Product Review: Larabar Original Fruit & Nut Bars

[runpunkrun]

LÄRABAR Original Fruit & Nut Bars are gluten free, vegan, and kosher. Their products are clearly labeled, and their chocolate is vegan and doesn't contain soy. In fact, according to their FAQ, the bars don't contain any soy, though they don't claim to be soy free.

I found the fruit and nut bars to have a soft, pleasant texture. Pureed dates and chopped nuts are pressed into in a short, stout bar, and it's satisfying to bite into, easy to chew, and isn't sticky or tough or gritty. Depending on the flavor there might be a bit of crunch from the nuts or chocolate chips, or some chewiness from dried fruit, but the dates are mostly just the flavorless glue that holds everything together. I don't find these very sweet at all, not anything like biting straight into a date, which I did once and will not do again.

Arranged in roughly the order of how likely I am to buy them again:

Cherry Pie: Almonds and tart cherries at the front of this one. Very tasty, and easily my favorite. When they went on sale I bought two boxes. Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Cherries.

Peanut Butter Cookie: Tastes like chunky peanut butter, with just a hint of sweetness. Very good. Ingredients: Dates, Peanuts, Sea Salt.

Peanut Butter & Jelly: Mm, peanuts and cherries, less smooth than the Peanut Butter Cookie—the nuts are chunkier here—but it really does bring to mind a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I've had a couple of these, and the smaller the cherries are chopped the more it reminds one of a PB&J. Ingredients: Dates, Peanuts, Unsweetened Cherries, Sea Salt.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip: I was hoping this would taste like a peanut butter cup and of course it didn't. Still, you can't go wrong with peanuts and chocolate. The chocolate's in little pellets that are just the right size for the bar, and it's semisweet, which means it has added sugar, but I enjoyed its flavor; more gentle than that full-bore bitterness you get from unsweetened chocolate, but still with a nice edge. Ingredients: Dates, Peanuts, Semisweet Chocolate (Unsweetened Chocolate, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract), Sea Salt.

Blueberry Muffin: Smells like grape jelly and...tastes like it too. Way closer to a nut butter and jelly sandwich than any kind of blueberry muffin. The nuts are very mild in this one. Ingredients: Cashews, Dates, Apples, Blueberries, Vanilla Extract.

Lemon Bar: The first bite is lemony in a way that almost reminds me of furniture polish, but it grew on me by the end. Ingredients: Dates, Cashews, Almonds, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Dried Lemon Juice Concentrate, Lemon Oil.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: The chocolate chips are nice and the cashews are mild and buttery. Ingredients: Cashews, Dates, Semisweet Chocolate (Unsweetened Chocolate, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract), Apples, Sea Salt, Vanilla Extract.

Banana Chocolate Chip: Mildly sweet banana flavor, not at all like being socked in the face by a bunch of overripe bananas, which is what I expected. Chocolate still gets a little lost though. Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Bananas, Semisweet Chocolate Chips (Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract).

Chocolate Covered Almond: The chopped nuts are real obvious in this one, but the chocolate's the best part. Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Semisweet Chocolate Chips (Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract).

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip: This tasted like it'd been too close to a banana, so I can't accurately determine its flavor, but I wasn't impressed, mainly because almonds don't taste like anything next to strong flavors like chocolate (or banana). Ingredients: Almonds, Dates, Semisweet Chocolate Chips (Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract), Apples, Cocoa Powder, Sea Salt.

Apple Pie: Tastes like cinnamon and vaguely of apples, and in that reminds one of apple pie. Lots of crunch from the nuts. No sign of the raisins, though, must have been whirred up with the dates. Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Apples, Walnuts, Raisins, Cinnamon.

Pecan Pie: This was kind of slippery when I opened it. Anyway, if you removed all the sugar and the crust from a pecan pie, I imagine this is what it would taste like: pecans. This one was also a little gritty. Ingredients: Dates, Pecans, Almonds.

Chocolate Chip Brownie: The cocoa powder and walnuts make this one kind of bitter, even with the sweetened chocolate chips. Ingredients: Dates, Semisweet Chocolate Chips (Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla), Almonds, Walnuts, Cocoa Powder, Sea Salt.

Cashew Cookie: Tastes—very mildly—of cashews, with some caramel notes from the dates. Very bland, but I liked the dry clay-like texture; very satisfying to bite a piece off. Ingredients: Cashews, Dates.

BONUS:

Almond Butter Chocolate Brownie Protein Bar: Chalky, dry, hard to chew, unpleasant as heck. I took one bite of this and decided to save the rest "for later." Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Pea Protein, Semisweet Chocolate (Unsweetened Chocolate, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract), Cocoa Powder, Sea Salt.

These are convenient and tasty (most of them) and cost about a buck a piece or less if you get them on sale.

Edited: The Larabar FAQ changed between me writing this, and me posting it, so I rewrote the opening paragraph to reflect those changes. Here's what it used to say.

And check out the comments for additional reviews from indywind!

Comments

[indywind]

I tend to find most LARABARS too sweet/not savory enough -- but I'm a salt fiend.
Varieties I like tend to have an intense leading flavor so I don't miss the savory note (Cherry Pie and the citrus ones are faves of the more widely-available varieties). some I like that were not reviewed above:

Gingerbread: Dates, Cashews, Almonds, Raisins, Cinnamon, Ginger, Allspice, Vanilla Extract (tastes like a chewy gingersnap, very gingery and the raisins give a molasses-y tang)

Mint Chip Brownie: Dates, Almonds, Semisweet Chocolate Chips, Cashews, Cocoa Powder, Peppermint Oil (It's the mint. Very very mint. Oh and the there are chocolate chips, but whatever. Mint.)

Snickerdoodle: Dates, Cashews, Almonds, Cinnamon, Sea Salt, Vanilla Extract (Actually contains salt! Not that it's noticeable or anything. I appreciate the cinnamon.)


Carrot Cake:Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Walnuts, Raisins, Dried Pineapple, Unsweetened Coconut, Carrots, Cinnamon, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Another with enjoyable cinnamon taste, plus complex multiple flavors from the variety of individually interesting ingredients. The separate coconut oil (why?) makes it kinda slimy like the Pecan Pie variety.)


I'm interested to try the Pumpkin Pie type, it seems lie it'd be in the spicy complex-flavor zone I like.

[runpunkrun]

I love salt too. At this very moment I'm eating roasted almonds with extra salt. And I agree, these bars do not satisfy a salt craving.

Thanks for adding your reviews!