Hershey’s Brings Back Full-Sized Krackel Bars, Competes with Nestle Crunch

The long-running monopoly over crisped rice milk chocolate is finally over, it seems. For the first time since 1997, Hershey’s has decided its pint-sized, variety pack, only eaten at Halloween red Krackel bar is no longer enough to satisfy American palates. That’s right, Hershey’s has just unleashed the (full-sized) Krackel.

Already spotted at some Wal-Marts earlier this month, the new standard, XL, and Giant bars also highlight the return of real milk chocolate for the Krackel line. In 2008, Hershey’s changed the formula for several of its products to contain cheaper vegetable oil instead of more expensive cocoa butter, in doing so, sacrificing the strict FDA label “milk chocolate” for more ambiguous alternatives like “chocolate candy,” “made with chocolate,” or “chocolatey.”

For reference, competitor Nestle has continued to make its Crunch bars with milk chocolate, which just means the red and blue might finally be on the same playing field now. Ah, who am I kidding, Krackel’s still got nothing on Dibs.