NEW! Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Bars (Sainsbury's)

Every now and then a supermarket will bring out an own brand product that surpasses every comparative product currently on the market. Take Tesco's Banana Bliss Bars for example, or ALDI's Domio yogurts and HIKE bars. ASDA has produced corkers too, two of which were fabulous peanut butter products. Whilst I was disappointed when the supermarket stopped selling their ingenious chocolate chip peanut butter, I was devastated when they stopped selling their peanut butter granola bars. They were absolutely wonderful little packs, and I even wrote a review on them over a year ago, claiming that they were 'ASDA's best kept secret'. Of course I stocked up on the remaining boxes as soon as I saw that they were reduced to clear, but knew that my stash wouldn't last. I'd already emailed Nature Valley and requested that they produce a peanut butter granola bar, so I was at a loss as to what to do next.

Fortunately, a good 18 months after that email, Nature Valley came up trumps and released a Crunchy Peanut Butter Bar in the UK (the brand has been selling them in the USA for years). The only place I've spotted the boxes thus far is Sainsbury's, although I've patiently waited for them to come on offer (currently £1.50 per box).

"Packed with natural wholegrain oats, real peanuts, and a luscious peanut butter drizzle, Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Bars are the perfect on-the-go snack, which are there for you, whenever you need it most."

As always, each individually wrapped pack contains two biscuits. For info, the peanut butter flavour is lactose free and contains no colours or preservatives.

They looked prettier than the ASDA version with their topping drizzled on -as opposed to a slathering. Given the quality of Nature Valley's other flavours, I was looking forward to tucking in.

The beauty of Nature Valley's Crunchy bars is that whilst they're crispy like a biscuit, they're not hard enough to require the dentist's telephone number close to hand -as perhaps one would with Jordan's or NutriGrain's Oat bars. In fact they're like a lower fat Hobnob really aren't they?

I prepared myself for the incoming salty-sweet hit from my favourite spread, but it never really came. Whilst the bar promises of 'real peanuts', it actually only delivers a measly 2% within its ingredients. As for the peanut butter, it was unfortunately just too sweet. The primary flavour of the biscuits was the honey, which knocked the nutty balance off kilter so much that I was tempted to get my salt grinder from the cupboard to help matters.

The main reason why I love Reese's so much is that they've utterly mastered the harmony of salinity and manage to counteract the sweetness within their products wonderfully. Nature Valley haven't been quite so clever, and although they're new Crunchy Bars are admittedly delicious and moreish, they're not quite as good as ASDA's delisted versions. Boo.

7/10