Review: Elisabeth Hasselbeck's NoGii Nuts About Nuts No Gluten Paleo Bar

My last (and first) NoGii review led off talking about how polarizing a character Elisabeth Hasselbeck is, so the fact that the bar was so bland and boring was amusing to me.  Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I decided that NoGii should get another shot on the blog in search of perhaps a better experience than I had already had.  Everyone has a boring product every now and then, right?  Why would NoGii be any different?  So, it is with that perhaps sense of unfounded optimism that I picked up this Elisabeth Hasselbeck's NoGii Nuts About Nuts No Gluten Paleo Bar at Marsh for $2.49.  It's 1.50 ounces and 200 calories with five grams of protein.

As you can see, this bar looks a heck of a lot like the famous (or perhaps infamous) Larabar.  It's a bar consisting of a date puree with a smattering of nuts, large and small, spread throughout the very sticky bar.  The nuts include some very healthily sized pistachios and then a ground up mess of almonds and cashews.  For good measure, NoGii has also thrown in some sunflower seeds and honey.  It's all natural and so good that a caveman would at least try to eat it, or so they say.

After biting into this soft and chewy bar, my immediate and prevailing taste was that of pistachios.  Now, I am okay with pistachios, but sometimes I get tired of how salty they can become.  In the case of this bar, that saltiness is really all I tasted and it overpowered the bar.  While I thought the dates and honey would provide some sweetness to try and balance out that salty flavor, they did not and they ended up getting overpowered by that salty pistachio flavor.  It was all salt, all the time.  That salty pistachio flavor also overpowered the almonds and cashews and all they really did was provide some grainy crunch (along with the sunflower seeds) to break up the chewiness of the date puree that was the bulk of the bar.

Buy It or Fly By It?  For the second consecutive time, I have to give a NoGii product a FLY BY IT rating.  It's not because it is boring like the last review because I did like the texture of this, this time it is due to the fact that there is just too much salt here.  So much salt, in fact, that I basically ended up drinking a gallon of fluid before I went to bed.  It was insane.  Anyway, if you are looking for something salty, this is right up your alley.  If you are looking for something that is a balance of sweet and salty, you'll probably find better options elsewhere.

FLY BY IT!!