Monkey Munch? Guys What’s Monkey Munch?

Even though I am not a huge fan of Chex on its own, I absolutely love making & consuming Monkey Munch.  Monkey Munch is simply divine.  I will take a mixture of Chex, Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Powdered Sugar hands down any day of the week.  Beyond the amazing flavors Monkey Munch produces when it is warm, it gets even better as it sits in the fridge and forms into pretty little clumps.  A week or so ago, I was in the gas station checking out with my Super Big Gulp ($1.69 out the door), when I saw a bag of a special Chex Mix at the checkout.

As soon as I saw this special bag of Chex Mix, I knew just what it was.  Though it was advertised as Muddy Buddies to me, it was Monkey Munch!  What?  Really?  Monkey Munch already made for me and ready to consume?  Could it be true?  I grabbed a bag and was ready to find out!  I brought this bag home and decided I was not ready to try it yet.  While I do eat a variety of items for the sake of this blog, my normal eating routine is quick boring and restricted.  I put the bag away and waited a few days before trying it. 

The Muddy Buddies is described as so, “Delicious Peanut Butter and Chocolate Covered Corn Chex Cereal with a Sweet Powdery Coating.”  When creating my own Monkey Munch, the ingredients are basically the same – Chex, Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter, Butter, Vanilla and Powdered Sugar.  While I was not expecting the Muddy Buddies to taste exactly the same as Monkey Munch, I was excited at the prospect of finding something fairly similar that would do in a pinch.

When it was finally time to try some Muddy Buddies, I grabbed my bag and camera.  After opening the bag, I was not blasted with any of the smells from within the bag.  I poured a few pieces out and noticed the first difference between my Monkey Munch and Muddy Buddies.  Since Monkey Munch is homemade, you always end up with clumps of Chex, chocolate, peanut butter and powdered sugar when you mix everything together.  To me, it’s the clumps that make Monkey Munch just so fantastic.  Since Muddy Buddies is made in a factory, I did not end up with any clumps.  Ohh poo.

I laid out a few pieces and ate one piece at a time.  Each piece was coated in powdered sugar but there was no apparent peanut butter or chocolate.  As I began eating, I could taste the peanut butter while chewing the Muddy Buddies and then I tasted the chocolate as I finished chewing and swallowed.  I thought this was somewhat odd.  Rather than having the two flavors mesh, it was more of the peanut butter leading into the chocolate.  Each individual piece of Chex was very crunchy – certainly a plus.  After eating a few pieces on their own, I decided to place 4 or 5 pieces in my mouth at once and see what happened.

Well, nothing exciting happened when eating more than one piece at a time.  The flavors certainly worked better together when eating a few pieces at a time but, peanut butter was by far the winning flavor.  The peanut butter flavoring was okay but it wasn’t really anything too exciting.  Sugar rather than peanuts seemed to be the most distinct flavor from the peanut butter flavoring.  Luckily, the Chex pieces themselves are not too sweet so this did not overly sweeten the batch.

Every individual piece was coated in powdered sugar yet, this was baked right into the Chex and did not come off on my hands as I was eating the Muddy Buddies.  While I didn’t put my hands directly into the bag, the pieces I held in my hand before eating, did not leave any powdered sugar residue.  The taste of the powdered sugar was muted and I’m not sure if I would have been able to pick out the flavor if I was eating this blindfolded.  I do wonder if the lack of vanilla in the Muddy Buddies plays any part in the flavor differences between the two.

I didn’t see any chocolate on any of the Chex pieces either on the outside or on the inside.  The camouflaged chocolate did provide a chocolate flavor.  The chocolate was not overly strong and certainly tasted more like a chocolate flavoring that was added rather than real chocolate chips like those used in Monkey Munch.  There may not have been a lot of chocolate included in the Muddy Buddies but, the flavor is there if you remember to eat more than one piece at a time.  I really find this quite strange.

I am ashamed to say that I ended up eating the entire bag of these Muddy Buddies over the course of two days.  While the bag is quite small, I continued to eat them even though I really didn’t love them.  I did not like the lack of flavors on their own or the fact that I received no clumps.  When I eat Monkey Munch, I receive overwhelming tastes, flavors and clumps.  With the Muddy Buddies, I just didn’t get any of this.  I am glad that I only purchased one bag that was not too big.  I ate the entire bag even though I didn’t love it.  I’m sure this is because the sugar attached to my interior and my body just craved every piece.  In a pinch, Muddy Buddies may due the trick for some but, for me, nothing beats Monkey Munch.