Kate McCabe Warehouse

There are hundreds of chocolate bars out there in the wide wide world that is junk food.  What makes our third entry to the Great-List so much better than just good? 

Well, #3. 3 Musketeers Bar is the recipient of my gush-fest today for reasons that are manifold. 

The Dumas inspired confection is often overlooked in favor of it’s nuttier and caramellier cousins.  The beautiful simplicity that is milk chocolate poured over fluffy chocolate nougat is well undervalued.  (Here in Britain they pronounce it like ‘new-gah’ instead of ‘new-gut’. )

One of my favorite ways to tear up a 3 Musketeers is to eat the thin layer of chocolate off first and then just devour the light milky cocoa nougat as is.  The same technique is utilized for stripping the chocolate and caramel from the Twix biscuit.  As an eater, I am definitely a ‘save the best bite til last’ kind of person.  I do this with most snacks and meals.  I identify what I think is the most savory or sweetest bit and then eat around it until at the very end, I am rewarded for my patience and strategy with the absolute best mouthful–that corner of pizza with the best sauce to cheese ration or the spoonful of stuffing, potato, peas, and gravy from the very end of my Thanksgiving plate.

Here in Jolly Old, they don’t have 3 Musketeers.  They have a candy bar called Milky Way (not our Milky way with the caramel and what-not).  Their Milky Way isn’t miles off.  In that bar, the nougat is vanilla and not chocolate.  (interestingly, in reading some on-line candy reviews–oh yes I did–it would appear that our 3 Musketeers bar is actually what the Brits Milky Way bar used to be like before they re-tooled it in 1989…Brits that miss their old Milky Way reach for our Musketeers when they can find it).  The British Milky Way serves some kind of purpose, I suppose, but I can’t say it fills the whole in my heart.  I always grab a few of the real deal at the airport when I’m in The States.

Here’s some insight into the history of this glorious candy bar:

It’s an M&M/Mars property and has been around since 1932.  Just in time to cheer our ‘depressed’ country up!

Originally, 3 Musketeers was in three pieces and those pieces were distinct flavors–chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.  Like Neopolitan ice-cream!!! 

They marketed it as a bar that was big enough to share with your friends.  Good values!!! 

It was turned into the singular version that we know today when the fresh ingredients for the Strawberry flavor became too expensive for the makers to use.

 A 3 Musketeers density is light enough that it can float on water!!!

A 3 Musketeers bar has all your days essential vitamins and nutrients!

OK, that last one I just made up.  But, it is marketed as a lower fat candy bar.  I believe it is a rather significant 4 grams less per bar than Snickers.  (That’s peanuts for ya…)

The fine people at M&M/Mars aren’t exactly sitting on their laurels since the perfection of this bar.  Instead, they’re off inventing a new variety of 3 Musketeers for me to love–Mint Musketeers.  Like the original, it’s great.  They’re also using their dark kitchen magic to ensnare me with recipes.  Witness this:  http://www.3musketeers.com/recipes.shtml

Yum.