Kind Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate

Can this possibly be "good" for you?

The Attraction

After my last review of Odwalla Berries GoMega, I received some emails questioning what was a good healthy snack bar since in my assessment was less than stellar about the Odwalla bar. I didn't have an answer off-hand, but I thought it was fine time to start testing a few so I can recommend some to try as opposed to just give you ones to avoid.

The Review:
I've seen these Kind bars around for a bit. I can't say I was necessarily excited at the idea of trying another "health" bar, but I also think we can't just eat milk chocolate bar and potato chips everyday (although I would probably try). I will say that just by the looks of the transparent wrapper, it looks more appetizing already than some other bars in this "healthy"arena. This bar was not a compressed bar, but it does advertise a bunch of almonds, peanuts and chocolate! However far looks can get you, this was a good start, but as in life, it can only get you so far for so long. Let's see what lies beneath the surface, shall we?

If only all healthy things looked this good

After liberating the Kind bar from the wrapper, it's difficult not to take a second and admire the overall beauty of this bar; from the glistening shine off the assorted nuts to the drizzle of dark chocolate across the bar. As if that wasn't enough, the whole underside is coated in dark chocolate. If looks could kill, I would be in for some serious trouble.

I finally take a bite and it's...every bit as tasty as it looks. Dare I say the abundance of nuts and chocolate in some regards can stand right up there against your perennial snack bar favorites. Think a nuttier Snickers bar. In fact, it's so nutty, it reminds me of another nutty chocolate bar, the Nuggle. Forget about tasty for a "healthy" snack, it's just plain tasty. I will say that although it advertises peanut butter, I don't really detect any. It could be that the bar itself is so full of nuts that it gets lost in the shuffle, but frankly, I forgot about it because I was so surprised at how good it tasted.

I could get used to this!

The Sweet:
Deliciously comparable to many commercially available chocolate snack bars

The Bitter:
Exactly how "healthy" is this?

Conclusion:
I get it, I'm not exactly comparing apples to apples here if I'm putting this up against the Odwalla bar. Most people in the world would probably prefer dark chocolate and nuts vs. compressed oats and cranberries (duh, really?), but let's just let this snack stand on it's own. I can't vouch for how "healthy" this particular Kind bar is, but compared to a standard Snickers bar I would hope it's better for you. In fact, maybe that should be the approach here; maybe in the future when you have a hankering for a "guilty" chocolate snack, instead of reaching for the standard candy store variety, reach for one of these.

Are you going to turn into a supermodel from eating these instead of the customary assortment of chocolate goodies? Not likely, but if you can shave off a few calories along with a few grams of sugar and get some protein in the process as well, what's the harm? Your taste buds certainly won't be upset with this compromise.

Video of the Week

Hope you packed a lunch

Over the course of time, I've come to accept that some people work at their own pace; some a little faster, some a little slower. However in this case, I can't tell if this woman is working at this pace deliberately or she is just a super methodical mover. Whatever it may be, I don't think she would last very long as a bank teller in NYC. Either she would get constantly get yelled at by customers and quit or tons of customers would catch heart attacks from their blood pressure boiling over waiting. (Have you seen how we react to just slow walkers on the street?) 

Nuggle

Ain't nothing like a good "Nuggle" on a cold winter's night

The Attraction:

A few weeks ago I was in a local Duane Reade stocking up on discounted Halloween candy (yes, I'm that guy) when I was walking the aisle and found this candy bar that I have never seen before. It was located in an area with other local ethnic snacks and foods, so I knew I had to give this snack a shot.

The Review:
I can't say I've seen or ever heard of Nuggle or it's manufacturer, The Charles Candy company out of San Juan, Trinidad in the West Indies, so I was really curious what this candy bar might taste like. "Any interesting ethnic flair? Will they incorporate any local flavors? Does chocolate taste the same  made in the West Indies?" were all questions I had racing in my mind when I finally got this chocolate bar home.

I quickly unwrap the chocolate bar and see that as the wrapper proclaimed, there are some serious nuts on this snack! It's like a chocolate covered Thing!

