This Old Faithful bar was in the free box of candy samples sent from Munchies Sweets and Treats (full disclosure: they’re currently running a paid text link ad in my sidebar). I had been intrigued when I saw it while browsing through their online store. It had the look of a retro candy bar that’s been around for ages, yet I’d somehow never heard of it.
I was quite surprised to find that it was made by the same company that makes the Idaho Spud, as I enjoyed the Old Faithful enough to finish it all in one go, and the Idaho Spud I had to throw away because I found to be too nasty to finish.
The wrapper claimed an “original creme center”, which made me expect something, well, creamy, in the center. Instead, the bar turned out to be a pad of white nougat (the creme center) topped with a thick layer of peanut studded chocolate.
As you can sort of tell from my cross-section photo, the top layer of chocolate was surprisingly thick, about a centimeter. It was quite snappy, an indication of good tempering and not too low a cacao content. I actually rather enjoyed the chocolate – it didn’t have any tasting notes that stood up against the nuts and nougat, but it was solid quality, not too sweet, and totally palatable.
The nougat had a stiff chew and a plain sweetness to it. It added more in terms of texture than taste. I appreciated the bar’s generous use of whole peanuts, but I did wish that their nuttiness had been more pronounced. Roasting would have been appreciated!
All in all, a surprising solid product with a nice mix of tastes and textures that’s elevated by its use of decent (and real!) chocolate. It’s like a Snickers, but with less caramel and lots more chocolate. I appreciated it enough to eat it all in one go, and if I bought candy on impulse for snacking (I rarely do since I have soooo much of it stashed away for reviews that I may never write), I’d choose this over other checkout aisle offers. An OM.
You can read Cybele’s take on this bar here. I had no trouble with the peanuts in my bar, and I wonder if they’ve reformulated it since then, as my bar looks much more chocolate heavy than hers did.
Varsha