Candy Review: NutJob chocolate bar

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - by Mariko

I love the word “nutjob,” so when I learned there is a candy bar called NutJob, my hopes were high. NutJobs are manufactured by Bartons Candy, a candy company that was founded in 1898 in Vienna and then moved to the United States around 1938. The packaging of the NutJob chocolate bar is rather appealing and loud – there are some rock star cartoon peanut characters on the bright, metallic blue wrapper, and the text is pretty enticing as well: “Delicious double chocolate, creamy caramel … loaded with peanuts!” Doesn’t that sound tasty?

I was really hoping to like the NutJob bar, but it is far from delicious. When you hear the words “chocolate,” “peanuts,” and “caramel,” what springs to mind? For me, it’s a Snickers. This NutJob bar tastes nothing like a Snickers. First, the milk chocolate exterior is waxy and bland, with little resemblance to actual chocolate. The “loaded with peanuts” part? I could see peanuts, but I certainly couldn’t taste them. And the caramel? I could see that, too, but again, the whole bar tasted like it was somewhat rancid. It seemed to have nougat in it, but it was hard to tell, since everything was blended together. To me, the NutJob tasted like it was made with cheap, substandard ingredients.

So, I am clearly not a big fan of the NutJob, but as I was getting ready to throw it away, my husband asked if he could taste it. I advised him against it, but he decided he wanted to try it anyway, and guess what? He kind of liked it. Go figure.

• Bartons Candy Website