Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Caramel - Walmart

Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Caramel - Walmart $1.34

The advertising behind these new Cookie Layer Crunch bars was...excessive. Hershey's posted these bold, hyped up, teaser images on their social media accounts acting like they had revolutionized the candy bar and that something big and possibly life changing was coming in December of 2016. In reality, their big reveal had been spoiled by stealthy food finder, CandyHunting, LAST APRIL. Whoops. Guess someone let the cat out of the bag.

So the big to-do was that Hershey's was going to release new Cookie Layer Crunch bars, and they were going to come in three flavors: caramel, vanilla creme, and mint. I like candy as much as the next food blogger, heck, I used to do a podcast all about candy with CandyHunting and Cybele from CandyBlog (FYI I really miss doing that), but I just..don't get it. I don't get the hype behind this product and I don't see what makes it different from tons of other (possibly better) candy-bars that already exsist. I was curious, but not curious enough to really hunt one of these candy-bars down. I do have a giant food hoard at home that I'm trying to whittle down, so I waited until I happened upon this bar chance (at a Walmart checkout) to give it a shot.

Hershey's are you going to prove me wrong? Will this blow my blogging mind? Let's find out!

I like this bold and simplistic text-heavy design. It's similar to the traditional Hershey's bar packaging, so it fits in with the rest of the branded items, while still looking rather crisp and modern. The plastic packaging feels cheap, but that's how Hershey products roll these days.

Inside are 3 chunky blocks of chocolate, each broken up into rectangular rectangular segments. They feel pretty hefty in-hand, thanks to all the fillings and mix-in's, and they smell...like Hershey's chocolate. Very sweet, milky, and bitter from the cocoa powder.

I tried following the little indentation guides to break this up and managed to get some really lovely caramel pull-shots. I may not have been wowed by the product announcement, but I am pretty impressed by the visual appeal of this product. I barely put any effort in and I got some really awesome shots, so kudos to Hershey's!

Looks aside, I took a bite, and it was good, but my mind certainly wasn't blown and I didn't find the product to be revolutionary like the company had hyped it up to be. You get sweet Hershey's chocolate, a soft ice cream topping-like caramel, and crunchy cookie bits. It reminds me of a crunchier version of the 100 Grand bar, or a Lion bar, which I like, but really...it's not all that different from other caramel crisp bars that are already out there. Off the top of my head, there's Lion, 100 Grand, Crunch bars with Caramel, Twix...they're all the same thing, but with a slightly different format. Instead of krispy cereal pieces, or a solid cookie layer, we've got cookie bits. That isn't revolutionary.

So yes, this tastes good, but I honestly don't think it's any better than what's already on the market. I like that Hershey's is trying to change things up, and wants to offer us something new, but this isn't new.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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