Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Good Snack, Slim-Fast’s 3-2-1 Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Snack Bars Are A Fun Alternative To Granola Bars!


The Good: Very healthy, Tastes good.
The Bad: Very expensive, Not very chocolatey at all.
The Basics: While good, Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz do not taste great enough to gush over, especially given their relative expense.


Slim-Fast managed to surprise me not long ago. I tried their 3-2-1 Chocolate Mint bars (reviewed here!) and I fell heels over head in love with them (save their expense). So, when I sat down to give the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Snack Bars a try, I was entirely biased in favor of the bars. Sadly, this left me a little underwhelmed when I tried the Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz snack bars. They were good, don’t get me wrong, but they were not superlative in any way, save in how healthy they are.

We picked up the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Snack Bars on sale. At $4.99 for only six bars, I could not justify the expense of these if they were not on sale. My wife and I got these buy one, get one free and my feeling that they were overpriced, especially for their size, was confirmed when my wife – in straightening up the house – easily fit ten of these bars into the box that came with only six! My point here is that Slim-Fast could afford to deliver a lot more of these in the same amount of space and both throw a bone to consumers and help out the environment.

NOTE TO HEALTH FOOD MANUFACTURERS: If your goal was actually to help people lose weight, get into a more healthy lifestyle, perhaps offering greater value to your products would help achieve that goal and set your company apart from the many other health food companies on the market. We’re in a recession; people buy crappy food because it is cheap. My wife and I are sterling examples of how people will pay a reasonable amount to eat healthy!

Basics

Slim-Fast is the company that merchandises its specialized diet plan for those who are trying to lose weight by eating healthier, but more controlled portions. The 3-2-1 plan is a new program that encourages participants to have three snacks (like the 100 calorie Snack Bar), two Slim-Fast shakes or meal bars, and then have a balanced meal of about five hundred calories. The Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz are part of that program, but may be enjoyed just the same outside the program.

The Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz come in a .84 oz. white chocolate-dipped granola type bar that is foil-wrapped. Each bar represents a single serving and Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz bars are 7/8” wide by 5/8” tall by 3 1/2” long. They look like a thin tan and brown mealy bar that is dipped so that the bottom 1/4" of the bar is solid, white chocolate. These snack bars come in packs of six and locally, we have found them for $4.99, though they do seem to go on sale frequently and have coupons fairly regularly as well. At full price, these are thoroughly underwhelming in appearance and the box even makes them look bigger than they are!

Ease Of Preparation

Eating Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz snack bars is not a real challenge. After removing the wrapper, simply pull out the bar and stick it in your mouth. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating this chewy granola bar. This is an entirely ready-to-eat food!

Taste

Opening the wrapper on the first Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Bar, there is a very pleasant white chocolate scent. Like the aroma of yogurt-covered raisins, these shack bars have only a faint hint of actual milk or dark chocolate to their bouquet. Instead, these smell very light and creamy, which is pretty inviting in and of itself.

On the tongue, the Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Snack Bars are very flavorful. Interestingly, this is a bar whose taste is entirely dependent upon its method of delivery. Placed on the tongue with the creamy side down (as they come out of the package), one gets a velvety vanilla flavor that is light and distinct. Flipped over to allow the granola-type side of the bar to hit the tongue first, one gets a dry, coconut flavor that is pleasant, but not at all chocolatey (though that side is where the chocolate flavor should be).

Nutrition

Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Snack Bars are intended as a supplemental food, not a full meal. These .84 oz. bars represent a single serving and they have a boatload of nutrients in them. Made primarily of yogurt flavored coating, sugar, and rice crisp, the ingredient list does become a mess of preservatives and vitamins near the end. This is not an all-natural food product and these snack bars were produced on equipment that forces them to add a disclaimer about milk, soy, wheat, eggs, sesame, almonds, cashews, coconut, walnut, pecans, and peanuts.

Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan's Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz have only 100 calories, only 25 of which are from fat. A bar represents 10% of one's RDA of saturated fat, though they are cholesterol free. As well, they are nicely low in sodium, having only 70 mg per serving. They also have a gram of protein and ten percent of ten different vitamins and minerals! This is a very healthy snack!

Storage/Cleanup

Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz are good regardless of when they are eaten or how they are stored. Unopened, they have a decent shelf life around six months. We purchased a box on the first day of February (2012) and they have an expiration date of July 2012. If they melt, they might stain, so consult your fabric guide if that happens. Otherwise, cleanup is simply throwing the foil wrapper away when you are done with the snack bar.

Overall

Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz Snack Bars are good, but did not light my world on fire the way the Chocolate Mint bars did. I was much more aware of the expense of these and while they did not taste bad, they did not excite me the way some other good snacks have.

For other reviews of healthy foods, please check out:
Quaker Chewy S’mores Granola bars
Peeled Organic Apple-2-The-Core
Atkins Advantage Peanut Butter Bars

6.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page on the subject! That is available by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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