Kashi Bars

Remember those "7 Whole Grains on a Mission"?  While that tagline has been retired by Kashi, the brand is still a big player in the breakfast and snack food market, with a focus on using healthy whole grains.

"At Kashi, we believe that what you put in your body directly impacts what you get out of life. We know that by combining plant-based, nutritious ingredients in our cereal and bars we can make choosing wholesome a little easier. And we do it all while carefully considering our farmers, our food chain, and our planet. Because, after all, we're all in this together." 

Kashi has a huge product selection at this point, literally, 90+ products (!), including breakfast goods like hot and cold cereal, frozen waffles, and breakfast bars, plus snack bars, cookies, crackers, and crisps, and for a while, they even made frozen entrees, rice, and pizza.  Basically any where those whole grains can go on their mission, they will go.

The focus of this review is the assorted bar offerings, I'll focus on breakfast cereals in a separate review.

Soft-Baked Cereal Bars 

"Kashi® Soft-Baked Cereal Bars are baked up toasty and golden with real fruit and wildflower honey for natural goodness you can see and taste."

Since Kashi's main focus is the breakfast scene, it makes sense that one of their bar offerings is a breakfast bar, a soft baked cereal bar.  The Seven Whole Grains make an appearance here, with each bar delivering 11g of whole grains and 3g of fiber.

I used to eat a lot of Kellogg's Nutrigrain cereal bars as a very quick breakfast on my way to class in college, so I was interested to see what a slightly more sophisticated version would be like.  The Kashi offerings did remind me of Nutrigrain, except, well, they just weren't as good.  The actual cereal bar part was better, more complex and hearty tasting - I guess 7 whole grains do make a difference.  But there wasn't any additional topping like the oats on top of a Nutrigrain, and the amount of filling wasn't enough to stand up to the cereal part, for me.

Cereal bars are available in 3 flavors: "Ripe" Strawberry, Mixed Berry, and Chocolate.  I only tried the fruity ones.

Ripe Strawberry Baked Cereal Bar.

"Bright, ripe strawberries give our wholesome soft-baked bars a sunny, yummy taste."

This was the first flavor I tried, as I thought it would be the best.  I was sad to see that there was no extra crunchy topping, like with Nutrigrain bars.

But the real problem was the amount of strawberry filling.  There just wasn't nearly enough.  It was fine filling, a bit sweet, but, it got very lost inside the bar itself.  Too much bar, too little filling.  I liked the cereal bar part, but, without an additional topping, or any flavor from the filling, it was too plain.

**+.

Blackberry Graham Baked Cereal Bar.

"With these soft-baked cereal bars, every bite of blackberry is wrapped in warm honey graham goodness."

I moved on to a blackberry bar, now discontinued (replaced with a mixed berry version with strawberry & blueberry in the mix alongside the blackberry).

It was very similar to the strawberry flavor.  Same soft crust that just wasn't very exciting, no topping, blackberry flavored paste inside.  I was glad the blackberry paste did not contain seeds, since I dislike blackberry seeds.

Overall, it just seemed dry and boring.  Again, just a lot of cereal crust.

**+.

Granola Bars

Chewy

"Our chewy granola bars are truly lovable. They bring our unique blend of Seven Whole Grains and Sesame together with whole, roasted nuts, succulent, sun-dried fruit, and a touch of wildflower honey. And with 4g of Fiber and 6g of Protein, they are as nourishing as they are tasty."

Most of Kashi's bars are granola bars, chewy style.  They come in 6 flavors, none of which really pretend to be super indulgent.  Kashi isn't marketing to those who want a "Birthday Cake" or "Brownie" or "Apple Pie" as their granola bar, rather, they focus on the nuts and seeds used, e.g. "Honey Almond Flax" or "Chocolate Chip Chia".  Exciting?  No, but they at least aren't a surprise.

I've tried a number of Kashi's Chewy bars.  They are all standard, chewy style granola bars, which I do like.  But ... none of them have ever tasted nearly as good as the star ingredients sound (even when that star ingredient is something simple like dark chocolate, mocha, or even almonds).  I know I'm not the target audience, as a big part of my problem with them is that, well, they are too healthy.  I don't particularly LIKE that signature mix of Seven Whole Grains, that yup, show up here too.

 Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Chewy Granola & Seed Bar.

"Rich dark chocolate chunks and slightly sweet and tart pomegranate combine with chewy whole grains to create a delicious snack."

I started with the most interesting sounding of the bars, featuring dark chocolate and pomegranate.  This one is now discontinued.

Ok, so I don't know what happened to my bar.  I know it is a soft bar, and I threw it into my bag, but, when I opened it, a bar it was not.  A pile of components, yes, but certainly not a bar.  It didn't seem just smushed though, as every single component really was separated from the others.  I've never seen this happen before with a bar.

Anyway, looks aside, I pressed on.  I liked the chunks of dark chocolate, and, since they were separated from everything else, it was easy to just eat the chocolate.

