The Good: An interesting mix of peanuts and chocolate, High quality, Does not melt easily
The Bad: A bit expensive, More peanut than peanut butter flavored.
The Basics: The Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate Bars are an interesting alternative to sweet treats like Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and are a high quality way to get a chocolate/peanut fix!
As fans of the franchise queue up for the DVD/Blu-Ray release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (reviewed here!), it’s a good idea to bring a snack! Tonight, the snack I’m recommending is the Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bar. Representing Panem District 6 is the “Transportation” Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bar. This chocolate bar is good, but calls to mind an argument I made when reviewing the Lindt Peanut Butter Lindor Truffles (reviewed here!): if you’re going to make something that tastes like a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup, you have to work real hard to justify charging quite a bit more.
The Wild Ophelia Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate Bars do not suffer from that same conceit; they do not attempt to mimic the popular, inexpensive Reese’s/Hershey’s product. Instead, Wild Ophelia makes a distinctive, solid candy bar with minimal peanut butter and more broken up pieces of peanuts. That might make it more like a Mr. Goodbar or a Crunchy Peanut Butter Cup, but the distinction is enough to take note of. Those looking for a blend of chocolate and peanut butter are likely to be more disappointed than those looking for an incredible combination of milk chocolate and peanuts.
Basics
The Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate Bar is a solid milk chocolate bar with peanut chunks embedded in it (visible and felt on the bottom, which is more textured than most of the Wild Ophelia bars) from Wild Ophelia. Each 2 oz. chocolate bar is wrapped in a cardboard wrapper indicating that it is from District 6. Inside the cardboard case is a thick metallic plastic wrapper (with a seam resembling a Pop Tart more than a chocolate bar). The actual chocolate bar is 4 1/2” long by 2 13/16” wide by 1/4” thick. The bar has no identifying marks or logos on it, but it is segmented to make three 1 1/2” wide by 2 13/16” long bars. The top features ribbing that give the bar a very Art Deco look that is identical to all of the other The Hunger Games: Catching Fire bars I was able to find.
The chocolate is not at all waxy, but it is softer than some of the other Wild Ophelia bars. Individually, the bars are found in the $3.99 range, which is expensive, though I found mine on clearance for $2.99. They are expensive compared to other chocolate and peanut candies, though they taste like they are made with better chocolate and real peanuts!
Ease Of Preparation
Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bars are chocolate, not making your own peanut butter with peanuts you’ve grown yourself! Preparing them is as easy as unwrapping the candy bar. Because the chocolate is a premium chocolate product, I recommend eating this a little at a time, not just biting right into the bar.
Taste
The Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate chocolate bar smells delightfully like both sweet chocolate and peanut butter. The Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bars have an aroma that is very natural (the peanuts smell like peanuts, not like the inside of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup – there is a difference!) and the chocolate scent foreshadows the flavor wonderfully.
On the tongue, the flavor of peanuts and peanut butter dominates. The Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate chocolate bar has an instantly nutty flavor, cut by the sweet, rich chocolate flavor of the chocolate coating. Interestingly, the chocolate coating keeps the nut flavor from being overly dry, so these chocolate bars carry a very true peanut and peanut butter flavor, without having a salty or dry aspect to it. This allows the buttery flavor of peanuts to blend with the chocolate flavor in a very organic way, as opposed to having the two flavors competing in the mouth.
The The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bar has a sweet aftertaste that endures on the tongue for about thirty seconds.
Nutrition
Wild Ophelia makes their fine chocolates with quality ingredients, which is arguably why they range in price in the real world and online anywhere from $2.99 - $10/bar! With the primary ingredients being milk chocolate (41% cacao), peanut butter, and dry roasted runner peanuts, the Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bars are a candy bar, not a legitimate source of nutrition needed to survive. Because they use real peanuts they have a little more in the way of calories than some of the other Wild Ophelia bars. Wild Ophelia uses natural ingredients and organic ingredients where possible; none of the ingredients are unpronounceable. In a 1 ounce serving (which is unfortunate because the seams make the bar breakable into thirds, not halves!), there are 160 calories, 100 of which are from fat. This represents 17% of one’s RDA of fat (29% of the RDA of saturated fat). Each bar has 25 mg of Sodium and 3 grams of protein. There is a smattering of Calcium (4% RDA), Iron (10% RDA) and Magnesium (6% RDA), but no other vitamins and minerals. In other words, this is not a snack to try to survive on.
While the bars are all natural with no artificial ingredients and have no preservatives, they do contain soy, peanuts, and milk. As well, there is an allergy warning for tree nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, milk, wheat, and soy. Obviously, with the milk, these The Hunger Games: Catching Fire bars are not Vegan-compliant, though they are Gluten-free.
Storage/Clean-Up
Because the chocolate is soft, as most milk chocolate is, the Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bars are somewhat susceptible to heat. These should be kept cool in order to not melt. As long as they are kept cool and dry, these bars will last almost a year (the one I picked up at the beginning of the week would have lasted until August 26, 2014, had I not consumed it already).
Clean-up is easy, so long as the chocolate does not melt. The Wild Ophelia Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate bars have wrappers that ought to be properly disposed of, but otherwise, the chocolate washes off skin and non-porous surfaces. It the chocolate melts onto fabric, consult a fabric guide.
Overall
The Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate Bar is good and actually fills the consumer up, but it’s not an extraordinary option for the price, making it a slightly tougher sell than some other chocolate and peanut/peanut butter candies.
For other Wild Ophelia The Hunger Games: Catching Fire candy bars, please check out my reviews of:
District 12 Mining Mined Salt And Milk Chocolate Bars
District 5 Power Crispy Crunchy Caramel Corn And Dark Chocolate Bar
District 7 Lumber Smoked Chipotle Chili And Milk Chocolate Bar
District 10 Livestock Beef Jerky & Smoked Mesquite And Milk Chocolate Bars
District 3 Technology Arabica Coffee & Crystal Salt And Dark Chocolate Bars
6.5/10
For more chocolate reviews, please check out my Chocolate Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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