More Peanut Butter

Yesterday, I wrote about the 5th Avenue Bar, Hershey's entrant in the chocolate-covered peanut butter crunch bar sweepstakes. Today, let's talk about the Clark Bar, which is the same basic idea as 5th Avenue and Butterfinger. It was first made by the DL Clark Candy Company in the early 20th Century (I haven't found an exact date, although the Necco website says that the bar was in existence by the time the US entered World War I in 1917), which continued to be family-owned until it was sold to Beatrice Foods in 1955. The brand was sold again to Leaf in 1983, then to the Pittsburgh Food and Beverage Company in 1995, and finally to the New England Confectionery Company (Necco) in 1999. 5th Avenue was created in 1936, and Wikipedia says that Butterfinger was created in 1923, so I guess that makes Clark the original (or at least the oldest still extant) variation on the chocolate-covered peanut butter crunch theme. When writing about 5th Avenue, I said that I disliked the heavy consistency of the peanut butter crunch in Butterfinger bars, which tends to collect in the valleys of my molars. I much prefer the lighter texture of the filling in 5th Avenue bars, and it turns out that the filling in Clark bars is similar. Very tasty.

Fifth Avenue

The 5th Avenue bar was created in 1936 by the Luden Candy Company. In its original configuration, it had a crunchy peanut butter-flavored center topped by three or four almonds, covered with milk chocolate. Luden passed through a number of corporate hands over the years, eventually being purchased by Hershey Foods in 1986. Hershey promptly dumped the almonds, and the 5th Avenue bar assumed its present configuration. It's generally regarded as a Butterfinger clone and also-ran (along with the Clark bar, also consisting of a crunchy peanut butter-flavored center coated in milk chocolate, produced by the New England Confectionery Company), but this isn't accurate. It may be an also-ran, since Butterfinger has a much higher profile and apparently sells much better than 5th Avenue; but it's certainly not a clone. The crunchy peanut butter-flavored center in the 5th Avenue bar is lighter and less likely to get stuck in the low points of one's molars than is the center of the Butterfinger, and I think that the flavor is better. Next time you have a hankering for a Butterfinger, try a 5th Avenue instead.

The Iniquity of Today's Youth

When Big E arrived back home Wednesday night after Trick Or Treating and was sorting his haul, I asked him for a packet of Smarties because Smarties, as everyone knows, are the world's perfect Halloween candy. "What are Smarties?" he asked. I pointed them out to him; and he said, "Here, take them all. I don't like them anyway." Can you believe it? A child so depraved that not only does he not know what Smarties are but also doesn't like them? Mamacita, what have you done to this boy?