In my previous Odwalla reviews, I've been taken aback by the remarkable similarities of these bars to to Fig Newton cookies and also indirectly to CLIF Bars. So, when I grabbed this bar out of my refrigerator, I have expected the same soft, gooey texture again and was actually kind of looking forward to it with the flavor combination in this Chocolate Chip Peanut bar. I mean, chocolate chips and peanuts...there are better things in the world, but not many. So, I dove into this 2.0 ounce bar that I picked up at Meijer for $1.09 that contained 230 calories and seven grams of protein feverishly.
Well, my first observation was that this one did not seemingly have the Fig Newton/CLIF Bar qualities, at least externally. This one was a bit harder and more solid than the other Odwalla bars that I had tried and while I was not for or against that in anyway, it just wasn't what I was expecting. In fact, this bar looked more like an actual cookie and seeing that, I was sort of pumped because everyone in their right mind likes cookies. When I broke this in half, I encountered several large semi-sweet chocolate chips and also several small bits of peanuts, so in terms of promised ingredients, they were all there. Since this is marked as a fruit and cereal grain bar, the bar also contained oats and a fruit puree of dates and plums (what the?!). The bar was all bound together with peanut butter and various organic syrups.
Biting into this, the first thing I noticed was that this was not soft and doughy at all. In fact, it was crunchy, sort of like a stale cookie. Sometimes crunchy cookies are fine, but in this instance, I didn't think it worked well. It wasn't rock hard and did have some softness, but compared to the other Odwalla bars, I might as well of been chewing a brick. I chewed on though and each time I encountered one of the large semi-sweet chocolate chips, I was met with a firm crunch but not really any touch of sweetness at all. I wasn't expecting pure sugar, but semi-sweet means at least semi-sweet, right? The peanuts (more like bits) did add a small crunch and slight peanut flavor, as did the peanut butter, but the primary flavor in this entire bar was just oats and those oats were dry. Dry oats with a bit of crunch. I like oats, probably more than most people, but if I've got chocolate and peanuts, I'd expect to at least taste some of those. In this bar, I really didn't.
Buy It or Fly By It? This was just a boring oats bar and despite my love of oats, I have to give this a FLY BY IT rating. It was just too boring. Frankly, this is just something you blindly chew on for something to do when you don't have anything else to do, because you aren't going to have any sort of experience from this bar, whether it be positive or negative.
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| FLY BY IT!! |
Eating food bars for taste and enjoyment is nice, but I eat these on the go, between meals, for nourishment and sustenance. Coupled with a protein shake, these have a decent amount of low GCI carbs, enough to do the job. Don't be such a baby when it comes to food. Really, fig newton qualities? You're killin' me dude.
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