Ok reviewing a food product that isn't chocolate, well ok it contains a little bit of chocolate, well the bottom half is coated in chocolate, Ok I admit it, I'm a chocoholic.

I occasionally get a bit peckish around 11am and I'm often reaching for a chocolate bar or a few biscuits etc. I decided I needed something that was a bit more filling and perhaps slightly better for me with the emphasis on the slightly. I was aimlessly wondering round my local tesco direct when I saw these. Now I'm normally a "Kellogg's' chocolate chip elevenses bar" man but these caught my eye and decided to give them a go. They cost me £1.39 for a box of 5 bars which wasn't too expensive.

On opening one of the individually wrapped bars the smell of the chocolate is the first thing I notice. This is followed by quite a sweet smell. This is slightly reminiscent of golden syrup. The bars are quite small but they are very filling they contain oats which are a medium GI food but I think that they have been a bit mean with the raisins. The bar is drizzled in milk chocolate and the bottom third is coated in a thin layer of chocolate.

On biting through the texture is quite firm but slightly chewy. The chocolate is fairly smooth and the cereal part gives a slight crispness to it. The nuts are too finely chopped to add anything to the texture was slightly disappointing. Whilst the box claims that they are 'moist' I actually found them to be a little dry.

The initial taste is sweet and the chocolate although creamy is not the best quality which was a disappointment and it was probably good there wasn't too much of it. There is a taste of golden syrup in these bars, which is strange as it isn't on the ingredients list. The flavour of the hazelnuts does come through but this is more towards the end of each bite. On the cereal side the main taste is that of the oats that is the most noticeable. As a fan of any oat biscuits this is good for me. There is also a fairly strong fruit smell in these but it doesn't really fit the rest of the bar.

The aftertaste is however not a clean one it is slightly oily which I am not a fan of. There is a slight lingering taste of hazelnuts but I haven't yet unearthed the taste of the almonds. I tend to eat them with a cup of coffee and this tends to mask the aftertaste.

Another downside is that the little bits of cereal get trapped in your teeth and I tend to think that I should go and brush my teeth after eating one.

Nutritional info - per bar

Energy - 125 kcal
Protein - 2.1
Carbs - 20.1g (sugars 11g)
Fat - 3.9g (saturated 1.7g)
Fibre - 0.5g
Salt - 0.09g


Overall opinion:

Whilst these do make a good snack bar they really need either a coffee or a cup of tea to have with it. They may not be the best cereal bars that you can buy but there are far worse out there. I would buy these again as they did make a change but they are not going to make a regular appearance in my kitchen cupboard. Whilst they now claim to have increased the amount of fruit in the bars I still feel that there is a lack of the raisins in these bars.