This is perhaps the most classic chocolate bar from my childhood. It has long been my favourite as a kid and I sort of have to say it still is so as not to feel as if I have disowned it (sorry Mars Bar but I have found other favourites - I still love you though!).
'A Mars a day helps you work rest and play' - this was the little catchphrase that was associated with Mars Bar. Funny really; it's like saying a chocolate bar a day is good for you. The slogan has now changed to 'Pleasure you can't measure' which definitely seems more appropriate. A standard Mars bar comes at 58g, about 11cm long and 1.8cm high. You'll pay about 32p for this bar in supermarkets which is well below the norm of 50p. They used to be more expensive but in recent years, the classic nougat and caramel filling has obviously lost its appeal as new and more exciting chocolate bars have been released onto the market.
The Mars packaging
as remained faithful to its classic black wrapper and the red 'Mars' font with gold outline. However, the font used to be italic 'Times new Roman' with an underline but this changed to a more 'comic sans' child like writing and the removal of the underline when the nougat centre became lighter like that of a Milky Way chocolate centre. Curse you Mars!
According to the wrapper, this bar is free from Artifical colours, flavourings and perservatives. Hmm; at 259kcal and 10.1g of fat per bar this diesn't really make it any healthier for us. Subject to recent criticism, the Mars Bar is now suitable for vegetarians.
Okay, on picking up the bar it's fairly heavy; just an average lump of chocolate. I can smell the chocolate faintly through the wrapper but I'll get to this in a minute. The Mars Bar consists of three components:
1. The chocolate: Light brown, this covers the entire bar. The top has a thicker, rippled pattern to it marking little diamond shapes. The edges of the bar are smooth and thinner and the bottom is imprinted with little fancy squigles. Mars Chocolate has its own unique taste. It isn't creamy and doesn't melt quickly in your mouth; it requires chewing first to relase the sweet coco flavour (or by dipping it in tea first!). It's not the best tasting chocolate which is proberly why Mars have never introduced a plain block of it's own chocolate (like Cadbury with the Dairy Milk bar or Nestle with the Yorkie Bar). I like to bite of the chocolate edges so that I can appreciate the flavour without it being dominated by the other components.
2. The caramel: Golden and sweet, this is the 'thick, chewy, stretchy' type of caramel as opposed to the velvety soft in a Cadbury DM or Galaxy Caramel. It requires a bit of chewing but when eaten with the chocolate top, the chocolate melts to help soften it - then it dissolves nicely in your mouth, requiring none of it to be picked out from your teeth.
3. The Nougat- This is a pale brown colour though darker than the snickers and milky way nougat centres. It used to be denser but is now slightly fluffy and light like the Milky way. It has a distict malty taste, similar to a Horlicks drink so it may not be to everyone's taste. However, the softness of the texture accompanies the chewy caramel perfectly. It dissolves in your mouth, leaving a sweet kick from the caramel and the subtle malty chocolate.There are many variations in the MARS range:
Mars Mini/ Celebrations - really cute tiny Mars Bars
Mars Delight - A complete change from the original and I have to admit, it pips the classic for me. Smooth chocolate, crisp wafer, soft caramel and creamy centre. Nope I'm not practising an ad campain - this is what it is and simply DIVINE.
Mars Ice cream - Absoutley delicious. The caramel is really soft and sweet adding flavour to the vanilla ice cream and creamy milk chocolate
Mars Planets - These are basically balls with either a caramel, nougat or crispy filling. Stick the whole pack in your mouth (you don't get many) and you've bascially got yourself a crispier Mars Bar. Nothing special in my opinion
Advantages: Tastes ok Disadvantages: Too sugary, probably a disgusting amount of calories, limited edition so if you like them you're going to be disappointed one day
Jun 7th, 2009
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