Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars From Quaker Are A Very Average Snack.

The Good: Fairly healthy, Comparatively inexpensive, Tastes good
The Bad: Not as chocolate-flavored as I would like, Could be healthier
The Basics: Quaker Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars are a good snack, but are in no way superlative.


I think that either my standards are really high or that Quaker Chewy granola bars are truly hit or miss. So far, I have enjoyed the Quaker Low Fat S’mores Chewy Granola Bars (reviewed here!) and found the Low Fat Chocolate Chunk Chewy Granola Bars (reviewed here) to be entirely underwhelming. So, when I got to the last box of Chewy Granola Bars my wife picked up as part of our recent health kick, I was indifferent and split on whether to be excited or cautious. The final flavor she bought was Quaker Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars, so they seemed to have potential to me.

Oddly, though, I am left where I started. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola bars, are healthy, do taste like peanut butter (at least when chewed), but not really like chocolate. Moreover, they are not as healthy as the other bars, so they are not the ideal health snack I would want.

Basics

Quaker is perhaps best known for making oatmeal, but for a long time has made granola bars and other healthy snacks. Their Chewy Granola Bars come in several flavors and my wife and I chose the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar because she loves peanut butter and we are trying to eat healthier. I figured with a name like Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, they should have some chocolate flavor. Sadly, this was not entirely the case.

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars come in a .84 oz. bar that is foil-wrapped. Each bar represents a single serving and Quaker has the Chewy Granola Bar presented as 1” wide by 3/8” thick by 4” long granola bar that is unsurprisingly breakable or easily squished. A box of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar contains eight or twelve bars, depending upon where you buy them. My wife and I picked them up because they were on sale (2/$5) and we had a coupon. Not on sale, these are a tougher sell for a cheapskate like me.

Ease Of Preparation

Eating a Quaker Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar is simple. After removing the foil wrapper, simply pull out the bar and stick it in your mouth. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating this snack; it is an entirely ready-to-eat food!

Taste

Unwrapping the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar, the consumer is greeted by a fresh, salty scent of peanut butter. The nutty aroma is unhindered by even a hint of chocolate. In fact, this granola bar smells mostly like peanut butter; sublimating even the scent of the puffed rice/granola!

On the tongue, however, granola taste dominates. More than any other granola bar I have tried, the flavor of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bars only comes out when one begins to chew. But does it come out! Chewed together, the peanut butter chips and granola interact in such a way that the bar takes on a flavorful taste of peanut butter. There is almost no taste of chocolate in this granola bar, but the peanut butter flavor is significant. When chewed, this is like eating chunky peanut butter!

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy granola bars leave the mouth dry, though, so it is a good idea to have water available when consuming them.

Nutrition

Quaker chewy granola bars are intended as a snack and they are a fairly healthy snack, though given that the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip ones are not low fat, they are not as healthy as they could be. These .84 oz. Chewy Granola Bar represent a single serving. Made primarily of granola, corn syrup and brown rice crisp, there is nothing in the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bars that was unpronouncable. This is a mostly-natural food product and these Chewy Granola Bar were produced on equipment that may leave the bar with traces of peanuts and other tree nuts. There is also a dietary disclaimer that this flavor contains wheat, soy, milk and coconut ingredients. Because it has milk, it is not Vegan-compliant.

Quaker's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars have 100 calories, only 25 of which are from fat. A full serving represents 4% of one's RDA of saturated fat and these are cholesterol free. Surprisingly, they are fairly low in sodium with only 95 mg per serving and there are two grams of protein to be had by eating a full bar. These are not a significant source of vitamins or minerals, though they do have 10% of one’s daily calcium and 2% of the RDA of Iron.

Storage/Cleanup

As a healthy snack, Quaker Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar remain fresh so long as they are kept in their wrappers. Our box had an expiration date in 2013, so these truly do last. As long as the bars are not heated up, they remain fresh and the only real clean-up for them comes from wiping up crumbs.

If the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bars get hot, though, the chocolate chips in them will melt and cleaning that up can be a little trickier, especially from light fabrics. Consult a fabric guide if the chocolate chips melt into one of your outfits.

Overall

My recommendation for Quaker Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars is exceptionally weak; these granola bars are good, but not exceptional in any way. In other words, they are perfectly average.

For other reviews of healthy food, please check out:
Special K Cheddar Chips
WhoNu? Nutrition Rich Chocolate Cookies
Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Chocolatey Vanilla Blitz

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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