We Tasted Walmart's Knockoff Candy Bars To See How They Compare To The Real Deals
Every grocery store and retail chain has gotten into the business of making house-brand versions of everyday, name brand products loved by consumers. Walmart is no stranger to "generic" game, as it's been helping customers save a few bucks ever since it launched its Great Value line back in 1993. The mega-retailer's aims with Great Value are right there in the open within those two words, and to make products that are "equal or better" than the ones it's trying to mimic, including candy.
In January of 2023, Walmart quietly made its sweetest venture yet with its Great Value label, releasing a set of candy bars at some stores that look awfully familiar. By September, the candies could be found at every location, ripe for the taking. The question is, are these bars that start at 78 cents just awfully familiar, or are they just awful all around? We wanted to set the record straight by comparing and contrasting eight of these candies versus their real deal counterparts. In my taste test, I employed Walmart's own testing methodology, where everything from "flavor, aroma, texture, color, and appearance" are taken into consideration (via Walmart). Some of the results may surprise you, perhaps as much as they surprised me.
Great Value Peanut, Caramel & Nougat Bar vs Snickers
Despite a familiar color scheme employing brown, red, blue, and white, no one is going to pick up a Great Value Peanut, Caramel & Nougat Bar and confuse it with a Snickers. Not sure why Walmart didn't bother to give it (and the rest of the candies) a name that was synonym-similar, like Chortle, but at least you know what you're getting from the names alone.
What you aren't getting in the Great Value bar is the same ounce to ounce size, as it's .1 ounce smaller than the Snickers' 1.86-ounce weight. That becomes more visually apparent when you place the two bars next to one another, as Walmart's is shorter, but a bit wider. Inside the chocolate shell, the layers appear the same as Snickers', where caramel is stacked atop peanuts and a thick shelf of nougat. However, everything under the hood in the generic version looks darker than it should.
Taking a bite of it, this Great Value bar revealed immediately that it was not exactly "packed with peanuts," like Snickers' boasts on its own packaging. The peanuts are in smaller pieces, taking away the satisfying crunch one may expect. That leaves the decent chocolate, and not so great nougat to do more work than it should here.
Verdict: The Snickers bar has its layers working in harmony to deliver a smoother bite than its Walmart equivalent. No reason to stray from the original.
Great Value Cookie & Caramel Bars vs Twix
In general, a pack of Twix always seems like an actual great value, as you're getting two bars instead of one. Even if the weight of two bars equals that of one Snickers, the more to see and eat will always be the merrier. Walmart's own golden packaged version is simply called Cookie & Caramel Bars, and with two bars inside, they would be a bit catchier if they were called Deux-o.
The Great Value bars have the same 1.79-ounce weight as Twix, but have a flatter, less sloped appearance than the real thing. The cookie on the inside of Walmart's candy is grainier than Twix's, and the caramel, while present, doesn't have as strong and as gooey of a consistency as required. The chocolate is good though, and differs from Twix's milkier version by being infused with artificial vanilla flavor and chocolate liquor.
Verdict: It's hard to equal or top something so perfect as a pair of Twix bars, but I have to admit that Walmart's attempt came pretty close. No, the Great Value bar doesn't have the same smooth and snappy bite to it, but if you weren't directly comparing the two, the Cookies & Caramel Bar is a fine choice on its own. It also contains 7 less grams of total sugar, and aren't any less sweet for the loss!
Great Value Milk Chocolate Crispy Wafer Bar vs Kit Kat
Out of all the candies made by Walmart, the Great Value Milk Chocolate Crispy Wafer is the one with the knock-off packaging that most closely mirrors the genuine article — KitKat. Awash in red, white, black, and splashes of butter yellow, it's possible one could actually confuse the two products sitting on the same shelf.
Since Nestlé lost the right to trademark the four-finger, plateaued, trapezoidal shape of a KitKat, anyone is free to copy its design. Walmart and its Turkish candymaker partners, who make seven out of eight of the products I've reviewed, nail the exact look of a KitKat. The only thing missing is the actual name "KitKat" imprinted on them. It would have been a perfect place for Walmart to brand them with its own catchy name, like TicTock or something like that.
The Great Value's chocolate exterior is darker in appearance, and after nibbling away at it, seems to have less actual chocolate surrounding the crunchy wafer interior. Interestingly enough, while the elements are there to recreate a KitKat experience, the Walmart edition doesn't seem to play together as well. Somehow the chocolate and wafer never fully mesh, making them feel like you're eating two different candies at once.
Verdict: Great Value certainly presents great value with its Milk Chocolate Crispy Wafers, but your five fingers will probably enjoy the original four-fingered king, KitKat, much more.
Great Value Fluffy Nougat Bar vs 3 Musketeers
Good things come in shiny packages, and for fans of 3 Musketeers, they've been wrapped in a silvery foil one since the late 1980s. The packaging on Great Value's reproduction — Fluffy Nougat — leans more on muted gray than bright silver, but is still an eye-catching design with its groovy mix with blue swirls.
