Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Snickers Almond

Name: Snickers Almond
Brand: Mars
Place Purchased: 7-11
Price: $.85
Size: 1.76 ounces
Calories per ounce: 136
Type: Chocolate/Caramel/Nuts

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Why didn’t someone mention that the Mars bar was quietly replaced with the Snickers Almond bar five years ago? I didn’t notice. Mostly because I was never a Mars bar fan. A Mars bar in the States used to be a nougat bar with almonds and a strip of caramel and covered in milk chocolate. A Mars bar in other parts of the world is like a Milky Way is here in the States: a nougat bar with a stripe of caramel covered in milk chocolate. In the rest of the world a Milky Way is like the American 3 Musketeers. I can go on and on, but suffice to say that Mars has a big old confusing name problem on their hands and all I can do is try to make a grid to display it. (Please correct me if I’ve got them wrong.)

USA….............. contents ..................UK/Canada
Mars .........almond, caramel, nougat…........none
Milky Way…......nougat, caramel…............Mars
3 Musketeers ......fluffy nougat ...............Milky Way
Marathon ........long caramel braid ............Curly Wurly
Snickers…...peanuts, caramel, nougat….......Marathon*

*discontinued

You know, there are a bazillion names for these candy folks to choose from, why do they have to confuse the globe-trotting candy lovers so? For some other attempts at disambiguation, have a look at this page comparing the old Mars and the Canadian Milky Way (with cross sections).

But I digress. I’m supposed to be reviewing the Snickers Almond bar.

But I don’t wanna review this bar because I didn’t like it much and it reminded me why I forgot about the bar entirely. It smells good, which is just a ruse. First, the nougat is nothing more than a flavorless grainy sweet blob. Good nougat has a flavor of some sort, an essence of honey or malt or, well, something. This is just sweet. The caramel is also sweet, but has a touch of salt to it which I fully support. The almonds are nice, but scant. The chocolate is sweet and passable as a chocolate cloak. As a whole combination it just didn’t wow me and didn’t satisfy me. I didn’t finish it.

There are other bars out there that do this better. The See’s Awesome Nut & Nougat Bar is one (but probably not a viable alternative as it’s not that easy to get a hold of). Frankly I prefer the plain old Snickers bar to this. There was a Mars Midnight for a while there in the nineties that I was rather fond of but gone now.

Other Reviews: Writers & Artists Snacking at Work gave it a 9/10, Jim at Phoood wasn’t wowed, Candy Critic gave the original Mars an 11/15

Rating - 5 out of 10

Related Candies

  1. Snickers Almond Dark
  2. More Satisfying Snickers Almond?

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:06 am Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewSnickersMarsCaramelChocolateNougatNuts5-PleasantUnited States

Comments
  1. Ok, so I did notice that the Mars bar was replaced by this heratic.  Sorry I didn’t mention it, but…blogs didn’t really exist then to let those corporate punks know that they were wrong.  Just plain wrong.  Anyway, I remember the Mars’ nougat being softer and of better flavor then the current Snickers.  I pretty much agree with your opinion of it. 
    Oh, and here in Germany, Snickers is a pretty well established brand; the Marathon must have been gone for at least a few years because I’ve never heard of it in the time I’ve been here. 
    Last thing, I was really disappointed the first time I picked up a Mars bar while having a layover in London.  Especially for the price I paid for it.  Oh well, I hope Candyblog can prevent some of you from making the same, disappointing mistake.

    Comment by Mad Cow on 12/29/05 at 4:32 pm #
  2. i dont have peanuts in my snickers and i am disapoint!!!

    Comment by alexandre on 5/19/06 at 4:18 am #
  3. I was in British Columbia recently, where I discovered Mars Almond bars in a grocery store (I bought them all). They taste just like the old Mars Almond bars from the U.S. Strangely enough, the packaging said the bars are imported into Canada; however, Canada does not apparently require that the country of origin be listed so I don’t know where they were manufactured. I guess I will have to have friends ship me cases of them.

    Also I remember in the mid-1990s in Europe that you could buy a special gold label Mars bar that was the same as the Mars Almond bar, but they were not available in all stores. The dark labeled Mars bar tasted like a Milky Way to me and were more generally available.

    Comment by Ed Kelton on 7/01/06 at 3:13 pm #
  4. Wis you had a pic of the original Mars Bar. A thin candy bar, chocolate coated nouget, with 2 almonds on top. It was replaced by a new Mars Abr, which was replaced by this Snickers Almond.

    Comment by Joe Taylor on 8/24/06 at 8:18 am #
  5. Cybele's avatar

    Joe - Are you sure about the old Mars bar? I remember the 5th Avenue used to have almonds on it.

    Here’s an old picture of a Mars ad from the late 40s.

    http://theimaginaryworld.com/nwca27.jpg

    Ed - I think I picked up a dark Milky Way from the UK over the weekend, but I haven’t tried it yet.

