Chunky
Thick Milk Chocolate with Peanuts and Raisins

"What a Chunk of Chocolate"

The Chunky chocolate bar is a thick chunk of milk chocolate, with peanuts and raisins in it.

This bar was invented in the mid- to late-1930s (nobody seems to know exactly) in New York City by Philip Silvershein.

His original product was made with milk chocolate, brazil nuts, cashews and raisins. And it sold for five cents at least as late as 1959.

Another difference - Silvershein's original bar was a single chunk, not segmented like the current ones. I remember those. They were, hmm, how shall I phrase it - oh I know - they were chunky. Maybe I should say chunky-er.

About 50 years later, in 1984, Chunky was acquired by the giant candy and food company, Nestlé. And some time after that (not long, by most accounts), they changed the recipe from brazil nuts and cashews to the much cheaper peanuts.

This wasn't one of my top favorites when I was a kid. Still, I did like them, and ate a fair amount. And even after the reformulation, I still think they're pretty good.

Ingredients and Nutrition

The chemistry is a little concerning. There is one obvious chemical, PGPR. And one unknown, artificial flavors.

I think it's okay, because I do enjoy one occasionally. But I don't eat a lot of them.

And it's a far cry from some of my former favorite chocolates. You know, the ones that went on my newly-created never-eat list after I began studying chocolate candy ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:
MILK CHOCOLATE (
   •   SUGAR,
   •   CHOCOLATE,
   •   COCOA BUTTER,
   •   NONFAT MILK,
   •   LACTOSE,
   •   MILKFAT,
   •   SOY LECITHIN,
   •   NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS),
PEANUTS,
RAISINS,
TBHQ (TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS).

MADE ON EQUIPMENT THAT ALSO PROCESSES NUTS AND WHEAT.

Ingredient quantity = 12

The common size of this bar these days is 1.4 ounces. A reasonable size, I think.

But the place I bought mine only had this jumbo 4.25 ounce one. About 3 times the usual size.

Since candy companies like to talk about nutrition per serving, they call the serving size one-third of the bar. Well folks, this bar is easily divided into four large chunks. Each of which, in turn, is less easily divided into four smaller chunks. So that's a total of sixteen small chunks in the bar. So a serving is - lemme do the math - 16 divided by 3 is - well isn't this cute: A serving is 5 and 1/3 of the small chunks. So you can't eat one serving of this bar if you forgot your pocket knife. Sorry. ;-)

And if you eat the whole thing, this large bar has 570 calories, with 300 of them (53%) from fat. So don't eat the whole thing. At least not all at once.

I paid $2.99 for this 4.25 ounce bar (August 2013). For comparison purposes, that's $11.26 per pound. Just a little above average pricing for popular chocolate candy.

I'm giving this my personal score of 4.1 out of 5 stars for Overall Enjoyment, 3.5 for Nutrition, and 3.7 for Value. Keep in mind this is just my personal opinion. Your mileage may vary, and there's no accounting for taste.

Now you know what a Chunky bar is. Any questions? You know where my Contact Page is!

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Chunky had a pavilion at the 1964 World Fair in NYC. Visitors could watch a small automated factory making these bars. I was at that Fair. But I can't remember if I saw their factory. Perhaps because I was too enthralled by the Cars Of The Future exhibit.