Taste Test: Snack Bars by Dana Angelo White in Taste Test, January 19, 2010
We suggested some of our top snack bar picks before; now we’re testing out a few of your favorites. See which common snack bars came out on top.
For this taste test, we stuck to our usual 5-point scale (with 5 being the most yummy and nutritious). To keep things on an even playing field, we chose only nut and honey-flavored bars and paid closest attention to taste, calories, fat and added sugars. As for the cost, prices range from about $0.50 to $1.50 per bar. Some bars were sold in boxes of 6 or 8, and others were sold individually.
Kashi Honey Almond Flax Chewy Granola Bar
Rating: 4.5
Nutrition Info: 140 calories; 5 grams fat; 5 grams sugar
Our Take: A thumbs-up snack bar all around, this one is made with a variety of whole grains like brown rice, rye, wheat and barley and sweetened with brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice. It’s a bit lacking in the “chewy” department, but that’s because it’s chock full of almonds.
Nature Valley – Oats n’ Honey Bar
Rating: 4
Nutrition Info: 180 calories; 6 grams fat; 11 grams sugar
Our Take: This is the classic go-to bar that you can find in almost any vending machine, grocery store, airport or gas station. It’s made with whole grain rolled oats (which provide 2 grams of fiber) and heart-healthy nuts and canola oil. While it’s a smart choice in the snack machine, this one did rank second highest in sugar as it’s sweetened with sugar, honey and brown sugar.
Bear Naked Fruit + Nut Grain-ola Bar
Rating: 3.5
Nutrition Info: 240 calories; 9 grams fat; 15 grams sugar
Our Take: Tasty but overly moist and sticky, this bar provides 15% of your daily fiber thanks to the oats, fruit and ground flax seeds; it’s sweetened with a combo of dates, maple syrup, honey and tapioca syrup. The Bear Fruit Bar is a bit high in calories and fat but like granola, a lot of this comes from good-for-you-ingredients such as nuts, coconut and other dried fruits. (If you can’t find this in your average grocery store, check out your health food store instead.)
LARABAR – Cashew Cookie
Rating: 4
Nutrition Info: 230 calories; 13 grams fat; 18 grams sugar
Our Take: Any time we talk about snack bars people go gaga for LARA. You’ve got to love a bar with only two ingredients — cashews and dates (all their flavors have impressively simple ingredient lists). Eighteen grams of sugar may seem high but every bit of it is coming from natural fruit sugar. NOTE: The calories may be too much for a snack for some folks; you could always eat half and save the rest for later.
Special K – Honey Nut Cereal Bar
Rating: 3
Nutrition Info: 90 calories; 2 grams fat; 7 grams sugar
Our Take: You can’t miss Special K at the supermarket or in those TV ads, but this bar has a laundry list of processed ingredients. With virtually no fiber to speak of and sweetened with corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, sugar and a tiny smidge of honey, it may be tasty but it will most certainly leave you hungry.
BONUS BARS
Here are some more you might consider trying:
Thumbs up: Cascadian Farms Almond Butter Crunchy Granola Bar
Thumbs down: Quaker Chewy 90 Calories – Low Fat Oatmeal Raisin
TELL US: What bar do you snack on?
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More posts from Dana Angelo White.
Tags: granola bar, snack, snack bar
Kashi GoLean bars are high calorie, but have a good mix of fiber, protein and fat – more of a meal replacement than a hold-me-until-the-next-meal bar… but really good. Also LOVE Gnu bars with their all-nat ingredients 130-140 cals and 12g fiber per bar.
I wish you had included price in your comparisons since cost is a big factor for most of us when choosing products. I posted a recipe for a make-it-yourself snack bar on my blog that uses all natural ingredients, costs very little per bar, and is easy to make.
http://lovetheseproducts.blogspot.com/2010/01/diy…
The best bars I have eaten are the Clif Nectar bars. They are organic, and for example, the cherry pomegranate bar, has only 150 calories, but equals 2 servings of fruit. The dark chocolate walnut is unreal!
I LOVE the Nature Valey Oats and Honey! I eat it alone or crush it and mix it into my yogurt every day as a snack!
I eat all of the bars listed except Kellogs. I am also eating pure protien bar currently and soy joy with fresh fruit for lunch at work. High protien, low in sugar and enough calories to get by on.
I just read your comment on the Nature Valley Oat & Honey bar. What you failed to mention was that the nutritional facts you quoted were for 2 bars not 1. Are the other brands' nutritional breakdown for 1 or for 2 bars?
I love Fiber One Bars! They have a higher sugar content then some, but are absolutely delicious, full of fiber, and very filling– ALL flavors are great!
Lara, Clif, and Kashi are my go-to bars, they’re all great.. all their spin offs are good as well, like the Lara Jocalat bars, Clif Mojo, and Clif Nectar.. Clif also just came out with Clif C bars, which are pretty much like Larabars, just a little smaller and with bigger pieces of fruit and nuts.. Luna bars are also a good bet
I love the Kashi Bars the most. But I buy the Nature's Valley, because they are so much cheaper. The Kashi bars with coconut & dark chocolate are soooo good as a snack. But they are a smaller bar.
I love the Chex Mix Bars (turtle flavor). 130 calories, 3.5 g of fat, and 11 g sugar. Delicious