NEW! Magnum Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar (B&M)

Last week I found and reviewed a new chocolate bar from ice cream king Magnum, and I said at the time that I wouldn't be in a hurry to bother tracking one down again. That was until I saw a photo on Instagram of a peanut butter version. 

Now if you've gathered anything about me by now, you'll realise that I am an avid lover* of both peanut butter and chocolate  -so it was hardly a new product that I could miss out on. So keen was I to try this Magnum chocolate bar, that I persuaded my long-suffering father to take me on a special trip to B&M (via ALDI and Home Bargains of course) because I've just had to SORN my trusty** Landrover.

Luckily he avoided a return trip to the bargain Mecca because I found the Double Peanut Butter Magnum priced at 50p (as well as another peanut butter chocolate bar that I'm rather excited about!) AND he bought them both for me, result! Thanks Daddio!

The product description left me scratching my head, utterly baffled:

"Milk chocolate bar with peanuts and a soft filling (56%) containing caramel, peanuts and crispy crepe pieces."

 Am I being stupid here? What the badger are crepe pieces? Surely this chocolate bar doesn't contain flecks of pancake? It does however, contain gluten. 

The packaging also gave Australian Nutrition Information -which I can't imagine differs all that much from UK Nutrition Information-  and informs me the bar is in fact made in Norfolk -weird.

Anyway, I couldn't help but feel slightly put out by the size of the bar. Granted, most of us are convinced that all snacks are shrinking (and most of the time they are, especially the new Magnum this bar is based on) but this seemed ridiculously small. I apologise for the unsightly finger photo, but I just wanted to give you a true indication of its size.

The bar weighs in at 39g: 6g less than the new M&S peanut butter bar (which I also thought was small) 9g less than a Snickers and a whopping 10g less than Cadbury's Starbar. Let's hope the taste made up for its size -after all they say the best things come in small packages!

Once sliced into, all of the components (except for the crepe pieces) became evident. In the centre of the bar was a fudge-like substance studded with peanuts. Surrounding this was a layer of caramel, finally enrobed by a thin layer of chocolate.

The combination of flavours and textures worked well together and the saltiness of the peanuts helped to counteract the sweetness -my main fault with the double chocolate version. If you've ever eaten a Magnum Ice cream, you'll know what to expect from the milk chocolate. As with the double peanut butter Magnum ice cream, the nut flavour wasn't as prominent as I would have liked -but it was still pleasant. The crepe pieces (!) added crunch and sweetness in a honeycomb-like way, and the caramel was pretty standard (although there wasn't enough of it to determine whether it was salted or not). 

The main problem was that after -very- few mouthfuls the bar was gone. 

The new Magnum Double Peanut Butter chocolate bar is much tastier than the sickly Double Chocolate version, but it's far from the best on the market.

8/10

*read obsessive. 

**read leaky, noisy, pain-in-the-bum but I love it.