Over the last year or so, there has been a growing line of Reese’s frozen novelties — almost more than you could shake an ice cream bar stick at. You’ve probably seen them with their striking orange boxes. The latest addition is the Reese’s Crunchy Peanut Ice Cream Bar, featuring Reese’s peanut butter-flavored sauce, ice cream, peanut pieces, and a milk chocolate-flavored coating. Yes, it’s made with 100% real ice cream, but it’s not keeping it 100 because that coating is decidedly not 100% real milk chocolate.

It’s shaped like a standard candy bar — a Snickers, a Milky Way. That got me thinking: wouldn’t it be infinitely cooler if these were shaped like Reese’s peanut butter cups, like those frozen novelties that were available several years ago? It would give the packaging some shelf appeal beyond the already shelf-appealing Reese’s orange boxes.

What about a stick, you ask? HA! Don’t make me laugh. A peanut butter cup-shaped ice cream bar doesn’t need a stick. The only stick to be concerned with is sticking it in your mouth.

Now, I know some of you might be put off by the milk chocolate-flavored coating because that makes it sound cheap. But I assure you it tastes, melts, and shatters fine — for what it is. However, if this not-quite-chocolate showed up on an actual Reese’s peanut butter cup, I would take back my pitchfork from Lucifer, make my way to Pennsylvania, and turn Hershey into Hellshey. I will not stand for that. But on an ice cream bar that’s already working with a Reese’s peanut butter flavor that doesn’t quite taste like the stuff in the actual candy, I can extend the same grace to the coating.

The smooth peanut butter sauce and the crunch of the peanuts do a great job of making me not care about the chocolatey coating, and the combination of all the components makes this genuinely enjoyable. After eating a couple of bars — not in a row, I should clarify — I’m not entirely sure that the ice cream itself is peanut butter-flavored or something else, but the bar’s nutty flavor as a whole is quite strong regardless.

The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is one of the great flavor pairings, and even a product with a milk chocolate-flavored coating can still be pretty good. What this Reese’s product need more of, though, is the sweet-salty contrast that makes an actual Reese’s peanut butter cup so addictive — the thing that makes me want to eat the second cup in a regular pack and all four in a King Size. These are good, but not that kind of good. If you want the peanut butter and chocolate combo in ice cream bar form and you’re okay with the trade-offs, this will 100% do the job.

Purchased Price: $10.99
Size: 12 fl oz box/6 2 fl oz bars
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bar) 140 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar (includes 8 grams of added sugar), and 3 grams of protein.