A healthy alternative? (Kellogg's Elevenses)

Member Name: leighsady

Product:	Kellogg's Elevenses
Date:	27/06/08 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Made from wholesome oats and wheat, can be quite filling.

Disadvantages: Too much sugar, the floury taste and the price.

What are they?
************
They like a cross between a cake and a soft biscuit - though Kellogg's like to refer to them as 'Wheat & Oatmeal Bakes'.


Special features?
*************
These are intended as a healthy snacking alternative than chocolate bars and crisps - a sugar booster but with nutritional goodness and benefits. Made with wheat flour and rolled oat cereals with added vitamins and minerals.

Though they are called 'Elevenses' they are by no means restricted to 11 o' clock snacking - they can be eaten anytime of the day - I tend to have them in the afternoons, they're a great sugar boost for the sluggish afternoons.

The 'Elevenses' come in 4 flavours - chocolate, ginger, carrot and raisin.


How do they taste?
****************
I find them just passable - they can taste a little rich and it can feel very filling having one of these, I tend to get that 'eaten too much flour' feeling.

I have only tasted the ginger and the chocolate versions. I prefer the chocolate version as it helps to balance out the floury taste. With the ginger, these are also nice, but the ginger taste can be quite sharp and bitter at times, though again, the flour from the bake does try to counter act this.

The bakes generally have quite a soft texture to them, very similar but much denser than that of a sponge cake. There are also some flakes of oats scattered on top of the bake, so some of the tougher chewy bits may come as a surprise relative to the seemingly safe soft textures of the bake.

Surprisingly, even with the chocolate version, the bake doesn't actually taste too sweet - but each 45g bar shockingly has 16g of sugar.

Overall, the taste is passable - too much of the floury taste as I had mentioned earlier, generally it is the chocolate chips that keep me eating this, but unless I'm hungry this isn't really on top of my list.


Cost?
****
£2.89 for six bars. I feel this is actually a little pricey for what you get, so I don't really buy these unless they're on offer.


Overall?
******
I'm a little on the fence with these - they are not bad, but not exciting enough for me to give them anymore than three stars. One star taken off for the price and the other for the floury filling taste. These appealed to me as they have been marketed to be a healthy alternative snack made from wholesome oats and wheat - but I'm sad to say that all this only accounts for 32% of the bar - the rest is from the high sugars, glucose syrups, vegetable oils and other additives. However, compared with crisps and other sweet cake snacks, these could be seen to be a healthier alternative.



Thanks for reading. xx





©Leighsa 2008

Summary: Better than snacking on sweets and crisps, I guess...