Honey Mama's Cocoa Truffle Bars

I don't recall why I discovered Honey Mama's cocoa truffle bars.  I suspect I had a coupon for a free product to try?  I do vaguely remember going to Whole Foods to select my flavor.

"Honey Mama's is the Portland, Oregon-based maker of delicious refrigerated raw honey-sweetened truffle bars!

Honey Mama’s is beloved for its one-of-a-kind texture, often compared to brownie batter, chocolate truffles, or fudge – the real treat is discovering each bar is made from only a limited number of nutrient-rich whole food ingredients.

Setting the gold standard for what it means to be a clean label treat, all Honey Mama’s products are free from refined sugar, gluten, dairy, soy, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and additives.

Just imagine your favorite candy bar went to a meditation retreat and came back enlightened!"

The bars are all gluten and dairy and soy free, no refined sugar, paleo and keto friendly, no preservatives, etc, etc.  As such, they require refrigeration, much like Perfect Bars, however those are delicious, and these are not.

The bars come in fun flavors like peanut butter cookie or seasonal specials like peppermint crunch or pumpkin spice.  They also make "Truffle Treats", distinct from the bars, such as peanut butter cups.  I tried only a bar.

The bar I tried was not at all what I was expecting.  I thought it would be a chocolate bar.  "Cocoa truffle bar" to me sounded like a chocolate bar.  Referring to it as my "favorite candy bar ... enlightened" made me think it would be a chocolate bar.  Perhaps one with filling per the "truffle" name.  It was not.  It was more like a healthy nutrition bar.  The texture was firm chalky.  It didn't have a nice snap to it like chocolate, but it was very dense and compact.  Yes, it was "one-of-a-kind", as described, but certainly not "beloved" to me.

I later read more of their FAQ, when I went to write this review, and found more explanation:

"To be called "chocolate", products must contain a specific amount of chocolate liquor and cocoa butter, which Honey Mama's does not use.  Instead, Honey Mama's Truffle Bars start with a base of organic raw honey and cold-pressed virgin coconut oil swirled together with dark cocoa powder. This combination give our bars a soft, fudge-like texture that melts in your mouth like a creamy chocolate truffle.  Traditional chocolate also uses an emulsifier (such as soy lecithin) in order to be shelf stable. Honey Mama's bars do not contain any food additives, and instead use cold temperatures to keep from melting. This is why Honey Mama's is refrigerated and not shelved with other chocolate."

Aha.  Well, I still didn't find the texture "fudge-like", but at least this explains some things.

Pumpkin Spice.

"A custom blend of spices and heirloom pumpkin seeds surround you in all that is fall. This surprise twist on a classic is the sensory experience of the season."

"Remember the feeling of being a kid during the holidays, with the smell of a pie baking in your grandmother’s oven filling the air? Well, this tastes like that. 100% clean, whole food ingredients create the grown-up pumpkin spice you’ve longed for.  Real pumpkin seeds, real spices, no natural flavors, no refined sugar - ever."

So, yeah.  This did NOT remind me in any way of pumpkin pie.  I certainly did not long for it.  I actively disliked it.  It did have plenty of pumpkin spices, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, but the flavor was dominated by other element.

Again, I was expecting more of a chocolate treat, and this was really quite bitter (from the pumpkin seeds?) and tasted of dates.  I dislike the taste of dates.  But coconut oil was really the issue.  I really didn't care for the strong coconut oil taste, and the mouthfeel it left behind.  Amusingly, I didn't taste the namesake honey at all.

So, taste I didn't care for.  Texture that gave off protein bar vibes.  At least it had some good grit and bits within?