I proceed to take a bite, start to chew and realize you can't chew once without biting into a nut. This is like peanut nirvana for nut lovers! As solid of a candy bar and tasty as this is proving to be, it's also well covered ground by many snack makers previously. Don't get me wrong, it's well made; the nuts are plentiful and the chocolate isn't too sweet, but they aren't bringing anything different to the chocolate bar parade. Think of a Nuggle as a Snickers with three times the amount of nuts and minus the syrupy caramel in between. That sounds pretty good to me.

I see your Snickers and raise you a Nuggle

The Sweet:

Great nut to chocolate ratio, if you are a peanut lover like I am.

The Bitter:
Nothing really new to the snack arena

Might want run, not walk if you have a nut allergy

Conclusion:
OK, so there's nothing groundbreaking here. The tried and true recipe of chocolate and nuts strikes again. Where Nuggle differentiates itself from it's American counterparts is the amount of nuts in this thing. It's crazy. The closest thing I've had with this much peanuts in it in a commercial candy bar is Nutragaeous from Reese's. The only obvious difference between the two is the addition of peanut butter in the Nutrageous candy bar. As much as I loved Nutrageous as seen here, Nuggle is not to be taken lightly either. If loving Nuggle is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Video of the Week
You can always count on the Japanese to leave nothing sacred in the name of entertainment. In this case, it's a game show of who can hold, umm..."air" in the longest while arm wrestling. Seems like a game in which no one really wins if you asked me.

I've seen that face somewhere before

Nagaraya Hot & Spicy Flavor Cracker Nuts

Thank god there's no transfat, otherwise
this might have been the speedball of snacks

The Attraction:
I think I was strolling in the snack aisle awhile back when I saw this brightly colored package screaming at me. Hot and spicy? What are cracker nuts? I've never even heard of the brand Nagaraya before. Reason enough to try a bag.

The Review
After getting these home, I Googled around and discovered that Nagaraya is a Filipino food company that also sells corn starch and water systems? Maybe life is just a whole lot simpler in the Philippines, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've actually had this bag lying around at home for a while. Somehow other snacks would keep leapfrogging this offering. Well, one day I just brought them to work so I can sample them along side with some of my co-coworkers. The reaction was mixed in the office, although after putting a few in my mouth, I was pretty definite about my thoughts on this item.

These "cracker nuts" were coated with a powder of some sort when I poured them out. I put one or two of "deez nuts" in my mouth and immediately the salt on them triggered a sodium alert in my brain. I've eaten and been fond of many a salty snack in my day (pretzels, various forms of jerky, preserved seafood products, etc.), but this damn thing was super, over-the-top salty! I bit in and there was a nice crunch to the cracker nut. Once the saltiness flavor subsided, the rush of heat came on like the 2nd punch of a "1-2 boxing combination". These were pretty dang spicy as well.

This may be the first time I felt nuts kick back

The Sweet:
Texturely speaking, the cracker nut is fun to eat. There seems to be a crunchy shell surrounding a nut inside. It's fun to chomp down and crunch on. The spicy finish brings some serious heat. Frankly,more than I was expecting, but that was a good thing.

The Bitter:
Salty! Super doggone salty! Way saltier than any snack really should be. That was enough to kill any thoughts of having more than a handful at one time...unless you want to trigger a heart condition of some sort.

Conclusion:
Although there are some nice characteristics from this snack, the over-generous application of salt on this snack is enough to squash any hopes of a return engagement with these cracker nuts. Perhaps the other flavors will bring a lighter hand with the seasoning application, but I'm not particularly hopeful.

Although some co-workers said they liked the cracker nuts, at the end of the day, the bag remained about 3/4 full. I think that speaks for itself.

Video of the Week
We are wrapping up Thanksgiving this week in America, but in order to make sure we weren't totally glutinous from all of the holiday feasting, we thought it was a wise idea to put the treadmill to work. It's only the right thing to do for our bodies.

Meanwhile, at my house