Clark Bars: Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate

You know, I am honestly not sure if I have ever had a Clark Bar before I picked these up on a whim.  I always sought out Fifth Avenue bars in that particular ecological niche of candy.  

A Fifth Avenue bar, for those of you who haven't had the privilege, is basically a Butterfinger bar with two almonds on top.  (Or rather it used to be, and now I date myself, because I see by the Wikipedia entry that they discontinued this practice in 1987.  Explains my confusion the last time I had one.)

Clark Bars could best be described - and I'm sure they hate it when people do this - as "kind of like a Butterfinger."  Except independently owned by a small company (well, relatively small - in this case, owned by NECCO as of a financial downturn in 1999.)

I love to read the history of candy bars, and NECCO has a great page on the Clark Bar's history.  It was invented by an Irish immigrant named David L. Clark, who went to business college at night while working odd jobs and day laborer work during the day.  In 1883 he started working as a sort of roving candy seller, driving a horse-drawn wagon full of candy across the country.  (Yes, I guess that was a real thing!)   In 1886 he bought the horse and wagon from his employer and settled down to found his own candy company in Pennsylvania.

D.L. Clark's legacy lives on in the two bars that carry his name.  (Also, Zagnuts.)  The Clark Bar bears a superficial resemblance to the Butterfinger, but oh, it is so much better.  Where a Butterfinger is cloyingly sweet, the Clark Bar is just, um, regular sweet.  The Clark Bar's peanut butter crunchy filling also has much less tendency to pack into your molars, which is my biggest complaint with Butterfingers.

I also like that the Clark Bar's filling is distinctly saltier than the Butterfinger filling.  Maybe Butterfingers wouldn't be so nauseating if they had a little salty flavor in there.  Clark Bars taste more like the filling in a Reese's Cup, albeit crunchy.

Clark Bars are touted as being "all natural," and I suppose that is true.  They contain real peanuts, real ingredients like molasses, and no preservatives.  This is a rather shocking thing, in this day and age when candy seems to be one of the last refuges of the food additive.  Purged from grocery store shelves throughout the aisles, these multi-syllabic ingredients have seemingly found safe harbor on the candy aisle.

I'm not entirely certain if corn syrup or invert sugar can technically be counted as "natural."  I guess it depends on your definition.  Let's not get bogged down in that.  Suffice it to say, I understand everything on the label.  

Of the two, I definitely preferred the dark chocolate version to milk chocolate.  I mean, who wouldn't?  The dark chocolate pairs nicely with the peanut butter filling, and the slight bitterness helps to cut the sweetness.