Black Thunder – Banana
Certain well-established beliefs that aren’t actually based on fact are always interesting to dissect. Take the association of bananas and gorillas or monkeys for example. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t assume that bananas are a staple of their diet and they love it. Truthfully though, gorillas and monkeys don’t actually make bananas a staple in their diet, mostly because they don’t find them much, if at all in the wild. The only reason they seem to enjoy it is because the ones we see eating them are the ones that are in captivity, and bananas are food that are high in sugar and they are tasty. The same reason humans eat them.
And yet, we somehow ended up drinking the Kool-aid and assuming they love bananas and it’s a big part of their diet. It’s why it’s always a little weird when I see monkeys or gorillas being used in some way, shape or form to advertise banana flavoured stuff. I’m not exactly complaining, it’s just weird once you know the truth. I do have to admit the packaging on this bar is kind of hilarious. The image of a concerned gorilla with a comical expression somehow reminds me of those old early to late 1900s comics or ads where a human has a similar expression in reaction to a giant creature, like King Kong. Admittedly, the packaging is what drew my eye to this. I can tell you it wasn’t bananas, because I’m not a big fan of the fruit or the flavour. But I do love Black Thunder bars so I figured why not.
Black Thunder bars basically come in two varieties when it comes to the outer appearance – super jagged bars that look like chocolate dipped granola bars with lots of holes and crevices, and brownies that are covered in chocolate and are fairly smooth with not many air pockets or bubbles. This one looks more like the former, which leads me to believe this one is going to be crunchy with lots of texture going on. I’m always down for that.
One of the issues with doing these sort of reviews, by which I mean a label or package I cannot read, is that I have to sort of guess what’s going on, or do extensive research. Given that I’m feeling fairly lazy right now, I’m going to do my best to guess what’s going on.
The smell is overwhelmingly of fake banana – I’ve mentioned this before in other reviews but the fake banana smell is likely to also remind other people of banana flavoured cold medication. You know, the one where you had that thick syrup that tasted of sweet banana as a kid, to hide the nasty tasting ingredients in the medication. As a kid I kind of liked the taste, but as an adult I tend to associate that flavour with colds and sickness. I’m hoping the taste isn’t also like that…
Texture is very interesting, even by Black Thunder bar standards. There seems to be an extra bit of crunch texture going on, and I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s due to piece of fried banana. Along with the standard cookie pieces and chocolate coating, it makes for a very tasty, crunchy bar.
The flavour of the banana is surprisingly not too strong or fake, as the smell would have led me to believe. In fact, the sweetness from the banana is just right to compliment the chocolate and create an appetizing combination. There’s a slight saltiness to the cookie pieces which help to further balance everything out, keeping it from getting too sweet.
As I’ve made clear before, I’m not a huge fan of banana flavoured things, but I find myself really enjoy this bar. I think it speaks more to the texture of the banana chips, and the mild flavour of the banana that is makes for a nice addition, as opposed to overpowering the original chocolate.