    Comment by Cybele on 8/25/06 at 7:12 pm #
  6. ohhmygosh, i LOVE Snickers Almond bars…that’s weird, the ones i buy have a LOT of almonds in it…but i’ve only bought one box, so maybe it’s a manufacturing mistake??
    hmm. i love almonds so this is one of my favorite bars (:

    Comment by EMiLY on 9/24/06 at 6:25 pm #
  7. Yes, the original Mars Bar was a thin candy bar, chocolate coated, with white nouget inside, and 2 almonds on top,

    The 5th Avenue Bar also had 2 almonds on top, but, was more like a Butterfinger in flavor, and had a crispy filling.

    Comment by Joe Taylor on 9/25/06 at 3:52 am #
  8. Not sure is anyone still reading this but anyways, just want to post the correct picture of the old mars almond bar. That’s what we used to get in Canada before, the one with the cream wrapper had nougat and almonds. The one with the black wrapper was more like the American Milky Way.

    http://www.oregonl5.org/mist/marsbar.html

    Now they’ve substituted the Mars almond with Snickers Almond. I don’t like it too much. Too much caramel and not enough nougat - they’ve changed it…boo-hoo.

    Comment by Cubby on 3/14/07 at 5:19 am #
  9. I remember the old Mars bars—thin with two almonds on the top.  I don’t remember any caramel in the bar—?  I know I liked them better than the new version—is there any information on the year it changed?

    Comment by Julie on 3/24/07 at 11:47 am #
  10. According to wickipedia the change took place in 2000. I, like the writer of this piece never really noticed because I was never a big fan of the mars bar. My girlfriend had never had one so I wanted to buy her one and thats when I realized they didn’t make em’ anymore. Recently I bought a Snickers w/ almonds and got to thinking and told my girlfriend “I think this is what a mars bar used to be” so the next thing you know I’m researching it on the net. “My GOD is my life so uneventful that this is what it’s come to, talking on the net about discontinued candy bars!!!” Hahahahahaha…....

    Comment by Toby on 4/08/07 at 6:57 am #
  11. hi im just wont to no hoow do you make it and do it take a long time to make?(snicker)can people make it at home with the kids if you wont to do something with them?

    Comment by zipoorah on 4/16/07 at 7:29 am #
  12. I bought a pack of mars bar 48 count thinking they were almond kind to my disappoint they were just mars bar. My girlfriend told me she wanted the almond kind & I’m also finding out they no longer make them but they make the dull one still(mars bar) Thats were i bought them online. So im also sad i cant make my girl happy :(

    Comment by Brian on 7/10/07 at 12:36 pm #
  13. my boyfriend loves mars bars (almond), and i can’t find them anywhere!  i wanted to buy them for him and surprise him before he went to iraq for the plane trip.  i was in germany recently and found them, but i’m no longer there and need to know ugently where to find them online so i can buy them!  any help would be greatly appreciated!  thanks so much!!!

    email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Comment by Melisa on 7/22/08 at 9:09 am #
  14. i want the old mars almond back. =( but it’s ok.. i can make do with the snickers.

    Comment by bambi on 9/07/08 at 6:11 am #
  15. I know exactly when the mars bar disappeared because I used to by them.  I perfer carmel so I always ate them even when I was a little girl.  If you noticed they tried to make the wrapper the same color.  I never really ate snickers a lot because it was so sweet, but when you mix the nougat(which has some salt content) and the nuts wiht the chocolate, OMG, how could you not like it.  Anyway it’s just like people who say they like SKOR AND NOT HEAT, OR VICE VERSA.  Three Musketteers and MIlkyway is the same and I don’t like either one, it needs nuts of some sort.  I would like the old Mars back as well, but the snickers with almond is a fantastic substitute.

    Comment by Cina on 4/13/09 at 7:06 am #
  16. I was shopping at Wal-Mart yesterday and while looking for Snickers Dark I saw a display of Mars Bars!! I almost fell over. They are just as yummy as before. Horray for the return of Mars Bars!

    Comment by Suzanne on 2/07/10 at 7:37 am #
  17. I once spent an entire day google searching US Milky Way v UK Mars bar before finally learning the convoluted and rather sordid history of the Mars family. I even ended up talking to a customer service rep for the Mars company, who was actually super nice and ended up being like “Woah, you are strangely well versed in the history of our company”

    I find it very frustrating that the names are all mussed up, but at least now I understand *why*.

    Comment by Mary on 11/10/11 at 10:33 am #
  18. Read the attached article about Mars in the states, Cadbury and Mars in England.  It will clear up many misconceptions about Mars and the Mars Bar.

    I just found out about the Snickers Almond.  I am going to go to WalMart and get some soon.  Who cares what it is called as long as it has that “old Time” flavor of the original.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(chocolate_bar)

    Comment by OldBaldFatGuy on 6/08/13 at 4:18 pm #
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