Review: Snickers Banana Nut Bread Is A Nicely Baked Idea

During the pandemic, everyone was stuck at home and instantly became experts at baking banana bread. There are so many ingredients that can take banana bread to the next level, but in my opinion, nuts should always be in the mix, because nuts make everything better. The folks over at Snickers already know this, having leaned on peanuts to pack a punch since the bar's inception in 1930.

I'm not sure what Snickers was up to during the pandemic, but it didn't seem to be messing around in the kitchen with banana bread. It did, however, subsequently release bars with brownie fillings, as well as a Butterscotch Scoop bar exclusive to Walmart. Now, after sister-brand M&M's dropped its Banana Nut Bread variety this past summer, the confectioner is clearly hoping its fans will flock over to their nearest Walgreens and try a magic banana bread-infused Snickers. Welcome to the world, Snickers Banana Nut Bread!

So, are these new Snickers Banana Nut Bread bars a freshly baked idea, or more of a half-baked one? We were beyond curious to find out the answer and moseyed on over to our neighborhood Walgreens to grab a few. Ready or not, now all can be revealed in this banana-nutty chew and review!

In advance of its official release date, I popped over to my local Walgreens location in Manhattan and found Snickers Banana Nut Bread already available for sale. I bought a few bars for taste-testing purposes. One was sampled at room temperature, and another after being refrigerated. The new bar was also compared to a regular Snickers bar, which was acquired on the same shopping trip.

This review is a summation of my own personal tastes and thoughts. I also factored in my previous experiences with Snickers, its variants, banana nut bread, and my overall impressions of this new flavor. The criteria considered for this review were flavor, presentation, texture, size, packaging and design, value, originality, and, ultimately, whether this new Snickers is something worth your time and dime.

My first introduction to the Snickers Banana Nut Bread bar was a sunny one. Its bright yellow background catches the eye while retaining the simple and ubiquitous Snickers logo. Next to it is a graphic of a baked log of banana bread, plus three banana slices. Unwrapping the lovely packaging, before me lay a familiar sight of a typical chocolate-encased Snickers bar. However, the bar is very stout and noticeably smaller than a standard Snickers bar. A standard bar weighs in at 1.86 ounces, while the Banana Nut Bread variant comes in at 1.42 ounces. That's almost a quarter less candy for the same price. Perhaps, as Yoda once said, "Size matters not."

I leaned in for a whiff, and the only aroma I could detect was in line with a regular Snickers bar, where milk chocolate blends with the scent of peanuts. I cut the bar in half for a better view of what I was about to munch on. Based on the imagery on the packaging, I almost expected the innards to mimic the light-brown, grainy look of banana bread. But yet again, it just resembled a good old Snickers.

Nothing left to do but dig right in. At first, all the excellent attributes of a Snickers were on full taste display — the smooth milk chocolate playing nicely with crunchy peanuts, nougat, and caramel. On subsequent nibbles, the banana flavoring began to make its presence known. It's more of a hint than a full-on flavor bomb, but it added a really nice touch. Dare I say, it proved to be rather a-peel-ing to my palate.

Before rendering my verdict, I needed to clear up two things — how the candy bar tasted when refrigerated, and how it stacked up against a regular Snickers. What always amazes me is how a fridge will essentially transform a Snickers bar from chewy to almost rock hard. The cold tends to bring out flavors more in certain foods, but here, it seemed to dial down the hint of banana even further.

Revisiting a standard-issue Snickers was, of course, a joy, as it always lives up to its spot-on slogan that says it "satisfies." It's a chocolatey affair, punctuated by those awesome peanuts and further smoothed out with the caramel and nougat. When I returned and retried the Banana Nut Bread version, its fruity traits shone through even more.

Does Snickers Banana Nut Bread taste like banana bread? Not exactly, but it tastes like a Snickers infused with just the right amount of banana flavoring. I'm not sure what natural or artificial flavoring was used to duplicate it, but at least Snickers didn't go the route that plagues other banana candies like Laffy Taffy, Now and Later, and Runts — which, to me, are all on my forever do not eat list. Nice work, Snickers Banana Nut Bread. Even though you run smaller than your older brother, you do indeed still satisfy. Now I'm ready to bake up some banana bread and break up some pieces of Snickers Banana Nut Bread to bake inside it.

Snickers Banana Nut Bread will be sold exclusively at participating nationwide Walgreens locations starting September 18. It will be available for a limited time only while supplies last.

It is available in one size only — a 1.42-ounce bar — and can be found in Walgreens stores wherever individual candy bars are stocked. At the Walgreens where I bought mine, the bars were on full display at the front register in a dedicated cardboard stand that also housed other Snickers flavors. The suggested retail price for one Snickers Banana Nut Bread bar is $2.19, although when I purchased mine, they were on sale for $1.50.

The main ingredient in Snickers Banana Nut Bread is milk chocolate, which unites the powers of sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, and soy lecithin. Along for the ride are peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, egg whites, and natural and artificial flavors. If you're curious about how this differs from regular Snickers, the Banana Nut Bread bar contains unspecified natural and artificial flavors. The Snickers Banana Nut Bread contains the following allergens: peanuts, milk, egg, and soy, and may also contain tree nuts.

A single bar is 1.42 ounces, or 40 grams. That nets an eater 190 calories, 9 grams of total fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 100 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 21 grams of total sugar, including 20 grams of added sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

Based on the best-by date imprinted on my wrapper, the Snickers Banana Nut Bread bar I sampled was good to go, unopened, through July 2027. That seems to have longer staying power than actual banana nut bread, so I may have to buy a few more to tide me over until summer 2027.