I was at a family gathering recently and my brother started talking about his diabetic son and how it was difficult for them to find sugar free products for him to eat. Up until that point, I had thought of my Walden Farms reviews as appealing to the dieters of the world, but it never crossed my mind that my reviews could be read by diabetics looking for sugar free products that would allow them to eat more like a "normal" person. I'm glad that aspect was opened up to me because I had started to get bored of reviewing Walden Farms products all the time, despite the fact that I like them a lot. So armed with this new lease on life, so to speak, I'm led to this review of the new-ish Walden Farms Chocolate Peanut Spread. I picked this up via Netrition.com and it was $3.79 for the twelve ounce jar. As always, it's calorie free, sugar free (relevant to this intro), etc.
For those of you that haven't read my review of Walden Farms' peanut spreads before, their texture can best be described as kind of a cross between something squishy and something gelatinous. It's almost like a somewhat softened butter, I guess. As you can see from the picture above, that certainly applies to this spread and it's color is more of a dark brown as opposed to the lighter brown of peanut butter, which is of course due to the inclusion of chocolate. In terms of its scent, it doesn't quite smell like chocolate and it doesn't quite smell like peanut butter either. It's some sort of amalgamation that I can't really describe other than to say it is unique. There are no other add-ins or notable factors to describe, so it was time to dive in!
The flavor of this is tough to describe as well. For those of you that have had their peanut spreads before, you know what that flavor is like. It's kind of like an almost peanut, but if you were blindfolded, peanut would not be the flavor you identified. It's kind of off and takes some getting used to, but once you are used to it, it's not bad. That peanut flavor is then balance by what is called a chocolate flavor, but again, it's not quite chocolate but something along that road. Having had the plain peanut spread before, I knew that this was closer to chocolate than the usual, but I definitely would not classify this jar as the combination of chocolate and peanut butter like so many people love so much. One thing I will note though is that the combination of these two flavors is quite rich and it's that richness that makes it appealing and almost tricks your mind into thinking you really eating a production that is a combination of those two flavors. It definitely wasn't "Natural Rich Chocolate Peanut Flavor" like the jar implied it would be, but if you can almost trick someone's mind, I'd say you are off to a decent start.
Buy It or Fly By It? I wasn't overly impressed by this, but despite my lack of unbridled enthusiasm, I'll give this a BUY IT rating. I ate a couple small spoonfuls of this by itself to try and nail down the actual taste, but once I spread it on some animal crackers and rice cakes, I liked it even more, so that just goes to show that you should use this as a spread (like intended) instead of foolishly eating it by itself as goofs like me do. If you eat it the proper way, you may learn to like this as well.
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| BUY IT!! |
Hmm I wonder if it's able to melt down into a syrup for a sundae. That would definitely make for a healthier pb sundae alternative.
ReplyDeleteIt does melt because I've done it before to soften it up to spread a little better, but it won't melt into something that you could use as a syrup. I don't think it'll break down that well.
DeleteI like most of the Walden Farms products, but I probably would not like this spread because I really dilike the PB spread.
ReplyDeleteI also hated the PB spread, but surprising, I like this! It is really good to dip celery in. Really.
ReplyDeleteThe Diabetic thing is why I'm here; I'm a UK based, fairly new diabetic [also because of transplant/immunosuppression issues] and am trying to go properly sugar free. I can tell you, it's a lot harder than I expected... at least in the UK. I've spoken a bit with specialists, I've gotten some Diabetic recipe books, and I was surprised how NOT focused on cutting out sugar they are for Type 2. The recipes books, including one by a diabetic charity, have lots of sugar listed, not even suggestions for sucralose or other alternatives, and in supermarkets there's no diabetic sections [I hear you have those in USA :p] Advice is to eat unprocessed foods as much as poss, balance carbs well, mostly complex carbs, eat lots of fruit and veg, seeds, pulses, grains. And there's nothing wrong with that advice, but there's this huge blindspot as far as recreating normal foods without a sugar spike. The attitude here is "use the sugary ingrediants and just have only a tiny bit of your resulting food". Surely lots of things could be eaten in a normal size if you used fake sugar, It's so strange. Something as simple as trying to make flapjacks [that's granola/oat bars] with something other than sugary syrup or fruit juice turns into an entire internet trawl, like a science project. That's how I found you, and your reviews of Waldens, which is one of the only apparently legitimate companies selling good sugar free stuff available to the UK. I never heard of them or know anyone who tried them, I went googling them to make sure they don't sell snake oil!
ReplyDeleteKeep it up dude, I'm sure there's lots of USA and UK [and anywhere else really] readers who appreciate your no nonsense, clear and comprehensive reviews; you certainly sped up my investigation. Others will feel the same way... when they find you that is. I googled Waldens review and there you were. I bet alot of people don't even think to search for food bloggers like you :)
I tasted the peanut butter, and hated. In the first spoonful until looked promising, but in the end the flavor was kind of chemical, not quite explain. Deeping bitter. Were several sips of water and gum to take the bitter taste out of my mouth. Do not know about this chocolate. I have until willingness to prove, but I know it. The other was such a disappointment, I'm afraid.
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