State Fair of Texas, 2026 New Food, Big Tex Choice Awards Semi-Finalist
The Nevins family already had a Nutty Bar that’s sold at the Fair for years. This year they decided it wasn’t done yet.
What This Thing Actually Is
The signature Nevins ice cream Nutty Bar gets drenched in creamy salted butter, then rolled in a mixture of toffee pieces and peanuts.
It finishes with a caramel drizzle and a topping of crushed Ritz crackers.
A bar that was already a Fair staple, dipped, rolled, and finished with three more textures before it ever reaches your hand.
Josey and Tami Jo Nevins Mayes built it.
The Part That’s Actually Funny
This is the same family behind the Nevins Soft Serve Peach Bellini Float, one of this year’s Sipper finalists. Same year, two different entries, two completely different ideas: one’s a boozy float, the other’s a decades old candy bar getting a toffee and butter upgrade.
The Nevins family has run Fair concessions since 1949, three generations before Josey ever picked up a spoon. She’s the fourth generation, and by all accounts the one steering what gets entered into competition these days.
A family with 75-plus years at the Fair didn’t retire the old candy bar. They just kept adding to it.
This one is listed as an Every Day Value Item, 8 coupons, not a one-off special. That means it’s built to sell at volume all 24 days, not just to impress a judging panel for one afternoon.
Why Texas Keeps Doing This
Everything is bigger in Texas, including the patience it takes to keep improving something that already works instead of chasing something completely new.
Plenty of vendors would leave a bestseller alone. This family added butter, toffee, and cracker crumble on top of theirs instead, because standing still on a signature item isn’t really the Nevins way.
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