Review: Larabar uber Dark Chocolate Peanut Sweet and Salty Fruit & Nut Bar

After my last Larabar review, I learned something that I did not know before after a reader left a comment on my Facebook page.  Apparently semi-sweet chocolate is considered dark chocolate, so I guess that is how Larabar can call these bars dark chocolate bars.  I was confused by that previously, but not everything is all cleared up.  Once again, I've been educated by a loyal reader.  Thank you!  Anyway, my newly educated self is ready to dive into this review of this Larabar uber Dark Chocolate Peanut Sweet and Salty Fruit & Nut Bar with the knowledge that it truly is dark chocolate.  I picked up this bar on sale at Kroger for $1.00 and each bar is 1.42 ounces with 210 calories and six grams of protein.  It's also kosher and gluten free.

As you can see from this, there are seemingly a lot of ingredients here.  There are the semi-sweet chocolate chips (dark chocolate) mixed plentifully with a variety of nuts, which include almonds, cashews, peanuts and pecans.  For the fruit component of the bar, there's also some dates mixed in there, along with some sea salt and ultimately some honey that helps bind everything together.  Other than the overall abundance of ingredients from a visual perspective, it is worth noting that this bar had a very salty smell as soon as I took it out of the wrapper.  They honey in the mix also lent itself to making this bar quite sticky as well.

As I took my first bite, it was actually surprising how soft and chewy the bar was OVERALL.  That said, there definitely was a lot of crunch in here as the variety of nuts (some big, some small) brought some ample pop to each bite.  In terms of the most prevalent of all the nuts, that victory falls to the peanuts as their flavor along with the sea salt is what stood out the most in this bar.  It wasn't particularly potent, but it was enough that it had a salty "flair" to it in announcing its authority.  One of the reasons that it was not particularly potent was that the dates, vanilla extract and honey within the bar's mix brought just enough of a twinge of sweetness that it did a solid job taming the saltiness that very well could have overrun this bar had it not been tamed.  As for the dark chocolate chips, they didn't bring a whole lot of flavor, but they did bring a melting quality that allowed the nuts and fruits within the bar to have a bit of a creamy quality after they melted.  The chips also helped the dates and honey tame the saltiness of the bar as well.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I'm not going to come out and say that this was the best bar ever, but I did enjoy it and found it worthy of a BUY IT rating.  It had just the right combination of sweetness and saltiness that it did a good job earning the sweet and salty tagline from the name of the bar.  That said, I would make sure that you have some water or some other fluid nearby when eating this because there is a good chance that it's going to make you quite thirsty.

BUY IT!!