Review: KIND Almonds & Apricots in Yogurt Fruit & Nut Bar

I've had some decent success with KIND bars on the blog, most of which I've received as a result of a KINDING Mission.  Today's review is no different as I once again picked up a bar via one of those missions and that leads me to this KIND Almonds & Apricots in Yogurt Fruit & Nut Bar.  I was a bit apprehensive to try this one out because I've generally not been a big fan of apricots throughout my life, but hey, when something is free, I feel obligated to try it.  This bar is 1.6 ounces and has 220 calories with three grams of protein.  It's also all natural, gluten free, wheat free, etc., so it's got a lot of positive characteristics going for it, which is not surprising since it is the product of a very generous and aware company.

As the name would imply, this bar is "in Yogurt" so the bar itself starts off with a yogurt base and is topped with a pretty yogurt swirl.  Being that the meat of the bar is entrapped in the middle, the "in" part applies even more here.  That meat of the bar consists of a mix of dried fruits (apricots) and some very large nuts (almonds).  One thing that was also included, which I did not expect at all until I read the ingredient list and took a close visual examination was an abundance of coconut shards throughout the mix.  In fact, there were so many coconut shards that the smell of those shards actually started to overtake the bar itself.  All of this package, along with typical soy crisps, was bound together by honey and the usual syrups.

After taking a bite of this, I was immediately struck by how unbelievably crunchy this was and as a person that always appreciates that characteristic in every food that I eat, that certainly gave me a positive start with this bar.  What also made this kind of fun was that not only was it crunchy in general, but those large almonds provided additional crunch in each bite when you encountered the meat of them.  That crunch is all I got from the almonds because the rest of the flavor was overtaken by the dried apricot chunks, which while bringing some additional sweetness (helped by the honey, of course), were not powerful enough to take over the sweet coconut taste.  As someone who has come to appreciate the flavor of coconut, I liked how strong it was in announcing itself.  For someone that doesn't particularly care for coconut, it would be a major turn-off since not only was the flavor strong at the front of your bite, but that flavor kept on coming in the aftertaste.  As for the yogurt coating on the bottom and top of the bar, it was essentially flavorless but it did bring a melt-in-your-mouth quality and coating to the rest of the bar and with that melting quality, almost lended an air of decadence to this.

Buy It or Fly By It?  KIND sometimes has problems naming their bars correctly and in this instance, that's happened again.  They name their bars after one or two ingredients that really are not the primary flavors of the bar.  In this case, I'll give them the almond part because while they didn't bring a lot of flavor, their crunch was worthy of being a named ingredient.  As for the apricots, while they were noticeable, they weren't the other primary ingredient.  Clearly that was the coconut flavor, so perhaps they bar should be renamed.  Regardless, I'm being picky and splitting hairs here and the only reason you've made it this far is to get the final determination and I determine that this bar gets a BUY IT rating.  I enjoyed that strong coconut flavor, so this bar was a winner for me.  If you aren't a coconut person, definitely stay away from this because it'll make you miserable.

BUY IT!!