Thursday, January 20, 2011

Nutty Bar Taste Test!

Good evening, loyal readers. Today I decided to perform a public service by comparing one of the best snack foods ever made: The Nutty Bar. Unfortunately, the reason I happen to be doing this taste test is because I'm finishing off a box of one brand and beginning a box of another, so there are only two brands in the running: Little Debbie (LD) and Great Value (GV).


The contest got off to a little bit of a rocky start, because I pulled the packages out of the boxes, then laid them down right next to each other on the counter while I got the essential glass of milk. I went back to get the snacks, and realized I didn't know which was which! The contest almost ended then and there. But upon closer inspection, I realized that they were slightly different in appearance. In fact, one of the bars looked a little less chocolaty, and was a little bit skinnier than the other.

Uh-oh! Not a good sign for whoever the culprit turned out to be!


I was out of GV, so I compared to LD's. Turns out, the cheap-o looking thin ones with less chocolate were the name brand!! Tsk, tsk, LD! Not a very good start for the snack I paid an extra quarter for!

Well, I had compared the aesthetics, and GV, definitely looks better, but which actually tastes better? There's only one way to find out, and I am just the girl to test it! I decide to start with the more appetizing looking snack, and bite into the GV brand.

Of course it tastes like heaven, it's a peanut butter/chocolate combo with wafers in between! But for our purposes, let's try to be somewhat critical. The flavor was good, and the wafers were nice and crunchy. There was a good chocolate to peanut butter ratio. Then it was gone.

Now, it was LD's turn! I took a bite into the skinny little un-chocolaty snack. The wafers were more crispy than crunchy. I have to admit that the flavor was slightly better than the GV. The peanut butter seemed creamier. And I actually liked the crispness better than GV's crunchiness.

Now here's the thing: Great Value brand costs $1. Little Debbie brand costs $1.25. Are LD's Nutty Bars good enough for me to go out of my way to buy them over GV's?

Eh, because I'm cheap, probably not.

If I'm at a store that only has the name brand, then I'll happily spend the extra to get a slightly better confection. But if I'm at Walmart, I'll probably just grab the GV at checkout and still be a happy, well chocolate and peanut buttered girl!

5 comments:

lizS said...

you are HILARIOUS!! i laughed so hard at the illustrations! bwaaahahahahaahaaa!!

Mary said...

I was thinking about you when I drew them. :)

timpani76 said...

I can't eat peanut butter while nursing Sorsha. Thanks for torturing me ;) Just kidding! I should look for the GV bars first thing when I stop nursing. I never knew that WM had knock-off little debbie stuff.

Mary said...

You're welcome!

Is Sorsha allergic, or are you just being careful because of Vance? (Is QQ allergic?) In any event, the GV bars are on a display at the front of my store right by the checkout. I wouldn't know where they are at your store. They also have Swiss cake rolls, and a few other knockoffs. Good (cheap) times.

timpani76 said...

Sorsha is definitely allergic going from the prodigious amounts of spit up the day after I eat peanut butter. This is also how we have found out all her other allergies (milk, soy, fish, and eggs). As much as I love a whole day of being sprayed down with recycled breastmilk, I think I will just avoid peanut butter for now!