Of course I didn’t realise Mars owns Milky Way until after I bought these but when I’m in the store and I see something worthy of comparison I just buy it and look it up when I get home. Besides, there’s a reason a company produces similar products, and since this blog is about figuring out which one may be the better purchase, we went ahead with the evaluation. For those who may not know, Milky Way and Mars are fluffy nougat topped with caramel and then coated in chocolate. Mars is basically the European version of Milky Way and can easily be found in the British food section of any Stop & Shop here in New England, and I would bet it’s worth a shot looking for it in any major super market around the country.
Milky Way:
I noted that this smelled very cocoa-ey, which is always nice that chocolate smells like chocolate. This was more dense than I remember it being and I’m not sure if I liked that so much. Ethan thought the flavor was good and didn’t mind the density and said after it warms up in your mouth for a little bit it’s ok. We both thought the chocolate coating was a bit hard but the nougat-caramel-chocolate ratio was proportioned correctly.
Mars:
I liked this because it had a cleaner cut, which I know doesn’t matter for taste but it appealed to me somehow. I also liked that this was a softer bar. The chocolate, caramel and nougat yielded to the bite very nicely and didn’t have that heaviness that Milky Way has.
Ethan felt there was a “nutty” flavor in this that he didn’t really care for and for that reason he didn’t like it as much
Wrap up:
I would take Mars over Milky Way anytime because of it’s softness and light texture. Ethan didn’t mind the density of Milky Way and wasn’t a fan of the nutty flavor he detected in Mars. I didn’t taste anything like that in Mars that but I guess we just have different palettes. SO even though these are both under the same company, they are different enough that one could easily be preferred over the other.
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In Australia, Milky Way is for kids, and it comes in a smaller portion. It also doesn’t have caramel inside, so i was surprised that you compared it with Mars, but your Milky Way is different to ours. We also have Milky Way “Whip”, “Banana”, and “Strawberry” flavours. I would personally take Milky Way without caramel, as i’m not much a fan of Mars Bars.
Milky Way in Australia is like an American “3 Musketeers” bar. I can get those in Japan, but neither of the U.S. bars mentioned in this post. The small Australian Milky Ways are nice and good portion control.
Personally, I’ve always regarding the U.S. Milky Way as the poor man’s Snickers. I’d always take the bar with nuts (and I can get Snickers in Japan!).
I wonder if they have reverted the Milky Way , because they got real big and fluffy for a while. Sounds like they’rew back to the earlier denser version.
Orchid, I completely agree with you about Snickers. When I was a kid I loved Milky Way, then I tried Snickers and never looked back. Too bad they’re just different enough to not be able to compare here.
Sweet Pursuit, you said what i was going to say… i’m from New Zealand, and at first i was like what? milky way and MARs??? thats not the same thing, till i saw the cross section… milky way here has colourful (yes thats right the word colour has a U in it) packaging with little stars… but mars is more or less grownup… i personally like it with out the caramel, these are my faves but i’ve never had a 3 musketeer to compare to… and i don’t get peanuts in my choc… so i hate snickers (wtf, savory and sweet?! and i can say the same for popcorn and peanuts, and pineapple on pizza)
in canada we have mars & snickers, but i’ve never seen milky way here. it may be available somewhere, but i haven’t ever come across it…
I’m from Canada, and we have Mars in the black packaging as shown above. The Effem plant in Newmarket, Ontario makes both Mars and Milky Way bars, but the Milky Ways are made only for the US market; they get shipped over the border before we can get any. ? I’d eat either.
I like snickers, and picnic, do you get them over there? Picnic is like kit kat with nuts.
I’m not a huge fan of mars bars. I guess it’s the caramel.
Milky Way is the superior chocolate candy bar.
Mars bars suck. Go back to the UK, stupid.
IMO the real “battle royale” is between Milky Way and 3 Musketeers. Mars bars have their fans but seem to be disappearing from the local scene. To me, the nougat flavor dominates Mars bars unlike M.W. and 3Mus., both of which stress chocolate. I think they pack a lot of chocolate in those bars. Hope it doesn’t make me unAmerican, but I’d rather eat 3 Musketeers than Hershey bars! – al-in-chgo
hey guys, I am from India. I first ate milky bar when I was a kid and my great aunt brought snickers and milky way from USA. I moved to Canada for higher education and ended up trying mars bars here. However, I never was very satisfied with them I always remebered the milky way bars to be much better. So I got some milky way bars when I went down to the US recently and will be doing my own taste test to compare and contrast.
In the uk milky way are also different (as in australia like someone mentioned)
They are smaller and have a much whiter nougat with no caramal and are therefore very diiferent to mars….The american milkyway is something i have never tried but I think it seems boring how their mars and milky way are so similar…
Anyway since I have not tried a US milky way I have to judge based on uk milky ways…so I’d pick the milky way. I hate how they are marketed at kids since thats probably the reason they are so small, but they are popular with adults too I used to get them at my college sweet shop, so I vote milky way!!
And I’d also like to add that UK milky ways actually have THINNER chocolate then mars bars, so they are virtually a different thing altogether when compared to the american one. They should not share the same name…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Milky_way_mixture_European.jpg/800px-Milky_way_mixture_European.jpg
Go to that link to see a uk milky way lol ?
Interesting…I had always thought that Mars bars WERE Milky Way bars since you can’t get Mars bars in the midwest…I’ll have to keep a sharper eye out for them around here.
Mars is better. IMO. I remember shoving about 3 of these things down in the summer of 07. Would have been 4 but my idiot then boyfriend sat on one. YES. He SAT on a Mars bar. WTF? Sacrilege!
I’ve seen Mars Bars and Milky Way here, have only tasted M.K. and hated it. X-P
I like milky way dark much more than regular milky way