Review: Odwalla Original Super Protein Bar

In my first Odwalla review, I was struck by how much the bar looked and tasted like a CLIF Bar, so I was curious to see whether that look/taste would be the same in this review of the Odwalla Original Super Protein bar.  Being that it says out the packaging that it is a fruit and cereal grain bar, I wasn't quite certain.  I picked this one up at Meijer for $1.09, it weighs 2.0 ounces, contains 210 calories and the "super" protein consists of fourteen grams of protein.  That's not real "super" to me...in fact, fourteen grams of protein is fairly pedestrian for a protein bar.  Anyway, onto the review...

Unwrapping it, I was struck by how much this bar looked like an over-sized, yet slightly overcooked, Fig Newton and not the CLIF Bar look that I had expected.  It was a bit harder than a Fig Newton, but it had that look nonetheless.  Looking at the ingredients, it obviously had the exterior made up of cereal grains (oats, wheat, rice crisp) and the fruit interior that was made of raisins chunks, a date puree and small, but visible, coconut bits.  Also on the ingredient list was cinnamon, but I'm not sure if they put that in the interior or in the cereal grain exterior.

Biting into this, I was overwhelmed by the power of the cinnamon taste.  It was cinnamon everywhere at both the front and back end of the chew, so if you don't do cinnamon, don't do this bar.  Being that I do cinnamon A LOT, I was okay with that, although I will admit that I was considering whether this was too much cinnamon.  That's how strong the flavor was.  One other thing I noticed as I first bit into this was how hard it was to chew AT FIRST.  After a couple of chews, it softened up and you could taste the softness of the raisins and the date puree mixed with the slight crunch of the coconut bits.  Without the coconut bits, this would have just felt like a bunch of fruit flavored cereal goo as you chewed it.  With the coconut bits, it added a distinctive and different crunchy mouth-feel and to me, that was quite welcome.  Still, even with the crunch, it did feel like I was eating a Fig Newton and that amuses me to no end.

Buy It or Fly By It?  BUY IT.  I mentioned in my previous review that I like Fig Netwons and when you can put a "super" protein bar that can manage to have a cookie-like taste to it (even with the overpowering cinnamon), you've got a very purchasable product in my mind.  Being that it's only 210 calories, not only does this provide a nice protein punch, but it is low enough of a calorie load that it makes for a nice snack as well.

BUY IT!!