Nestlé Baby Ruth
This American import was sent to us by HandyCandy. It describes itself as “Bursting with peanuts, rich caramel and chewy nougat” – which sounds a little familiar – and also informs me that it’s the “Official Candy Bar of Major League Baseball“.
I’m not sure why baseball needs an official candy bar, but luckily I’m the Official Candy Bar Eater of My House, so I think I should be OK to review it.
First impressions: nobbly.
It actually looks a lot more like a Cadbury Picnic than the Snickers-type bar I’d expected. The surface is covered in whole peanuts, which leads me to believe they are trying to escape for some reason.
Inside, there’s a fairly big ‘slab’ of sticky goo, and I can’t quite work out if that’s meant to be the caramel, the nougat, or if they’ve been mixed up into some weird carougat / nougamel concoction.
Taste-wise.. it’s interesting. It’s very sweet and that weird sticky goo in the centre has a foamy texture that feels like you’re eating half-melted polystyrene. But all those peanuts do help give it some flavour and texture, and it’s one of those things that grows on you – I quickly polished off the whole bar and promptly felt ashamed for having enjoyed something so very average.
As for the chocolate.. well, you can’t taste it at all. All the sugar and peanuts overwhelm any flavour that was there. As far as I can tell it’s just there to stop the peanuts falling on the floor anyway.
This is definitely a candy bar rather than a chocolate bar – but I don’t think anyone buying it is going to expect anything else. I had very low expectations of it, and I’m happy to report that Baby Ruth lived up to them quite adequately.
Looks a bit like the result of a Picnic and a Chokito getting it on 😉
Hey, that’s the bar that the kid gave to the giant deformed creature in “The Goonies”! Does anyone remember this film?
Of course… everyone remembers The Goonies…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhm0uG1JUz4
Product placement at its finest. 🙂
Hay! Watch how you talk about my favorite candy bar of all time. It may not be Godiva, but there’s no other flavor like it and nothing better for comfort food.
The Goonies is the very reason i love baby ruths… the 1st time i went to the states it was the best thing in the world to be able to buy the famous baby ruths! the ‘oh henry’ bars in canada are very similar also…
“I can’t quite work out if that’s meant to be the caramel, the nougat, or if they’ve been mixed up into some weird carougat / nougamel concoction.”
I’m not sure what it is now, but it used to be nougat: stiff,
white, almost overpoweringly sweet nougat. They reformulated it in 2001.
see http://bitguru.wordpress.com/2007/04/22/so-long-baby-ruth/
It had probably been reformulated a few other times since 1920.