We tasted Mr Beast’s R50 chocolates to see if they are any good

Feastables chocolate slabs taste great, although they definitely aren’t worth R50 each and people who don’t enjoy dark chocolate should stay away.

That was MyBroadband’s finding after tasting each of the four flavours Massmart started selling in South Africa last week — Milk Chocolate, Deez Nuts, Crunch, and Original Chocolate.

Deez Nuts is marketed as a milk chocolate bar containing peanut butter, while Crunch is milk chocolate with puffed rice.

Although tasty, from our testing we found that using the term “milk chocolate” could create the wrong impression among South African consumers.

The cocoa content is almost certainly higher in Feastables than the average Beacon, Cadbury, or Nestlé milk chocolate, giving it a slightly bitter, darker taste.

They still taste great — it’s just not for people who don’t enjoy dark chocolate.

Feastables was created by MrBeast, real name James Stephen Donaldson, who is the largest individual YouTuber in the world with over 200 million subscribers on his main channel.

He is second overall by subscriber count, beaten only by Indian record label T-Series.

Donaldson shot to fame by tackling outlandish tasks, giving away huge sums to strangers, and generally spending massive sums on making videos.

Famously, he would take the full amount a sponsor paid for a video and spend it all on the production or give it away on camera.

Donaldson has several connections to South Africa.

In addition to being in a relationship with South African author and gaming personality Thea Booysen, two senior members of his philanthropic operation are South African-born.

Beast Philanthropy executive director Darren Margolias was born in South Africa before relocating to North Carolina.

He served on the Furkids Animal Rescue & Shelters board for over 20 years and has been executive director of Beast Philanthropy since July 2020.

South African filmmaker Dan Mace is the chief creative officer of Beast Philanthropy.

Outside the advertising world, Mace became well-known for collaborating with YouTube star Casey Neistat.

Unfortunately, gram-for-gram, Feastables is wholly outclassed in South Africa by brands like Lindt and Toblerone.

Makro and Game sell each 60-gram Feastables bar for R49.95 — or R8.33 per 10g.

These same stores sell various 80g Cadbury slabs for under R20 each.

Retailers like Dis-Chem sell 100g Toblerone chocolates for R36.95, while 100g Lindt slabs at Checkers are between R70 and R80 each.

Stated differently, a Feastables slab works out to R8.33 per 10g, while Cadbury is R2.50 per 10g.

Even at the most expensive end of the scale, a slab of Lindt works out cheaper than Feastables at R7–R8 per 10g.

Each of these brands has its own dark chocolate variants that can more than hold their own against Feastables — at a cheaper price.

In a price-sensitive market like South Africa, it remains to be seen whether a product like Feastables could be carried on brand strength alone.

Now read: We tried all four PRIME drink flavours Checkers sells