I've done a few reviews of cereal bars and yoghurts so by now you'll know I'm a bit of a snacker at work. I get so much hungrier on weekdays than weekends and I'm sure it's because I'm just sitting at my desk relatively bored and notice the hunger more than I do when I'm off climbing mountains. So 10.30's about the time I'll crack and devour a yoghurt or snack. Being a bit of a MoneySaver too, I have no loyalty to a particular brand, opting instead for whatever's on offer, as I'm sure many others also do In The Current Economic Climate.

Today's snack was an Alpen Light bar - Chocolate and Fudge variety. Alpen is probably the most famous and respected brand of muesli in the country if not the world and the name to me suggests healthiness and quality.

Alpen Light bars come in four varieties: Chocolate & Fudge, Summer Fruits, Apple & Sultana and Chocolate & Orange. Being the health monster I am of course I went for the Chocolate & Fudge! These boxes of five retail at about £1.65 but I got 2 for £2 on offer in Asda.

The box shows a photograph of the muesli bar and some chunks of chocolate and fudge, against a backdrop of the Alps. There's a fair bit of text on the back explaining how good for you the bars are: less sugar and half the fat of regular Alpen bars, contain a prebiotic to aid healthy digestion, high in fibre, nutritious oats, less than 70 calories per 21g bar... Yuk they sound horrible!

Inside the box, each Alpen Light bar is wrapped in a foil wrapper, again decorated with mountains, chocolate and fudge. When I first opened it, I have to admit I was surprised at how small the bar was compared to what the packaging suggests. Forgive the incongruous comparison, but it was about the size of a limp fish finger. Nor does it look particularly exciting, just like a normal muesli bar really, but you can see the pieces of fudge in it and there's a very small drizzle of dark chocolate on top. There is however a fantastic fudgy smell which becomes apparent immediately upon opening the packet, made my mouth water in spite of the not-too-appetising muesli bar in front of me.

The taste though is quite simply scrummy. Much more chocolaty than it looks and the fudge pieces are fairly strong and rich. It has a very chewy consistency which actually gave me mild jaw ache, but it's easy to bite into and you can pull bits off without getting sticky fingers. I would give this variety five stars except for the fact that it just isn't substantial enough. Yes, 70 calories is hardly any and that's very low for a product like this, but if it's not doing anything to fill you up then it's almost as though it's 70 calories where you could have had none.

Actually upon checking the nutrition info for this review I find that each bar only contains 62 calories which is quite a bit less than 70. In that case I think I'd be forgiven for having two, after all 124 calories is still fairly low isn't it?! In fact, if you ate the whole box that's still only 296 kcal - I'm sure that's about the same as one Mars Bar! Each 21g bar also contains 1.3g fat and 0.07g of salt. They do contain wheat, barley, oats, milk and soya (and a whole flavourings, emulsifiers and acids, suggesting that this might not be the most natural brand after all); and may contain traces of nuts.

More info on these and the whole Alpen range can be found at: http://www.weetabix.co.uk/brands/alpen-bars/