This is Not a Chocolate Sundae
Last month I lamented the loss of the Crispy Cat Roasted Peanut Candy Bar, which was discontinued by NuGo, the company that assumed production and distribution of Crispy Cat bars this year. I also mentioned that they developed the Crispy Cat Chocolate Sundae bar as an alternative.
I can tell you today in no uncertain terms that the Chocolate Sundae bar is no alternative. It appears that what NuGo did was to take the NuGo bar formula and made it a bit thicker and a lot sweeter. A whole lot sweeter. And we’re not talking sweeter in a good way. This is a kind of mildly vanilla-y, artificial marshmallow-y why would I waste the calories on this kind of sweeter. (Granted, there’s nothing “natural” tasting about marshmallows, but this is going overboard, way overboard.)
“Bring back your memories of all those chocolate sundaes you used to have as a kid. You will be able to close your eyes and taste the ice cream loaded with marshmallow topping and delicious dark chocolate.” So reads the description of the Chocolate Sundae Bar on the Crispy Cat website. WHAT??? The person who wrote that must have had one messed up childhood if this bar resembles their memory of a chocolate sundae. Here’s a more accurate description: A chocolate covered attempt at an overly sweetened rice crispy treat developed in a lab by some unfortunate soul who has never tasted a chocolate sundae. What other explanation could there be for this bar?
So the story is a familiar one: Small company makes great product, product becomes wildly successful, big company buys small company, big company changes successful formula, customers are disappointed and stop buying product. We’ve seen it happen before and this probably won’t be the last time. I can only hope that Joel Schantz, founder of Tree Huggin’ Treats and creator of the original Crispy Cat, made a bundle when NuGo took over his company. Hopefully he’s in a kitchen somewhere working on the next great vegan candy bar, because his last one is merely a happy memory and the bars that now bear the Crispy Cat label are a travesty of the original.
NuGo
nugonutrition.com
Taste:
Junk Quotient:
please be assured that joel did not get one penny from nugo. he still owns *crispy cat*. it was either license the company out to nugo and give them permission to produce and sell the product, or close the doors completely. joel has had to get another job to support his family (and pay back debt). nugo is working on improving the taste and texture but something had to be created immediately or cripsy cat would have lost shelf space, which is impossible to get back. things aren’t as black and white as they may seem to the consumer.
please be patient with nugo and try again in 6 months. thanks so much for your love for crispy cats, even if it has lessened a bit.