Alpen Light - Chocolate and Orange
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I've never been a huge fan of cereal bars but as I have recently become aware that I eat far too much chocolate (What's that? There's no such thing as too much chocolate, ah, you're right!) I thought it was about time to start looking for some healthier alternatives. These Alpen bars stood out to me, probably because they were on promotion at my local Asda!


What's in them?
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These bars are made from wholegrain wheatflakes and oats which have been combined with chocolate to give the whole bar a chocolate-y taste. There is also a drizzle (a very small drizzle - the bar is not coated in chocolate) of chocolate on the top of the bar. Other ingredients include fruit puree which gives it the orange flavour, skimmed milk powder and vegetable oil.

Each bar contains 254kJ of energy, and just 60 calories. I found this strange, as on the box they are advertised as being "Under 70 calories" - surely it would be an even better advertisement to say "Just 60 calories per bar"? There is 1g of fat per bar.


The taste
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On opening the plastic wrapper, the faint smell of orange is made aware. The bar is quite small (roughly ¾ of the size of an Aero bar in length I'd say), and at 21g is also very light. The chocolate drizzle on top of the bar does not look too impressive, but for under 70 calories you can't expect lashings of chocolate!

The first bite of the bar gives you a good combination of the chocolate and orange flavourings. The Alpen light bar is quite dry but the chocolate drizzle counteracts some of this. I found the taste of this bar to be a lot better than expected - it's not often you get a chocolate flavoured snack with so little calories present!


The price
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Each pack of Alpen light contains six 21g bars. Packs retail at your average Asda or Tesco's at around the £1.98 which is quite pricey for six cereal bars. They regularly seem to be on promotion however, I picked up two packs of these for £3 at Asda a couple of weeks ago.


The vedict
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Although these aren't the cheapest cereal bars on the market, if you can manage to get these whilst they are on promotion they are worth trying. I wouldn't recommend these to anyone looking for a satisfying treat, as there simply isn't enough chocolate or flavouring in them for this. I also do not think that they would make a substantial alternative to breakfast, as they are a bit too light - they definitely wouldn't keep me going until lunch anyway!

I would recommend these to any dieters or the health conscious looking for something to satisfy their chocolate needs without running their diets. I find the bars give me just enough taste of chocolate to make me feel satisfied (so I can remember what it tastes like!) without leaving me wanting more. They make a good snack for tea breaks at work, and prevent me hitting the vending machine! The calorie content of these bars is amazing - 60 calories per bar (compared to 294 in a Mars bar!) and just 1g of fat (compared to 11.4g in a Mars bar!). So theoretically, you could have four Alpen bars throughout the day and still save calories compared to eating just one standard chocolate bar (although admittedly the Mars does taste better...)

Other bars in the range include summer fruits, apple & sultana and citrus fruits, all of which are under 70 calories. Standard alpen bars are also available at around the same price, and offer a more substantial breakfast alternative, although with double the calories (or more!) present.

Overall, a good product that I shall no doubt be buying again to help me resist the temptation of those Mars bars!