I’ve always been a huge fan of Reese’s. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed their product line expanding on retail shelves. Still, I almost exclusively go for the Cups and Pieces. I have consumed and enjoyed both their Fast Break and Nutrageous bars and so while recently walking through the candy aisle, I decided to pick up two Reese’s bars I hadn’t tried yet – the Crispy Crunchy and Whipps bars. With high expectations, I ripped into the Crispy Crunchy wrapper first. Here are my findings.
Structure
The center’s bottom layer is a Butterfinger-like (i.e. flaky and sugary), peanut buttery confection topped with a layer of creamy peanut butter. The center is surrounded by chopped peanuts and enrobed with milk chocolate.
Texture
The chocolate covering is a little waxy, but the peanuts provide a nice crunch and the creamy peanut butter layer is smooth. Where it got awkward for me was the “Butterfinger” layer. There’s too much juxtaposition between the crispy, crystalline sugar and the creamy peanut butter. This bar needs something to bind it together and give it just a little bit of chewiness. It crumbles too easily and just didn’t feel right.
Taste
Not shockingly, you can taste a lot of peanut butter throughout and the thin layer of chocolate doesn’t bring a lot to the flavor table. Again, the Butterfinger layer stood out with a hint of maple. What didn’t work with this layer though is the addition of unabashed sugary sweetness to the already sweetened Reese’s peanut butter. To provide proper balance, Reese’s would have done better using a peanut filling with less sugar. I expected and wanted this bar to taste like a peanut butter cup, but with different textures. Crispy Crunchy is noticeably sweeter and not in a good way.
Verdict
This bar is a definite pass for me because it’s crumbly and overly sweet. In the end, it’s just not an improvement over the other Reese’s products that I enjoy. Without the Butterfinger layer, this bar could have been pretty good.
