we part company on this one.  I just bought one in a discount store and it was excellent.  The fake chocolate wasn’t readily apparent with all that wafer and crunch action going on.

    Cybele, I think the melted bar might have ruined it too much for you.  Give this one another shot during this cold winter.

    Comment by John on 2/13/08 at 11:59 am #
  15. I really like these. I hadn’t paid much attention to the ingredients until I read this. I agree with the previous comment from Mike. These are best enjoyed as an occasional treat.

    Comment by JC on 8/18/08 at 9:27 am #
  16. This is my favority chocolate bar

    Comment by Oscar on 9/08/08 at 9:41 am #
  17. Love the crunch crisp…how about trying it with a decent dark chocolate

    Comment by sandy calbo on 2/03/09 at 11:11 am #
  18. I don’t care for the regular-sized bars, but the miniature sized bars are my favorite!  I really don’t know why the smaller size is better….it just is.  Unfortunately, I’m having trouble finding the 10-packs of the small bars recently.

    Comment by Mary on 3/19/10 at 12:08 pm #
  19. Tastes good,reminds me a bit of KitKat or Cadbury Fingers.  Too bad about the hydrogenated fat.  This will have to go on my avoid list, sigh.  I hadn’t checked the label as usual as a lot of candy now avoids hydrogenated fat.  Tastes good though….

    Comment by Paul on 11/02/10 at 1:47 pm #
  20. Nestle Promotion cede   PK7708
    Miniature bars are my favorite.

    Comment by Marta Bernal on 6/07/11 at 12:45 pm #
  21. This is by far my favorite candy bar !
    Why does no one carry it anymore ?
    Kroger & Walmart never have!

    Comment by James Johnson on 8/17/14 at 2:49 pm #
  22. This is by far the best tasting candy bar I have ever eaten! For the last year or more I can’t find it anywhere. Does anyone know where I can get these yummy candy bars?

    Comment by Larry R on 7/27/15 at 4:05 pm #
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