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Welcome to today’s Tastykake Face-Off, where Philadelphia’s hometown hero snack product goes up against the competition in a fight for top snack bragging rights. The winner will be carefully selected via analysis of several key criteria discussed below. Today, we will enter uncharted territory: The world of nutrition bars. Who knew that Tastykake even made one? Well, they do…it’s called the SnakBar. Today’s match-up is the Chocolate Peanut Butter SnakBar versus the Peanut Butter Chocolate NuGo bar. Nutrition, huh? Finally, a match-up that seems appropriate for a boxing-themed column…

1) Packaging: The Tastykake SnakBar comes in a blue plastic wrapper that does a good job of expanding the familiar look of Tastykake packaging to the nutrition bar arena. It does this by the use of a more mature-looking sans serif font outlined in silver. Below that is a goldenrod-colored bar proclaiming, “10g Protein 190 Calories.” At the bottom is a brown area with additional description of the product: “Soft-Baked Iced Outmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar. Naturally & Artificially Flavored.” The text on the package is surrounded by pictures of peanuts on the left and the SnakBar on the right. The NuGo bar comes in a yellow wrapper, a hue known in the ‘70s as harvest gold. “NuGo” is scrawled across the middle in a forward-thrusting font, below which it explains the name: “Nutrition To Go.” Additional info, sometimes curiously worded/punctuated, appears in various places on the package: “Awesome Good & Healthy!” “Peanut Butter Chocolate.” “Made delicious with REAL Milk Chocolate!” At the far left is a brown area showing dropping chocolate, atop which are yellow circles with more info: “11g Protein.” “LOW FAT.” “100% NATURAL.” Similar to the SnakBar, a pic of the NuGo is on the right. This round definitely goes to the Tastykake. The NuGo’s overload of information isn’t well organized or worded, and the harvest gold color on the packaging looks unappetizing compared to the Tastykake.

2) Price: The NuGo goes for $1.39, whereas the identically-sized (50 gram)Tastykake sells for $1.99. NuGo takes this round.

3) Appearance: The NuGo hews closer to the picture on the packaging: A thin layer of chocolate at the bottom topped with a thick layer of crispy rice and soy adorned with some drizzled chocolate stripes. On the packaging, the Tastykake looks kind of like a pressed-together granola bar, but the real bar is paler looking, not looking very “baked.” Embedded inside the bar are bits of peanut butter, and the top has chocolate icing. The Tastykake doesn’t look bad, but compared to the pic on the packaging, it’s a bit of a let-down, handing this round over to NuGo.

4) Taste: The Tastykake really comes on strong on the taste department. While it doesn’t taste much like baked outmeal, it does taste a lot like cookie dough. Everybody loves cookie dough! The peanut butter bits add a nice touch. The NuGo is OK, but the crunch never lets you forget that you’re eating something that’s supposed to be healthy, and it’s not as filling as the dense SnakBar. The unexpectedly-delicious Tastykake takes this round.

5) Nutrition: Both bars are roughly comparable in the nutrition department, being good sources of protein. The Tastykake is notably higher in saturated fat (5 grams versus 1.5 grams), and the NuGo is higher in sugars (13 grams versus 7 grams), though the Tastykake also has 5 grams of “sugar alcohols.” This round is a draw.

Victory: Tastykake. The Tastykake was so unexpected in its doughy deliciousness, and it has a much more coherent design aesthetic to its packaging. The NuGo put up a good fight and really is not a bad bar at all, but in the end, Tastykake’s successful entry into the nutrition bar market proved dominant.