As for the rest ... I wasn't a fan.  I did not like the bitterness from the chia seeds, nor the tartness from the pomegranate (both little dried arils and juice), nor the puffs of brown rice.  Meh, definitely not for me.

**, for the chocolate bits.

Chocolate Almond & Sea Salt ... with Chia.

"Sweet and salty flavor plus ALA omega-3 from chia make up one deliciously nutritious, chewy granola bar."

So, I missed the little "with Chia" description on this when I grabbed it.  In fact, I didn't realize that was my problem with the bar, until I went to write this up.

But, let me back up.

The bar was a standard chewy-style bar, and in this case, it didn't fall apart like my previous one.  It looked pretty good, with bits of almond and chunks of dark chocolate that looked quite tempting.

But ... it was bitter, in a strange way.  I initially blamed those 7 Whole Grains, but, I'm pretty sure it was the chia I tasted, and disliked.   But again, the dark chocolate pieces were nice.

**, again just for the chocolate bits.

[ No Photos ]

I've also tried many others, but failed to take photos of them.

• Dark Mocha Almond: "Roasted almonds, dark chocolate, espresso and the goodness of whole grains — these bars are an anytime treat you can't wait to eat." Tasting notes: Not goeey like most chewy granola bars, but also not crisp like crunchy ones.  Somewhat in-between, and I would have liked a softer texture.  The small dark chocolate chips were quite good though, and the mocha flavor was subtle but good.  Lots of whole almonds, so the almond component was not lost.  But overall, not particularly interesting. **+.
• Honey Almond Flax: "Nutty and nutritious, our chewy almond bars are made with a sprinkling of flaxseeds and a hint of wildflower honey." Tasting notes: This was basically just standard Kashi cereal in a bar form.  Not very good, I just don’t care for chewy granola bars like this. **+.
• Peanut Peanut Butter: "Creamy peanut butter is mixed with our whole grain goodness and a bit of wildflower honey." Tasting notes: Meh.  Not chewy.  Peanuts in the mix but not really peanut buttery in flavor. **.
• Trail Mix: "With whole, roasted almonds, succulent, sun-dried fruit, toasted sunflower seeds and a touch of wildflower honey, our Trail Mix granola bars have 4g of fiber and 6g of protein."  Tasting notes:  This tasted like Kashi's Go Lean cereal, held together with brown rice syrup, plus some nuts and dried fruit thrown in there.  Which … is what it was.  I think I just don’t really care for these type of granola bars.  **+.

Layered Granola Bars

"Each bar starts with our signature blend of 7 whole grains for a hearty, natural wholesomeness. The chewy granola base is then topped with a real fruit spread and hearty nuts. And with 4g of fiber, 4g of protein and real fruit, they're as nutritious as they are tasty"

For a while, Kashi had a line of "Layered" bars, but now they make only one.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Layered Granola Bar.

"Our whole-grain goodness gets layered with real fruit, rich chocolate, walnuts and a sprinkling of coconut."

I wish I'd taken this photo from the side, so you could see how thick the layer of chocolate on top was.  I've never seen a bar with that much of the good stuff on it.

The aroma coming off the bar was pure chocolate.  The chocolate layer was visibly thick.  I was confused.  This looked decadent, yet claimed to only have 7g of sugar.  How could this be?  

I read the full description online, which says that top layer, which I thought was all chocolate was "a layer of real soft fruit mixed with rich, dark chocolate".  Ok, so there was fruit in there.  I didn't really taste fruit, I tasted chocolate, although, the fruit explains the texture, as it was very soft.  I investigated further, reading the ingredients list.  The only fruit I could find was dates.  Normally in these sorts of bars, like LÄRABAR (ugh!), use dates for sweetness, and it overtakes the whole thing, very easily detectable.  I was shocked that I hadn't identified dates by taste.  I think it is because they balanced the sweetness of the dates with bitter chicory?

Anyway, the chocolate layer did taste like chocolate, it was smooth and soft, although, the aftertaste was a bit like a fruit roll up.

The base was standard Kashi, 7 whole grains, forming a classic granola bar.  On top was sprinkle of coconut and a few bits of walnut.

I selected this bar for its promise of chocolate and coconut, since I love those flavors together, but, I was disappointed by the coconut shreds on top.  Coconut in this form is always a bit off putting to me, it always makes me feel like I'm eating sawdust.  I greatly prefer toasted coconut, larger shreds.

Overall, this was better than most granola bars, but, at the end of the day, it was still a granola bar base, just with some decent chocolately fruit spread on top.  More coconut and more nuts would have done wonders to it, but at that point, it would basically just be my favorite ice cream sundae toppings on a granola bar :)

***.

Update Review: I had one a few years later, without re-reading this review.  I also had it without re-reading the description.  I again didn't know about the date mixed in with the chocolate, but I thought the chocolate was strangely mushy, and wasn't a big fan of the chocolate.  And I again didn't like the coconut, and thought the base was boring.  **+.