Let me start by saying that I am not on a diet and I do not normally purchase “diet products.” I bought this think Thin bar solely because I flipped out that it was chocolate covered strawberry flavored. Sounded delicious to me, so I ignored the capitalized “Thin” and the various other blurbs about how now you can have your dessert and eat it too and other marketing bullet points that alluded to real pleasure suppression as the avenue to weight loss.

:::Steps off soap box:::

If I’d have seen this ingredient list before I tossed it in my shopping basket I would have probably put it back on the shelf. Very little real food in there. There are 0 grams of sugar and 15 grams of protein and the bar clocks in a 200 calories. Those are pretty good stats…as long as it tastes good. (I think you know where this is going.)

Appearance: A nice size. Covered in a chocolate coating that appears a bit waxy and fake but nothing too alarming.

Texture: Soft, pasty, and homogenous. Reminds me a bit of marzipan with the smooth but subtle grittiness.

Taste: Oh. My. GAD. GROSS!! This is the single worst bar I’ve ever tasted so far in my life. It’s like a giant squishy metallic-tasting vitamin paste covered in colored beeswax. But what about the strawberry flavor, you ask? Nearly non-existant. It tastes a bit like if they took that thick gluey strawberry glaze you get on top of diner cheesecakes, mixed it with cherry cough syrup, diluted and aerosolized it, and then misted it around the room that the bars were made in. Faint but distinctly gross.

Overall, the one word I would have to use to describe this bar is OFFENSIVE. Not just offensive in flavor, but I am genuinely offended that anyone would have the gall to market this a satisfying and healthy dessert replacement. At 200 calories, you could probably eat 2 or even 3 real chocolate covered strawberries and be putting healthier things in your body than this fake crap. It saddens me to imagine that some poor woman might choke down this awful concoction in lieu of a real dessert because she thinks this is all she can have.

This bar was pretty cheap and I still feel like I got ripped off.

July 1, 2011 Alayna Discussion 6 comments

I LOVE ginger. I love it in soup, in tea, in applesauce, in ice cream, pickled, raw, any way you can dream it I will love it.

So when I was shopping for bars to review on the site and I came across this lemon ginger Flavor & Fiber bar by Gnu Foods, I was like “Oooo! That’s definitely for me!” In the excitement of finding such a zesty flavor that so perfectly tingled my tastebuds, I failed to realize that this was a bar being marketed as a regularity helper. Oh well. I really just do not get how trendy fiber is right now, but if the bar tastes good then I guess I don’t care.

This is certainly the best-looking ingredient list out of the bars I’ve reviewed so far. Lots of fibery stuff followed by some fruits and of course ginger. I got a little worried that with ginger so low on the list that it might not taste very gingery after all.

It has 130 calories, so it won’t hold off your hunger for too long. With only 10 grams of sugar and all of it coming from fruit sources, this bar is definitely a good choice for a snack and doesn’t edge into the “dessert replacement” category. Since this bar is touting itself as a fiber source, I’ll tell you that it has 12 grams of the stuff.

The bar is definitely a substantial size, no misleading packaging here.

Appearance: Nice golden brown color and plenty of visible textural stuffs. The flax and millet grains are in-your-face and the ingredients look pretty evenly distributed overall. Smells heavily of spicy ginger with a mellow rather than sour lemon aroma.

Taste: Any fears I had that this would not be gingery enough were cast away at first bite! It had a very fresh and real ginger flavor, not fake or faint. It was mildly tingly and warming and with the hint of zesty citrus it really reminded me of a hot cup of ginger-lemon tea with honey. So, so tasty.

Texture: Lightly chewy with firm whole oats and lots of tiny seeds that pop in the mouth without being hard or crunchy. Very enjoyable.

Overall I really enjoyed this rather unusual bar. I think it’s a great break from all the same ole flavors you see everywhere like peanut butter or apple cinnamon. I really feel like a lot of people would pass this up if they’re not looking exclusively for a fiber supplement, which is a shame because it doesn’t taste “fibery” at all. This one might become a repeat for me.

Are you a ginger fan?

June 26, 2011 Alayna Discussion 3 comments

Wanna hear something crazy? I’m not really a huge fan of marshmallow. I know, there’s something wrong with me.

It may come as no surprise then that I have never really understood the hype surrounding s’mores. I mean, sure they’re good, but they don’t make my eyes roll back in my head at the mere mention of them like they seem to do for some people.

But, something about the drippy chocolate and barely toasted marshmallow “O” on the packaging for this Halo S’mores bar by Pro Bar caught my eye. It might have also had something to do with the fact that the graham cracker letters look more like shortbread to me with their golden hue and intentional dimples, and I am nothing if not a sucker for a butter-laden crumbly shortbread.

The ingredient list is a bit lengthy, but nothing too scary to be seen on it.

Surprisingly, although this bar is obviously trying to sell itself as a dessert replacement, the sugar content is lower than I would have expected at a mere 13 grams. And at 150 calories it stands no chance of making a dent in your healthy eating habits, or your hunger for that matter.

Appearance: The bar is about the size I expected from the size of the packaging. The look of it however, is nothing like what I expected. I knew it wasn’t going to look exactly like the cute packaging letters, but I at least hoped that it would be layered or have distinguishable graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallow pieces. I guess it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it tastes good, right?

Taste: Well it doesn’t….taste good that is. Or I guess it tastes fine, but it doesn’t taste even remotely like a s’mores bar. In fact, it doesn’t taste even remotely like graham crackers or marshmallow and the chocolate is a bit off-tasting as well. I guess the flavor that stands out the most to me is brown rice syrup, followed by oats, not surprising since those are the first two ingredients.

Texture: Reminds me a lot of a chewy granola bar, lots of oat pieces and other unidentifiable bits of “healthy-tasting” things. There were approximately 3 chocolate chips, all of them on one side of the bar and some weird clump of sugar on the other.

Overall, this bar is hugely disappointing. I might have liked it if it were not marketed as a dessert because it set my expectations too high. There is no way in hell anyone would be satisfied with this as a dessert replacement, it is decidedly undessert-like and tastes nothing like the dessert it claims to imitate. It also didn’t do much to take away my snack cravings with such a low calorie count. 100% sure I won’t be buying again.

What dessert would you most enjoy recreated in bar form?

(Again, unless otherwise stated, these “bar exam” reviews are all unsolicited and reflect my true opinions of the product.)

June 20, 2011 Alayna Discussion 3 comments