Review: CLIF Mojo Cranberry Almond Fruit & Nut Trail Mix Bar

The CLIF Bar machine is UNSTOPPABLE!  I've spend a large portion of this blog's history doing CLIF reviews and upon perusing my local Kroger ad recently, I noticed that they've put out a new (at least to me) line of bars from their Mojo trail mix bar line and that leads me to today's review of this CLIF Mojo Cranberry Almond Fruit & Nut Trail Mix Bar that I picked up at the aforementioned Kroger on sale for $1.00.  This one clocks in at 1.41 ounces and has 180 calories and five grams of protein.

Being that this is a Fruit & Nut Trail Mix bar, it should come as no surprise that there's a lot of dried fruit and nuts the mix of this bar.  Actually, it seems like that's what most of this bar is in that it has a plethora of large almonds and also large dried cranberries.  It's somewhat sticky due to the dried cranberries and the syrups holding it together, but it's nothing off-putting.  One thing that was fairly unique about this bar is that the inclusion of sea salt, mixed with the nuts, actually made this bar even smell salty.  It's always a surprise when something like that happens.

Biting into this provided me the texture that I expected from a bar that was attempting to emulate fruity and nutty trail mix.  It was alternately crunchy and chewy and alternately sweet and salty.  What was interesting about this though was that it was more salty than it was sweet.  The presence of the sea salt, combined with the nuts, made this one so salty that it overpowered the cranberry flavor until the very end of me chewing each bite.  Only then was I met with a twinge of sweetness and tartness that I would come to expect from a dried cranberry...I just wish it had been a bit more sweet and tart and not overwhelmed so much by the salty flavor.  That's just a personal preference though as I'm more of a "sweet" guy than I am a "salty" guy, although if you met me in person, you'd definitely describe my personality as more salty than sweet.

Buy It or Fly By It?  Despite the fact that this was more salty than I would have liked, I still enjoyed this bar and found it a nice bar approximation of a fruit and nut trail mix.  For that, I give this a BUY IT rating.  It's not a huge bar, but it is one that's going to provide a great snack or light meal replacement if you are on the go (or on the trail) and need something to tide you over.

BUY IT!!