I was surprised recently to find that Walmart sells store brand candy bars. Made in Turkey, generically named and about half the price of the ‘real’ bars, they are versions of Twix, Kit-Kat, 3 Musketeers, Snickers and Milky Way. Naturally we had to try them, and here are our thoughts.
Twix bars have been around since 1967 and are sold in many countries around the world. Considering the real versions, Twix are probably my favorite of the five in this post.
In this post the left photo is the Walmart version, and the right is an official advertising shot of the actual bar. You can see their Twix knockoff is flatter than the original, the cookie biscuit is crispier and the caramel harder and chewier. The chocolate has a slightly ‘cheap’ taste to it – but the upside is the caramel is chewier and the biscuit tasty. Overall it’s very convincing to a real Twix and considering the cost a more than acceptable substitute. Thumbs up from both of us!
Kit Kats are now 88 years old and more widely available worldwide than any other bar in this post. They’ve also been sold in an astonishing amount of flavours: over 300 alone just for Japan! We once watched a documentary about the making of Kit Kats that revealed the wafer is the same as a communion wafer!
I can eat Japanese (plain) Kit Kats until the cows come home but I don’t much like the US versions (since Americans chocolate tastes strange to me). These knockoffs were the least impressive of the five we tried: the ‘wafer’ lacked the filling and the chocolate coating wasn’t consistent. Taste wise they weren’t good: since they’re basically just chocolate the sickly sweet taste was overpowering, and we couldn’t finish them. We both gave this one a thumbs down.
3 Musketeers (known as Milky Way outside of the USA) is so named since when it was launched 92 years ago it had three flavours: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. It’s a brick of soft nougat thinly coated in chocolate and so light and fluffy they float in milk!
This Turkish knockoff was extremely convincing, even down to the swirly design on top of the chocolate. The nougat was notably stiffer than the real version, but this gave it a delicious chewy texture that in some ways is better than the original. Again we were surprised by how much we enjoyed this, and it’s another two thumbs up.
Snickers, named after a horse, was introduced 94 years ago and is now the best selling candy bar in the world. In the USA alone over 400 million are sold annually!
This one was extremely good. As with the Twix knockoff, the caramel was chewier (a good thing) as was the nougat. It had fewer peanuts than a real snickers which may be good or bad to you, but which I liked. The taste was just right, and due to the caramel and nougat texture I think I liked it better than a real snickers! KLS said this was her favourite of the five, and we both give it an easy thumbs up!
Lastly was the Milky Way bar, better known to Ozlings as a Mars bar. This is the oldest candy bar in this post: first sold an astonishing 100 years ago! When I was a youngster Mars bars were a staple of my diet, so I felt particularly suited to judge this knockoff.
Once again the caramel is harder, nougat less fluffy and chocolate thinner than the original, but what’s important is the taste and much like the Snickers knockoff this one delivers! It’s wonderfully chewy and dense, and the caramel and nougat helps offset the slightly unusual chocolate taste. This one is also debatably preferable than the real version and once again got a double thumbs up from us.
In truth, these results were greatly surprising. I had imagined the worst: half price knockoffs from Turkey?!? But Kit Kat aside, these bootleg bars ranged from acceptable to good and in two case arguably better than the originals. Maybe I should see what other knockoff grocery products have made their way into the local shops?
