New from Keebler are Jumbo versions of its Fudge Shoppe Fudge Sticks and Peanut Butter Sticks -- "fudge"-covered wafer cookies. Where there are 24 of the original-size sticks in an 8.5-ounce bag, there are only six individually wrapped Jumbo Fudge Sticks or Jumbo Peanut Butter Sticks in a 6.6-ounce box, so each of the Jumbo versions -- at 1.1 ounces -- is a little more than three times the size of the .35-ounce original cookie.
From the moment he spied the Jumbo Peanut Butter Sticks, Mr. Tidbit knew that a comparison with Little Debbie Nutty Bars (which his alter ego, Uncle Al, often suggested as a more-easily pictured substitute international standard for the foot and the meter) was inevitable. So here it is:
The Keebler item is covered with a slightly thicker fudge coating than the almost translucent enrobing of the Little Debbie bar, but neither coating is particularly flavorful. The depth of peanut butter flavor might be slightly more pronounced in the Little Debbie item.
A more significant difference between the two bars is texture. Where the Little Debbie bar is distinctly crisp -- almost crackly -- the Keebler item's crispness is more subdued. If you can tolerate such fine distinctions, Mr. Tidbit would call it crispy rather than crisp.
The biggest difference, however, is the price. You get 12 (1-ounce) Little Debbie Nutty Bars in a box for $1.49; that's 12.4 cents per ounce. You get six (1.1-ounce) Jumbo Peanut Butter Fudge Sticks in a box for $3.49. That's 52.9 cents an ounce, more than four times as much. (Of course it's also more than the 41 cents an ounce for the original size Fudge Sticks.)
New again New, sort of, from Mars, is Snickers Peanut Butter Squared, a peanut butter version of the Snickers bar in two little squares -- really, cubes -- instead of one bar. And that's all that's new. Mr. Tidbit checked his voluminous (well, actually, megabitinous) files and found that we have had peanut butter Snickers bars on and off since 1990.
AL SICHERMAN
