As many of you know, Nestle Crunch has partnered with the Girl Scouts of America to release a limited edition, limited release Crunch-bar version of three of their popular flavors of cookies- the Tagalongs (peanut butter cremes) Samoas (changed to the more PC caramel coconut crunch) and Thin Mints. And Foodette Reviews is proud to be one of the first reviewers to give you the full scoop.
For starters, people are going insane for these, and after eating them, I can totally see why. They precisely mimic the flavors (and hopefully not as much of the calorie bombing terror) of the cookies themselves. They are all delicious, and manage to be simultaneously nostalgic and original. Admittedly, the Crunch addition is a little superfluous- the bars are adapted from the Crunch Crisp and use the wafer and filling tactic to get the flavor. However, the original "Crunch" influence gets kind of lost within all of the flavors, manifesting a mere whisp of crisped rice on top.
We'll start with everyone's favorite- the peanut butter creme. This was definitely the softest of the bars, the wafers yielding to the deluge of peanut butter and chocolate. Flavor-wise, this was spot-on to a Tagalong. It's similar to a Butterfinger creme bar, with a more satisfying saltiness and a lighter touch on the sugar. The peanut butter had a pleasant graininess that reminded me of natural peanut butter. The chocolate on the outside was a classic milk chocolate- buttery, caramely, and it held everything together. I received miniature bars, which were perfect both in portion size as well as ratio. They were delightfully thick and crispy and perfect as a snack. As far as this one went, everything was spot-on. It's the cookie joy in candy form.
The caramel and coconut crunch bar may have been my favorite, though. It was a little less sweet, due to its dark chocolate coating, and a little denser in texture, crammed full of dried flakes of coconut. The caramel was more of an afterthought to the coconut and chocolate, but still bound everything together and infused the coconut with a much-needed sweetness. I also loved the swirl of caramel on top of this bar- each bar had something visually differentiating it from the other, a small aesthetic addition that was not lost on me.
Finally, we tried the Thin Mint, and all I could think of as I bit into it was, "Man, I bet this would be insane if I froze it." It's identical to a Thin Mint cookie. It had the right amount of minty coolness on the palate and a sweet, salty dark chocolate cookie middle and coating, like a Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer. Fantastic and clever.
I was surprised that Nestle was able to make these so well-balanced without overwhelming the palate with sugar. I mean, a Girl Scout Cookie Crunch Bar Sandwich sounds like something you'd come up with at 2AM because you don't want to order take-out. Mint, peanut butter, and coconut are not new flavors, but these were executed and marketed in a way that really tied them to a familiar brand. Kudos for this collaboration- I'm always saying how more companies should band together, and this is a wonderful example of how amazing it is when they do.
Labels: 10, candy, chocolate, snack
