So my blog publisher ate the first 500 words of this post. They were pretty epic. I have no idea what I said anymore because I am a human etch-a-sketch and have already forgotten what I have written. It is a very sad day. The good news is I get to try again, but now you are getting recycled material that has been edited down. Stupid, stupid, internet. The other half of this post that starts at “I will be honest.” That is the original I was able to recover. But it may need editing to now mix with the first half I am re-imagining.

Halloween is upon. This is both exciting and blah for me. Long have the days of finding the worlds coolest costume and trying to be cool for this holiday. Let’s be honest, can I ever top this outfit?

or this one??

At this point anything I do is truly worthless. I could run around with a hanger on my hand, but well not sure who would get that reference anymore. That being said, I have resigned myself to being on the other side of the door. No one comes to me, so I am going to my friends house to enjoy the night. More so, I am tempted to play the apparent Elsa drinking game. If you don’t know what I am talking about, that means you truly need to get your mind back into the world of the book of faces, where it is showing up in everyone’s newsfeeds by now. I joke about this, but honestly having never been drunk, now is not the time to start a drinking game. I feel I would be worse than a drunken Sheldon.

So far, so good with the memory.

Anyway, Halloween is approaching which means we all get to go shopping for our post-Halloween candy sales. Man do I love those sales. I stock up on all my favorite candies. By candies I mean discount Reese’s PB cups. Man do I love those things. With that intro I move right into the next part. As Halloween was approaching you may have seen the beginnings of Level Food’s campaign advertising their new PB Cups and Peanut Turtle Bars.

Knowing how I am a happy supporter of the rest of Level’s product line I was asked to possibly look into the two newest foods. I told Ethan, I would love to do this, however he must realize I am a bit of a snob when it comes to anything PB cup related. Apparently, he was not afraid of the possible snub and still gave me an opportunity to sample his newest offerings.

Let’s dig into the Peanut Butter Cups first. Let’s be honest you all knew that I would.

The first thing when you do eat these you need to toss the preconceived notions you have about PB Cups out of your mind. Because if you are expecting an exact duplicate of the “leading candy bar”, you are going to fail. The filling is more robust in its peanut taste. I think that is because the first three ingredients are Peanuts, Salt, and confectioners sugar, where with the competitor the first three ingredients are Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, and than salt. So there will be a different taste. It’s good and nutty. The exterior chocolate layer is a different blend as well. It threw me a little bit. I think though, my problem was I was expecting more of a milk chocolate taste, this is not what they use to make their cups. Their recipe is a little different.

When I read the packaging to get a little more info about the ingredients, there was a note that they do use a non-nutritive sweetener in the chocolate in the form of Sucralose. I was a little worried about my stomach. If you don’t know what I am talking about, wander over to Amazon and read the written reviews on the Haribo SUGAR FREE Gummi Bears. Let’s be honest. We’ve all been there at some point over some sugar-free candy. We live, we learn, we poop. Having that concern though, I did reach out to Ethan and express my concerns, to which I got the best reply ever: “We pride ourselves on avoiding the ‘laxative effect’…..that’s for *****, not us.”  So our tummies will be safe. Which is a relief.

All in all I was impressed with the PB cups. Would I forgo my Reese’s addiction for them. Probably not. If I am staring at a package of Reese’s or a package of these, as I am right now. I will be honest, “damn the carbs, full speed ahead.” But I do have them in my database of foods I can eat and will eat. Especially, when I am on the post holiday exercise regime. The Level PB cups have a count of 13g of carbs for two of the cups or 4g net carbs when all is said and done with protein and fiber. Where as the other brand has 24g of carbs and that’s it. So that is nice to know. The spikes will be less when I do eat them.

The second sweet Level offers is the Peanut Turtle Bar. This offering once again is compared to the leading candy bar. I will be honest, I drew a blank on the leading candy bar that is out there. My original thought was Snickers or Baby Ruth, but they both have some type of nougat, I thought Pay Day, that has no chocolate, so I gave up. Level doesn’t mention who their competition actually is for either candy, but the PB cup is apparent.

So I am treating this bar as a solitary piece of yummy to try. I liked it plain and simple. The combination of caramel, peanuts and chocolate is quite tasty, plus the bar is filing. I was going to say dense, but that didn’t seem like a good comparison. It makes the bar seem like it is going to be huge. Which it really is not. It is what we want out of a good chocolate bar. The 19g of carbs and the 10 net carbs is always a good thing to enjoy. It is a healthy alternative to whatever the leading candy bar is supposed to be.

As always with most of the Level offerings I am quite happy with their newest additions to their product line. What they offer is good to eat, pretty good for you, and something you want.

As time goes on Level products are showing up for sale in different locations. Typically, I can find two of their shake flavors and bar flavors at Target. Walgreens does have them listed on their shelves, but I have actually yet to see the shelves with stock. This could just mean, people keep buying them. Also, as of late I am told that Walmart has some of the shakes and bars for sale in their diabetic supply section. The two nearest me, either haven’t put them out yet or have done a great job hiding them from me. This saddens me, as the Mart of Wal is so much closer to me, 15 and 25 min respectively to 45 minutes for Target. I also know that Rite Aid carries some of the Level products as well.

As I mentioned in my last post there is going to be a giveaway to celebrate the new offerings for anyone who comments on this post. I will enter all of those names into comments and do a drawing next Friday, November 7th. To celebrate nothing other than it’s post-Halloween and also my 300th post over many years. The winner will receive a premier bundle back valued at $50. (Please note if you are entering the contest I need a valid name and email address to reach the winner.)

Also for any of my readers, you can head over to Level’s site and place an order with a discount code of TRYLEVEL25 which will entitle you to a 25% discount on all orders placed on their site. Tell them Brian sent you.

Disclaimer: I am not being reimbursed by Level to review their products. I was asked nicely to consider trying their new products and if I felt the urge, I could throw out a good word or two in their direction. I choose to the words parenthetical and hypotheses. Those seem like good words to throw about. They did give me the snacks to sample. That is the only freebie I got out of this conversation. I do not get a cut of any of their profits or anything like that. I just get to talk about something I enjoy.