Peanut butter baby. Don't mean maybe.

I usually approve when candy bar manufacturers try "new twists" on old favorites (big exception: whose bright idea was it to change the recipe to make 3 Musketeers Bars lower in fat, ruining them in the process?). The whole "White Chocolate X" (Kit Kat, Reeses, etc.) trend was a pretty good one (sorry I missed the White Chocolate Take 5 bar in 2005!). But no one has matched -- yet! I challenge you! -- the update Twix bars were given when Mother Industry came up with the Twix PB.



Perfect! Forget the milk chocolate coating on the outside and the still-exciting fact that you get two bars in one package. We're going in. There's peanut butter in there that is just the right density -- a little dry, though moist enough to coat your tongue, but not too crumbly -- and it truly tastes like peanut butter. You also get a chocolate cookie layer (resembling an oreo crust) that is a big upgrade from the old cookie base. The flavor is richer, the sugar less bossy. Peanut butter rules the day.

This variety of Twix is not sold in every bodega or grocery, so if you love them like I do, follow my lead. Whenever I see them for sale I buy two (if it's not melt-the-chocolate-in-your-bag weather in NYC). It's good to have a contingency peanut butter Twix bar on hand.

Speaking of which, they do melt quickly in hot climates. I had to bring this one home and freeze it in order to be able to unwrap and enjoy it this morning:




Hypothetical grump: Did someone think peanut butter needed a punchy new twenty-first century nickname? I'm hoping the "PB" of the candy's label is only because the words "peanut butter" didn't fit lengthwise next to "Twix" on the packaging. Aloud, I would never call this anything but a peanut butter Twix.

If, on the other hand, an advertising team thought that giving peanut butter a nickname would make a new candy more "now," well I'm not fer it. I'm agin' it. Because that would smack of corporate cool and trend-wrangling to me, and I'm already plenty wrong about the trends without branding gurus forcing more that's wrong upon me. What am I, a 17 year old fake snowboarder in a Mountain Dew commercial wearing a Dr. Seuss hat? I don't call peanut butter "PB."

UPDATE: It has come to my attention that the "PB" may have been the company's way to differentiate between this chocolate-cookie-layer version and the original peanut butter Twix bar, which had a plain cookie base but has been discontinued. Some snackers feel that the "PB" is a disappointing imitation of its successor. I had forgotten that there was an "original" peanut butter Twix at all and can make no comparison until the two are released side-by-side.