Pulling back the comely packaging reveals a 1.92-ounce bar that has a hardened texture of generously dripped chocolate. 3 Musketeers' top exterior is more subdued, with a thin latticework of chocolate drippings. Personally, I'm not a gigantic nougat person, but I know that 3 Musketeers is where to turn when you want a lot of that rich, creamy stuff under one bar. The Great Value's take contains darker, grainier nougat, which ends up coming off like a fudgy chocolate, wrapped in an encasing of smoother chocolate.
Verdict: If you're a diehard nougat nut, by all means, please don't stray from 3 Musketeers. However, if you want your nougat a little toned down, like I do, then perhaps give the Walmart version a try. It's actually even better frozen.
Great Value Caramel & Nougat Bar vs Milky Way
It's nice Mars offers so many kinds of nougat bars. Sadly, the names can get a little confusing depending on what country you're in. This is especially true of the Milky Way bar. Overseas, the Milky Bar is all nougat, and is basically a 3 Musketeers. The American Milky Way has nougat covered with caramel, and across the pond it's called a Mars bar. Confused yet? This is actually where Walmart's straightforward naming convention works best, as you know exactly what you're getting when you buy the Great Value Caramel & Nougat Bar.
So, how does the Walmart bar stack up? Well, I've already established that the company's nougat is certainly not a highlight in its line of chocolates, but that's only in a one-to-one comparison with the candy it's aping. If you didn't even know that a Milky Way (or Mars bar) existed, the Great Value Caramel & Nougat Bar is a really good candy for this or any other solar system.
Verdict: This is not a case of Milky Way or the highway. There is a fork in the road of caramel and nougat bars, and it's totally fine to detour and go for Walmart's generic version.
Great Value Gummy Bears vs Harbio Goldbears
Walmart selling packs of Gummy Bears is not some new revelation. The retailer has been selling these treats made with beef gelatin for well over a decade. However, since we've convened to compare its new chocolates to name brand products, let's do the same with these little colorful fellers.
While there are many companies producing gummy bears currently on the market, I settled on Haribo's Goldbears as the gold standard for this particular candy. Well, the folks at Haribo's German HQ won't be losing any sleep over the bears sold under the Great Value brand. The Great Value Gummy Bears are muddied looking, taste more like medicine than they do candy, and leave a dusty aftertaste. In fact, I've actually had better kids' gummy vitamins than whatever these are. Gummy bears? More like Un-Yummy Bears! The only positive I could find is that Walmart's versions have bigger ears, bellies, and have hand and feet paws spread wider apart than the Haribo bears do. So there's that!
Verdict: Don't mess around here people, for it's Haribo or bust! Haribo makes the fruitiest, sweetest, glowingest, and all around chewiest gummy bears sold. A parade should be held daily in their honor.
Great Value Sour Bites vs Sour Punch Bites
On name alone, I thought for sure the Great Value Sour Bites were created to take a bite out of Sour Punch Bites' business. The packaging backs this up, where images of floating, tubular, sugar-coated bites dot both. However, unpacking the bites from the bags shows they aren't alike. The Sour Punch Bites are fatter, have a hollow center, and are rather sticky to the touch. The Great Value Sour Bites have a filled center, are thicker, and are noticeably more decked out in a dusting of sugar.
When it comes to taste, the Sour Patch Bites have an admirable, chewy softness to them. What they don't seem to have is a real sense of the promised sourness. This is where the Great Value iteration excels over the authentic kind. An added bonus is that Walmart's 4.5-ounce bag offers four flavors to Sour Punch Bites' three. Regardless of brand, the flavors are kinda hard to tell apart, but the grander Great Value variety is welcomed nonetheless. The Great Value Bites are made with concentrated apple juice, which adds a bit of authenticity to a candy noted to have "assorted artificial fruit flavors."
Verdict: In somewhat of a shock, I wholeheartedly endorse Great Value Sour Bites over Sour Punch Bites. While they may take a bit more of a tussle to chew them down, they have longer lasting power, and what we all came here for, sourness.
Great Value Sour Bubblegum Filled Lollipops vs Blow Pops
Tootsie Rolls started filling the center of lollipops in 1931, and by the '70s, Charms upped the game by unwrapping bubble gum under a similar sugary shell. Its Blow Pops went on to become one of the best-selling lollipops, and it was only natural of Walmart to want to sell its own version — Great Value Sour Bubblegum Filled Lollipops. The Walmart knock-offs only come in three flavors, but all three are sour. Blow Pops' "Assorted" bag only offers one sour flavor.
These Great Value lollipops, which are made in Columbia, don't have pop-artsy covers, but are wrapped in a simple plastic wrap. Out on the open, they reveal beautiful psychedelic swirls of color. These lollipops are held together on a plastic stem, and are a real treat to ruminate on for a while. The orange flavor tastes like a dreamy creamsicle, the cherry, like a succulent tart bag of the fruit, and the sour apple, a luscious huge step up from the Charms' version. When it comes to the gum, the Great Value version bests Blow Pops again, as the gum is juicier and has a taste that lasts longer.
Verdict: I always felt that no lollipop could top Blow Pops, but the Great Value Sour Bubblegum Filled Lollipops proved me wrong. Somehow, the Charms' candy doesn't seem so charming anymore. Kudos to you Walmart. Just don't ask me how many licks it took to complete this review.