I'll level with you: I spend a ridiculous amount of time on the internet seeking out and subsequently signing up for free samples. Often, I get free samples in my mailbox that I have no memory of signing up for or no earthly idea of why I signed up for that free sample. I guess it's just the "high" of getting something for free in the mail that I'm chasing. Anyway, it's because of that search for a high that I ended up with the subject of this most recent review. I have no idea how or what I signed up for, but one day I checked my mailbox and this Garukabars Raw Honey Primal Energy Bar happened to be sitting in there. After letting it sit around for a week or two, I figured it was time for a review. I wasn't expecting much with the very basic packaging, but hey, free is free. This one comes it at a dense (at least it felt that way) 2.19 ounces with 260 calories and six grams of protein.
As a quick aside, this bar is named for one of the mountain gorillas (thus logo on the front) in the Republic of Congo and a portion of all sales goes to gorilla conservation. I guess that might explain the basic packaging...they are trying to be as minimal in design as possible so that they can donate more money to a good cause. I can definitely get on board with that.
As my superb reading skills have helped me discover from the front of the very spartan packaging, this bar is hand made with whole peanuts, dried cranberries and raw Vermont honey. It's that raw Vermont honey that made this bar exceptionally sticky when I took it out of the wrapper. Once I unstuck the bar from my fingers and gave it a closer look, I obviously got the view that you are getting above and I was astounded by the remarkable size of the peanuts and dried cranberries. I definitely was not being shorted here and being that I paid big money for this bar (wink, wink), I was definitely feeling good about biting into this. One thing to note is that while this bar felt dense while in the packaging, once I unwrapped it, it lost that dense feeling and felt just like any other bar and in fact, a bit more airy than a typical bar. Strange.
Biting into this, it was also airy in terms of mouthfeel as well as what I expected to be a difficult chew was actually an easy chew. In fact, I'd almost classify this as a chewy bar. Adding to that chew was the soft chew of the dried cranberries which brought a nice tang and pop each time I encountered them. The honey in the bar itself brought additional sweetness to the bar and that was counteracted by a hearty and slightly salty peanut butter that counteracted the sweetness of the honey to provide nice balance. The peanuts themselves added a nice pop to the chewy bar when I encountered them and all in all, I could not get enough of this thing.
Buy It or Fly By It? I could not get enough of this bar and despite its fairly large size, I was still wanting more at the end of eating this because it was so darn good, so it gets an obvious BUY IT rating. It was the perfect balance of sweet and salty and I feel that classifying this bar as delicious is not really a stretch at all. All components worked together in perfect harmony and while so many bars try for the sweet and salty combination and fail, this one actually succeeded and I commend them for that. Just a good bar all around.
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| BUY IT!! |
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