Things that will kill you if you have a peanut allergy, part 1

About a month ago, The Newtster, his wife, and another friend came to visit Joe and I to attend a concert. While they were here, we walked around some of the touristy areas of NYC, including my personal favorite-Times Square. If I thought there was a hell, I'm pretty sure my picture of it would look a lot like Times Square. Luckily, the day that we walked around was quite cold, so that seemed to keep the tourists in warmer places.

To escape the cold, we ducked into the Hershey's store and browsed for a few minutes. I never realized Reese's was part of the Hershey's family, so I was surprised to see a bottle of Reese's Peanut Butter sauce. I was excited to see the bottle, because I am a big peanut butter fan, especially when it is in the form of a sauce that can be put on ice cream. Growing up, the Friendly's Reese's Pieces sundae was my favorite ice cream confection. When I lived in DC, my roommate (not Joe, he is a peanut butter hater. It's a miracle we're still together) and I mourned the fact that there wasn't a nearby Friendly's, because she also loved the peanut butter sauce. One of our other friends would visit from NC about once a month, and on her drive up she would stop at Friendly's and convince them to sell her a container full of the delicious peanut butter perfection.

Needless to say, I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to easily procure peanut butter sauce on my own, although I wondered whether this peanut butter sauce would stand up to the Friendly's version. I bought a container, and brought it home to try out. After getting home, Joe did a bit of research, and he found that Reese's actually makes the Friendly's peanut butter sauce, although the recipe is a secret, and Reese's isn't allowed to sell the Friendly's sauce. This knowledge made my anticipation that much greater. Then I remembered that Reese's also makes regular peanut butter, and I happened to have a jar of it in the cupboard. Reese's isn't my favorite brand of peanut butter, but I'm too cheap to be a true peanut butter snob, so I just buy whatever's on sale. I took out my jar of peanut butter, and the nutrition information is surprisingly similar between the peanut butter sauce and the peanut butter. The peanut butter has 1g more protein per two TBSP serving, and the sauce has 1g more sugar per two TBSP serving.

Here are some pictures from my tasting:
It may look kind of gross, but it tastes pretty delicious.


Overall rating: pretty good. I haven't had the chance to try it out on ice cream yet, but it's pretty tasty on its own. It's not too sweet, since it's got a makeup similar to regular peanut butter, and I think it's pretty close to the Friendly's version. It's at least a close enough substitute for the times you don't have access to a Friendly's. The only problem is that I've never seen this on the shelf of a grocery store before, so I might prefer to hold out for Friendly's rather than venture back the the Hershey's store in Times Square.