Review: Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut Almond Granola Bar

I haven't talked about it in a while, so I'll bring it up here again...I LOVE The Dollar Tree.  If you are bored and looking for something to do, it is definitely an amusing way to waste thirty minutes as you can meander through the aisles looking at all the stupid and funny stuff that they have in stock.  Most of the time, the stuff that you see is trash, but occasionally you encounter a treasure and a recent trip, I encountered one of those treasures to add to my Nature Valley product review catalog with this review of the Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut Almond Granola Bar.  Since I was at the The Dollar Tree, this obviously cost me a $1.00, but I'd imagine that it would go in the $3.00 range in a normal store.  Each box contains five 1.2 ounce bars and each bar has 160 calories and a minimal three grams of protein.

Nature Valley describes these granola bars on their website as "a perfect balance of chewy granola and delicious real almonds, dipped in an almond butter coating."  I'm not sure what a fake almond is or if I've ever had one, but I know that the REAL almonds in this bar were quite large and liberally spread throughout the bar.  They were mixed in with large oat pieces and the the bar had a base of honey roasted almond butter which had a sweet, almost caramel-y smell.  I obviously know it wasn't caramel, but anytime you can fool me and my nose into thinking caramel is present, you've got a good start.  The bar itself was also quite sticky to the touch due to the syrups holding the almond and oat mix together.

As I took my first bite, I was immediately met by the pop of the large almonds and that was quite welcome.  The granola mix itself was just standard stuff, but it did a good job adding some texture to the chew of the bar, especially serving as what I'll call a consistent chew compared to the occasional pop of a large almond.  All in all, it was a salty mix, like the name of the bar would imply.  The sweetness came from the honey roasted almond butter and much like the almonds themselves, the strength of the almond taste in that almond butter was quite strong.  The addition of the honey roasting brought the sweet component to the bar, although the thickness and strength of the almond butter made that a secondary player.  Mixed together though, this bar was both sweet and salty like it promised and being that it had the strong presence of almonds, it delivered in all aspects.

Buy It or Fly By It?  This bar delivered in every single one of its promised components and did so in a quite tasty way, so I give it a BUY IT rating.  I can see how almond butter could be an acquired taste and since I've definitely acquired that taste, I liked this bar a lot and could see it becoming quite addictive.  One thing I will point out though was that this bar was saltier than I would have expected and it did leave me quite thirsty after eating that, which almost never happens when eating one of these snack bars.  I've you are going to dive into one of these, be ready for that.

BUY IT!!