William Curley Bounty & Marathon Bars

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on April 14 2011 | Leave A Comment

As a child in the UK, I grew up on Bounty bars and Marathon (now known as Snickers), and it’s only in the last few years that my tastes have changed to the point where I feel slightly ill when I look at the confectionery-stacked newsagent shelves.

But I still have fond memories of how all that cheap chocolate used to make me feel as a child. The exotic coconut filling in a Bounty and the satisfying nougat in a Marathon. So I was particularly excited when I learned that one of the world’s greatest chocolatiers was recreating some of my childhood memories using real ingredients.

I picked these up from the recent Easter Chocolate Festival and stashed them carefully in my bag to take home to review. Unfortunately, I stashed everything else I bought carefully on top of them during the course of the day and as a result, my Bounty bar became a little… distressed.

I paid £3 each for these bars, which would be rather a lot for an ‘original’ Bounty or Snickers, so I was interested to see if they could recapture some of those childhood memories and still be worth the money.

In the case of the Bounty bar at least, the answer is a resounding yes. The 70% Amedei chocolate is maybe a little thin for my preference, but it works so well with the fresh, creamy coconut. It’s definitely a Bounty, but it’s a million miles away from the original. The off-white colour of the coconut immediately looks more natural and the texture is soft and smooth. I could eat these all day.

The Marathon bar is a little less like the original, primarily because the nougat actually tastes of nougat. In fact, it brings back memories of buying huge blocks of pink nougat in my local sweet shop as a child, something I have equally fond memories of.

The peanuts are fresh and crunchy, and the caramel adds a nice chewy element without bombarding your senses with sugar. So despite not being quite as close to the original, I enjoyed it just as much as the Bounty.

So now all that’s left for William to do is recreate the TV ads…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfPum7kZWuI

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Comments On This Post

  1. Are they doing Reeses Peanut Butter Cups?

    • Dom (Chocablog Staff)

      That’s not really a British nostalgia thing, so I doubt it. They have just updated their site so you can buy online though.

  2. Ana

    That part about tastes evolving sounds very familiar. Some of the things I ate ten years ago I don’t even consider to be chocolate anymore. If I take a bite, it doesn’t feel like chocolate. Why is it so waxy? Why doesn’t it melt like it should? Where’s the cocoa taste?

    November 2003, I discovered Lindt chocolate and it really changed my standards. Today I don’t even consider Lindt the most exquisite chocolate (though I always love to get my claws on anything from the Petits Desserts range… and I really wouldn’t say no to anything from them that I haven’t tried yet unless it contains something I cannot stand) – I’ve tried Rausch, Zotter, Michel Cluizel & a lot more in the meanwhile.

  3. What a great idea, I wonder, hmmmm, how about a real topic – yum.

  4. Bounty was ultimate favourite chocolate bar as a kid! I still love them, but not as much as I used to. I’d love to taste a higher quality version of a Bounty bar. I’m a total sucker for the coconut flavour with the chocolate!

  5. Jasmine

    It may sacrilege to say so, but I actually prefer real Snickers to William’s version. I think it may be the chocolate coating that does it. The sweet, characterless milk chocolate on the Mars version just works, whereas the Amadei dark on the Marathon is just too rich.

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