Review: Nature Valley Crunchy Roasted Almond Granola Bars

Nature Valley granola bars are amusing to me.  The are just about the most basic granola bar you can find, but that should be expected due to the fact that they are mass produced for wide audiences by General Mills.  What I also find amusing about them is that when you look at the box, there are two things that stand out, especially on this box of twelve Nature Valley Crunchy Roasted Almond Granola Bars (six two-bar pouches) that I picked up on clearance at Kroger for $1.15.  The first amusing thing is that Nature Valley seemingly sponsors everything including the PGA, Olympic sports, etc.  The second amusing thing is that since these bars come in pouches of two bars, Nature Valley has decided to put nutritional information on the box that includes columns for both a one bar serving and for a two bar serving.  Is their confidence in America's math skills so low that the feel the need to add information for just one bar, despite the fact that you could just divide the one number by two?  As someone that does math constantly all day, that is just mind boggling to me, but maybe that's necessary for people that only do math sporadically.  I don't know.  Regardless, I won't do the math for anyone and I'll just go ahead and say that each two bar pouch clocks in at 1.5 ounces with 190 calories and four grams of protein.

Since all these Nature Valley granola bars pretty much look the same, I'll only touch on it briefly.  The two bars themselves are the standard granola mix of oats, other grains, brown sugar and various syrups.  What makes these granola bars different is that it includes small chunks of roasted almonds and that's really all there is to say about that.  The bars are also quite brittle and crumble quite easily.  Yep, that was pretty simple.

In terms of flavor, it's pretty simple as well.  The bars themselves are crunchy, thus the name, and the roasted almonds add a bit of additional flavor and pop to each chew prior to the bar shattering into a million pieces in your mouth.  Once that crunch dissipates, you are pretty much eating a grainy mess of moderately sweet (from the brown sugar) granola.  It's a basic flavor combination, but it is a tasty one and makes a nice snack.

Buy It or Fly By It?  This is about as basic as they come and as I say often, being basic is often not a bad thing.  The fact that the basic flavor delivered in this is indeed tasty gets this a BUY IT rating.  So, if you are craving almonds and want a crunchy treat, you cannot go wrong by contributing to the General Mills empire by picking this up at your local store.

BUY IT!!