Repost from the Answer Man (CoFuSiNg…)

Q:
My friends and I are in a serious feud regarding the ingredients of the Snickers bar and the Mars bar. I say they are both the exact same except that Snickers has peanuts. They say the taste is totally different and therefore the ingredients are vastly different. Please, my integrity is riding on this.

A:
There’s a bit of confusion surrounding the M&M/Mars family of chocolate bars ?X Mars, Snickers, Milky Way and Three Musketeers ?X because the company markets them differently in different countries. In the United States, M&M/Mars’ home, they shake out like this:

  • Snickers: Peanut butter nougat, topped with caramel and roasted peanuts and covered with milk chocolate.
  • Mars (now called “Snickers with Almonds”): Plain nougat, topped with caramel and whole almonds and covered with milk chocolate.
  • Milky Way: Chocolate malt-flavoured nougat and caramel covered with milk chocolate.
  • Three Musketeers: Chocolate-flavoured nougat covered with milk chocolate.

While very few people actually notice, the composition of the nougat filling is different for each bar. Internationally (including Canada), the American Three Musketeers is sold as a Milky Way, the American Milky Way is sold as a Mars bar, and the American Mars bar isn’t (wasn’t) sold at all. (Confusing, huh?)

Assuming you are from Canada, a Snickers and a Mars bar (American Milky Way) differ in two areas: the Snickers has peanuts, obviously, but it also has a different kind of nougat. Snickers have peanut butter nougat, while Mars bars have chocolate malt-flavoured nougat.

Here’s a visual comparison of the old U.S. Mars bar and the Canadian Mars bar. And here’s a comparison of the Canadian Mars bar and the U.S. Milky Way.

FYI: M&M/Mars Consumer Affairs, Wikipedia: Mars bar

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.