The Good: Good taste, Intriguing concept
The Bad: Comparatively pricey, Not the most robust flavorings,
The Basics: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles remain one of the most intriguing flavors for a salty snack ever made and are still worth enjoying!
Not very long ago, my wife and I were out in a place neither of us had been. We were there because my wife has picked up some modeling work and we arrived early for her first professional photo shoot. While we waited, we wandered at a convenience store and, as I had left the house hungry in order to keep up with her, I was instantly intrigued upon seeing the Bugles Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweet & Salty snacks.
I used to love Bugles corn snacks as a kid and having never seen the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor (or, indeed any of their “Sweet & Salty” line) before now, I was eager to try this new-to-me snack. While they hit the spot that day, upon further sampling, I have found the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles are hardly audacious or even particularly interesting.
Basics
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles, for those who are not familiar with them, are baked corn snacks in the shapes little cornucopias. General Mills has marketed their Bugles corn snack line as an alternative to potato chips, crackers and tortilla chips. They have slowly built up flavors beyond their original Bugles corn snacks. The Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles feature a heavy dusting of chocolate and peanut butter dust that coats the entire snack. Most of the Bugles in our bag were collapsed as if the process of making them more like Moose Munch made them flaccid. These snacks were still crispy, but not like standard Bugles and the result is a little unnerving for those looking for more of a salty snack than a sweet one.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles come in various sizes, but always in a bag. The standard size bag that I have found is 3.25 oz. The chips are conical and approximately 1 3/4" by 3/4" at the wide end. Most of them are slightly curved.
Ease Of Preparation
Bugles Chocolate Peanut Butter are simple to enjoy; all you need do it open the bag and remove the snacks from it! There is no trick to eating Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.
Taste
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles smell overwhelmingly like peanut butter. The nutty smell of these corn snacks completely overwhelms any aroma of chocolate or corn that is present in the bag. This prepares the consumer for a very sweet and potentially nutty flavor.
The anticipation of something nutty is not at all met, while the sweetness of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles is not at all exaggerated by the scent. The sweetness is the dominant component of the flavor. What the aroma does prepare the consumer for is the way these treats are frequently dominated by the peanut butter aspect of the coating. While initially the flavor might be a light cocoa flavor that is almost too sweet to make the chocolate recognizable, the aftertaste is distinctly that of a sweet peanut butter. The Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles never really reaches the full flavor potential of either the chocolate or peanut butter flavor.
As for the usual corn flavor of the Bugle corn snack, that flavor only really seems to come out with the crumbs or as an aftertaste on the few undercoated “chips.”
Nutrition
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles are a mostly natural snack, though they do have several preservatives that make the last half of the ingredients list read like a science experiment. Given that the primary ingredients are degermed yellow corn meal, coconut oil and dextrose, it is no surprise that these snacks are high in carbs. These have a shelf life of approximately one year, so it's not a bad snack to stock up on.
Each 2/3 cup serving of Bugles Chocolate Peanut Butter has 170 calories, eighty of which come from fat. There is less than a gram of dietary fiber, which is a nutrient that promotes heart health. While there are 9 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein, there is 150 mg of sodium, which represents 6% of one's RDA of sodium. There is not even a smattering of Calcium, Iron or any vitamins. There is a dietary note that the Chocolate Peanut Butter includes peanut, soy, wheat, and milk ingredients, which prevents them from being Vegan compliant at the very least.
Storage/Clean-up
Kept in their bag, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles will remain fresh for a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last for a few weeks before getting stale. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles.
Cleanup is simple as well. Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Because they are very flavored, though, it is entirely probable that they will leave chocolate peanut butter powder on one’s hands. Simply wash your hands, throw out the bag and cleanup is done!
Overall
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles are a good snack, but not one of the indispensible snacks I have experienced. The flavor is good, but not truly exceptional. Even so, I would offer a faint recommendation that people try them; at the very least, they are an intriguing snack flavor.
For other snack foods, check out my reviews of:
Cheez-It Colby Snacks
WhoNu? Soft & Chewy Nutrition Rich Cookies
Planters Flavor Grove Vanilla and Caramel Almonds
5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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