This Bar Saves Lives

Update Review

Remember when I tried some granola bars made by this bar saves lives, and deemed them almost good?  And I lamented that I didn't get to try the best sounding flavor?  Well, I finally did. 

Peanut Butter & Jelly.

"The Peanut Butter & Jelly bar will bring back the best memories from your childhood. They're packed with crunchy peanuts, sweet strawberries, and creamy peanut butter."

The PB&J uses a different base, it has a "Fruit and Nut Mix", with peanuts, strawberries, cranberries, and peanut butter, rather than the "Nut and Seed Mix" of almonds, sunflower, and flax seeds the others bars use.  To this they add oats and crispy rice, honey and brown rice syrup, and a few other things.  But no flax.  Finally, no flax.

This bar was much more successful.  No bitterness from flax.  I liked the mix of nuts and other crunchy things and the sweet, gooey binding.  And, well, it tasted like pb & j!  Plenty of peanut flavor due to the peanuts and peanut butter.

Hands down my favorite of their bars, and, if I needed a granola bar, I'd get it again.

Original Review, April 2016

How do you not get drawn in by the name of this company?  Saving lives seems ... good?

So I tried some bars from This Bar Saves Lives, because as you know, I'm on an unending quest to find snack bars I actually like.  Like many, the bars tick a bunch of boxes:  the bars are all-natural, non-GMO, gluten-free, kosher, Rainforest Alliance certified, etc.

As you can probably guess from the name of the company, there is a bit more to it, and for every bar you buy, a packet of life-saving food is donated.  So, actually, sorta, the bars save lives.

The bars are available in 4 flavors, I was able to try 3.  Sadly, the one that sounds the best (Peanut Butter & Jelly!) is the one I wasn't able to find.

They are all made with a "Nut and Seed Mix" of almonds, flax seeds, and pumpkin seeds.  The nuts add a great crunch to all the bars, but, I really can't stand flax seed in general, no matter how subtle it is.  The bars are sweetened with brown rice syrup and agave, nicely a bit sticky, and sweet enough to feel like a treat.  All have crispy rice puffs too, again, more crunch that I enjoy.

So, a very solid base for all the bars, crispy and a bit gooey, sweet.  But, none quite did it for me, due to the flax (and, the cranberries they hid in all of them).  As I told Ojan, these were really, really almost good!

 Dark Chocolate Cherry & Sea Salt.

"Packed with crunchy almonds, tart cherries and cranberries, and drizzled with antioxidant rich dark chocolate."

The first one I tried was drizzled in dark chocolate.  Because, chocolate.

It had a good quality dark chocolate drizzle on top and a coating on the bottom.  Unlike many bars, the chocolate wasn't lost and wasn't an afterthought.  The bar had a good crunch, and I liked the crisp rice even.  The tart cherries went nicely with the dark chocolate.  I really wasn't a fan of the cranberries that were snuck in though (not in the name!)

But, the real problem, is that I could taste the bitter flax seeds, and I really don't like flax seeds.  My second favorite of the flavors though, I do like the dark chocolate.

Madagascar Vanilla Almond & Honey.

"Perfectly balanced with subtle notes of vanilla and honey, and packed with crunchy almonds and Omega-3 rich flax seeds."

Next I went for the most boring sounding one.

Again, it had a good base of crispy rice and crunchy nuts, nicely sweetened with agave and brown rice syrup.    I really liked the crispy rice, which is so strange, as I usually don't in bars.  And I liked the crunchy nuts.  And the almost gooey sweetness.  But ... again, the slight bitterness from the flax threw me off.

This was my least favorite flavor, only because it was so plain.

Wild Blueberry Pistachio.

"A delicious and healthy blend of nuts, seeds and antioxidant rich blueberries."

And finally, wild blueberry pistachio.

This turned out to be my favorite of the bunch, and was almost really quite good.  I liked the addition of the pumpkin seeds, and, blueberry and pistachio actually do go together quite nicely, not something I would have expected.

But alas, flax seeds and the cranberries made it not enjoyable in the end.