Sunday, April 29, 2012

Review: Quaker Chewy Smashbar Graham Pretzel Bar


Having made my way through and having reviewed nearly every original Quaker Chewy bar that exists and also one from bar from their Smashbar line of products, I was curious to try out another flavor in their Chewy Smashbar line and that led me to this Graham Pretzel bar.  With the same dimensions (0.84 ounces) as the original Chewy bars and also roughly the same calorie count (90 calories) as a lot of the originals, this bar is very similar to those originals.  For reference, I picked a box of eight of these at Meijer for $2.49.



Texture wise, this is dramatically different than a regular Chewy bar.  Okay, maybe dramatically is too strong a word, but it is quite different.  This bar, instead of a granola base, is made up of a graham cereal base.  Mixed in with that graham cereal base are several quite large chunks of pretzel and some large semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I have to say that at least visually, the add-ins in this bar are impressive.  Everything is then all bound together with corn syrup and molasses.

In terms of taste, the one flavor that jumps off the page, or bar to be precise, is the pretzel flavor.  It's salty, crunchy and quite noticeable.  The graham cereal, on the other hand, really offers no noticeable flavor and really is just there for additional crunch.  There might be a hint of sweetness in that cereal mix, but that could also becoming from the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Neither of which stand out though and they both only add a minimal sweetness to the bar.  I wish this bar was a bit more sweet, because the strong and salty flavor of the pretzels needs something to counteract it.  Still, this does have good flavor and especially impressive crunch, so this is a winner.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I give this one a BUY IT rating, with one caveat:  do not buy this and eat it for breakfast unless you really, really love salt.  Unlike the original Chewy bars which can double as a snack bar or something for breakfast, this Graham Pretzel bar does not really work as a breakfast item because of its salt factor.  It would work great as a snack item though and that's how I plan on eating it going forward.

BUY IT!!

4 comments:

  1. it didnt strike you as too dry (and styrofoamy)?

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    Replies
    1. It did, although I guess I describe that taste more as overly salty and not dry and styrofoamy.

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  2. Hershey's briefly made a Sweet & salty pretzel granola bar, now that was my idea of an awesome pretzel bar!

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    Replies
    1. LUNA has a really good one too in their Peanut Honey Pretzel bar that I've reviewed. If you can get over the fact that the bars are "for women" (I'm able to get over this), try it out because it is really darn good. Here's the review:

      http://www.crazyfooddude.com/2012/03/review-luna-peanut-honey-pretzel-bar.html

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