There are few things that are so awesomely paired as chocolate and peanut butter. I sometimes wonder how it became a match made in heaven. If you go on youtube and search Reese’s PB cups, you will find a variety of commercials depicting a couple scenarios. I can’t decide which is my favorite, the guy on the spaceship eating a chocolate bar and bumping into the robot eating a can of peanut butter or the night at the opera where the male singer holding a tub of peanut butter falls onto the female singer with a chocolate bar.
However it happened, the candy world is a better place because of it.
The only other version of Reese’s I could find was in the miniature version and made by palmer. I think Russell Stover makes them too but only as sugar-free.
Reese’s:
These had a very smooth texture and familiar chocolate taste. I know everyone has their own recipe but for what it is (mass produced product) there is something about Hershey chocolate that is usually pretty good- although I have had the occasional below-par Hershey’s item The peanut butter is the star of the show. Ethan described the chocolate as just being a vehicle for the peanut butter. This PB is sweet, but not too sweet and just the right amount of salt. That, with just the right amount of chocolate makes these a perfect two-bite treat.
Palmer:
These were okay. The chocolate was better than I expected, although a little harder. It wasn’t exact but I thought similar enough to Reese’s to give Palmer some props. I thought the peanut butter was pretty decent, it did seem a little drier than Reese’s though. Ethan felt it had a bit of a burnt taste that was similar to the terrible Mrs. Freshly’s Nutty Buddy bars. I agreed it did have a hint of burnt but I really didn’t mind these.
Wrap up:
I have to say Reese’s knows what they’re doing. These have a perfect ratio of chocolate to peanut butter and more times than not, the peanut butter is deliciously moist and the chocolate has just enough softness to compliment the PB texture. Ethan would definitely go with Reese’s and probably given a choice, I would too. I feel it’s worth pointing out that Palmer does satisfy the chocolate and peanut butter craving pretty well. It’s like Joan to John Cusack, maybe, I don’t know. Plus Palmer’s were only $1 at Dollar Tree so sometimes knowing you got a bargain makes things taste better too.
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Someone said this was “visually fresher”. We found the sauce to be more flavorful and was described as “zesty”. It was also noted that the bread was thicker than Stouffer’s and seemed to be a little off on the bread-to-topping ratio. I think it was Ethan who said it “Keeps it character and integrity” which I’m not exactly sure what he meant but he can comment and explain if need be : )
Okay, so they didn’t smell great. I wasn’t expecting them to smell good either, but for all the horror they induced with Becca and Brendan, these were pretty uneventful.
Ethan has not been a fan of Peeps in the past but he thought these were better than what he remembered them tasting like. He liked how they dissolved and thought they didn’t taste too sugary. I liked the light texture and bounciness of the marshmallow but always find chewing right into sugar crystals a bit too intense. They seemed to lack any real flavor but Ethan said he liked the subtle marshmallow taste.
These were more dense with an orange color marshmallow. I felt that these had a taste that was so familiar but could not put my finger on it. Ethan thought they had an orangey flavor and that they were like a giant cereal marshmallow, but soft. I didn’t mind these in general but it did bother me that I could not say what they tasted like.
Ruffles have a nice, light texture and a good amount of salt. These were strong enough to confidently scoop up dip. They were kind of greasy but then again it IS a potato chip. One thing we noticed was they kind of didn’t taste like anything. If someone told me these were made of paper, I might believe it.
Ridgies were more browned and had a good solid crunch. They were a little thicker in texture, Ethan felt they were a little too hard. These were less salty than Ruffles but had much more potato flavor, which to me made a huge difference. I found myself enjoying these more because of that but Ethan wasn’t too impressed.
We noted the pleasant vanilla aroma right from opening the bag. These have a soft crunch and a couple of co-workers noted that these “melt in the mouth”. These were a little too delicate for dunking but I liked to take a bite and drink some milk and let it dissolve that way. One co-worker described these as “too soft”. It seemed everyone agreed that these had very good vanilla flavor which Ethan said was “very inoffensive” (?) Another comment from work was “You think of Nilla when you think of wafers!”
These had a much rougher texture. They felt dryer just by touching them and had a very loud crunch when bitten into and it crumbled into hard pieces. This cookie did not absorb milk well at all. The vanilla flavor was too strong and artificial. Ethan described these wafers as the bottom of a soft serve cone with vanilla ice cream in the grid at the bottom, which is good but does not work as a cookie. 
This dip is very creamy, the onion flavor has a slight toastiness to it. It even had a bit of a toasty beige color. There is a nice subtle tang and Ethan says it has just enough sweetness. He also said the mild taste and creaminess are really the features that make this “just good”.
I don’t know if they’ve changed their recipe or something but I found myself liking this a lot. It definitely had much more of a sour cream taste and found it to be “fresh” tasting. The texture seemed lighter and still maintained a creamy quality. Ethan didn’t like the sourness and refused to say anything nice about it.
These had a very cheesy smell when we opened the bag, which is always nice – especially when the product claims to be made with real cheese. It’s worth noting though that the scent of cheese was stronger than the actual taste of cheese. The Doodle had a satisfying crunch and a light and airy texture. One of the most important features in a product like this is “meltability” which is when the puff nicely compresses as the tongue smooshes it against the roof of the mouth. Ethan and I both agreed it excelled in meltability.
These did not have as strong a cheese scent when we opened the bag. The outside texture is somewhat crustier but the over all taste is slightly buttery, which is always a welcomed flavor ? The cheese flavor was okay, I think slightly better because of the butter undertone but other than that, not much different. These were also more dense than Doodles and that did have an effect on it’s meltability – they were harder to compress in the mouth.
When we peeled back the lid, the first thing we noticed was the pleasant chocolate aroma. The consistency was perfect although Ethan and I both noticed a very slight powderyness when eating this. The chocolate flavor was pretty decent although the vanilla didn’t seem to taste like anything. It could just be that chocolate has a stronger flavor and took over the vanilla. In general, this was a pretty good pudding.
We felt this had an even stronger chocolate aroma. The consistency was smoother than Jell-O’s, and although I’m sure it was, left no reason to be reminded it was made from powder.
The very first thing we noticed was the flavor of the chocolate. We were really impressed with the velvety texture and strong milk chocolate taste. The ice cream was very smooth and creamy and provided what I thought was a “soft bite”, which I guess I can’t really describe but would be like the opposite of stale, freezer burnt ice cream. Ethan said he could taste more chocolate than ice cream in every bite but that wasn’t a bad thing since the chocolate was so good.
With Klondike, the first thing we both noticed was the coffee undertone of the chocolate, which was also a thinner coating. This was familiar to me from my past experiences, but compared to the Eskimo Pie it seemed to be out of place. The ice cream was not as creamy and almost seemed watery in comparison to E Pie’s rich and smooth ice cream.