Review: Larabar Chocolate Coconut Chew Bar

I don't know what it is about Larabar products, but when I initially started the blog, I did many reviews of them and did not like most of them.  I then took a break from them and picked them back up later and now, I find myself liking them more often than not.  That seems strange to me that my mind could have shifted so much, but whatever I supposed.  Anyway, it's the recent positive experiences that led me to pick up this Larabar Chocolate Coconut Chew Bar on sale at Kroger for $1.00 and it's 1.8 ounces with 240 calories and a somewhat ample (for Larabar) five grams of protein.

As with the usual Larabar, this bar consists primarily of pureed dates and then the mix-ins are incorporated.  In the case of this bar, the add-ins includes some very large walnuts and almonds, some slivers of unsweetened coconut and some invisible and unsweetened cocoa powder, which is where the chocolate in the name comes from.  What is a curious decision about how they chose to name this bar is that they decided to focus on the coconut ingredient as part of the name instead of the almonds and/or walnuts.  Considering their sizes in relation to the bar in its entirety, I found that to be an odd choice.

When I took my first bite into this bar, this definitely fit the chew part of the name to the letter of the law and it was soft and chewy, as usual.  What was not quite usual was that the plethora and size of the incorporated nuts brought multiple pops throughout the bar.  The walnuts also brought exceptionally strong flavor, which based on my past histories with walnuts, was quite surprising.  In my experience, walnut doesn't typically have a strong flavor.  In this case of this bar, it definitely had a strong flavor and that was beyond surprising to me.  The almonds, on the other hand, had essentially no flavor and were really only there for their textural components.  I would almost say that about the coconut flavor as well as I really didn't taste it until far into the aftertaste and that was probably only because those shards of coconut were getting caught in my teeth.  As for the cocoa powder (chocolate), not only was it unsweetened, but it was almost bitter.  So bitter, in fact, that it was unappetizing and when that bitter flavor was combined with the walnut flavor, it made for something that I did not find particularly appetizing.

Buy It or Fly By It?  One thing Larabar got right with this bar was the balance between chewiness and crunchiness, so it made for an interesting chew through my mouth.  That said, they did not do a good job on concocting the flavor profile and it was worthy of a FLY BY IT rating.  The bar itself had no sweetness and the bitterness of that cocoa powder was a major turn-off.  Had there been some sweetness in this bar, it might have been enough to tilt this into something favorable, but alas, there was no such sweetness and this bar ended up being a disappointment.

FLY BY IT!!