Good afternoon, ladies and gents,

The wait is over. I have to apologize for the time in between my last post and this one. Although I surely have the best blog topic imaginable, there is a degree of “prep” involved in doing these reviews. By prep, I am referring to hurriedly driving to Target every weekend for a good, sizable haul of snacks to review. Not just any snacks either, only the good stuff. I know what you guys are looking for.

School has been busy, and the timing just wasn’t right until this past weekend. I digress, I am now fully in the swing of things, and I have quite an impressive assortment of snacks to stuff my face with now. Interested? Read on.

First Review: The “Take 5” Bar

Overview

We’ve got to start this review train with a criminally underrated candy bar. Ask anyone what their favorite candy bar is–I guarantee that you’ll get some mixture of Snickers, Twix, Butterfinger, and Reese cups. Maybe 3 Musketeers if they’ve lost their taste buds. The Take 5 is like your zany hipster aunt who flies in from Portland every so often for family events. You love her, but you don’t see each other much. You don’t call her as much as you’d like, so sometimes she’s lost in the fold.

The Take 5 is no different. It doesn’t have the same “oomph” or presence that other candy bars do. It won’t beckon you on the shelf like a Snickers or Twix will, but boy it is a gem. You won’t find it at every grocery store, but when you do see it, you’ve gotta go for it. Let’s get to the review.

Take 5 Review:

To kick off every review, it is only right to begin with a basic overview of the product: packaging, core ingredients, and the like. The Take 5 implements all of these things beautifully, with a nice all-black wrapper featuring peanuts, peanut butter, pretzels, and milk chocolate on the front. It is described as a “5 layer bar” including (as you might expect) milk chocolate, pretzels, peanut butter, caramel, and peanuts inside. Below is a picture of the packaging.

 

Stunning. Here is how the actual bars themselves look once opened:

Pretty… chunky? The bars themselves aren’t very large at all. Very unique texture on the outside. With all of that being said, how does it taste?

Well, pretty darn good! Upon first bite, you are hit with the saltiness of the pretzels immediately, which slowly soothes into the rich milk chocolate flavor. This is not a fake, processed milk chocolate taste either; for a mass produced candy bar, the chocolate has a very nice and rich taste/thickness. Almost creamy in nature, it just kind of melts in your mouth. Meanwhile, the pretzels add a really satisfying crunch to the bar, and it’s always nice to see when they don’t skimp; these candy bars are LOADED with pretzels. That contrast in flavor continues with every bite you take.

Toward the back end of your bite, the caramel and the peanuts/peanut butter create a similar contrast. The silky texture of the peanut butter and caramel combine, which hold the peanuts gently in their candy bar marriage. Between the peanuts AND the peanut butter, they definitely are the dominant flavor that you get by the time you chew it down, but in spite of that, you can still detect the dash of caramel with its stringy texture. It all comes together masterfully, with an equal blend of ingredients overall. Perhaps my only gripe about the candy bar is how the caramel is largely overwhelmed by the other flavor profiles. If somehow the caramel could become more of a factor, this candy bar would be an easy 5 out of 5 for me.

The Verdict

This is a hard one for me to rate. The Take 5 does so much well, with so few errors. It has infuriated me over the years that no one talks about these as being some of the best candy bars around. Really tasty and one of the few bars that combines sweet and salty well in my opinion.

For really giving the entire package jammed into one bar, I’ve gotta give credit where it’s due. The Take 5 bar gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars  from me. The only knock I have is that I wish they would incorporate the caramel more meaningfully. Don’t forget about the caramel!! THE CARAMEL!

I hope you enjoyed this review. There will be plenty more where that came from. Stay tuned for more snack reviews on Chief Eats.

Join the movement. Take 5 all day buddy.

-thechiefeats

P.S: Health conscious? Below is the nutritional info for the Take 5 bar: