One Of The Best Dried Fruit Experiences Ever! Peeled Organic’s Banan-A-Peel Impresses!

The Good: Very nutritious, Decent shelf life for an organic product, Very flavorful
The Bad: They cost more than other dehydrated bananas
The Basics: The Peeled Organics Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks make up for their expense by providing a flavor that is incredible.


As I work to improve my health, I have discovered that fruits and vegetables are important to my heart health. I know, that probably sounds stupid, but with my current diet, I am rewarded for actually having dietary fiber and one of the few things that helps me get up to my daily allowance of it is fruit. Lately, that has been taking the form of Peeled Organic dried fruit, like Banan-A-Peel, which might well be one of the best dehydrated fruits in the Peeled Organic line!

Tasting amazingly like banana and allowing one to ever forget about the existence of crunchy, disturbing banana chips, Banan-A-Peel is a delicious organic fruit worth stocking up on!

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

Banan-A-Peel is almost just what the name suggests; a bag of dehydrated organic banana slices! The dehydrated fruit chunks are supple, not hard. These will immediately make one forget about dried banana chips. They are not covered in a coating of sugar, not hard and actually taste like real bananas! The Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks comes in a 1.40 oz. stiff plastic bag that is not resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Banan-A-Peel fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Banan-A-Peel; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Opening the bag of Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks, is a delightful olfactory experience. With the bago opened, the banana aroma wafts out and captivates the nose. I began salivating when I smelled these and I was surprised because I am not the world’s biggest banana fan or anything!

It’s a good thing I started salivating! The soft, slightly brown fruit chips came alive on the tongue, but they started very dry with their initial flavor. The Banan-A-Peel slices are banana without the excessive water, so the mostly-dehydrated pieces of fruit are sweet and rich in flavor, as opposed to dry and somewhat tasteless. With the dryness of the dehydrated fruit fast fading, the Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks take on one of the sweetest tastes I have ever enjoyed and it actually made me wonder how I had never really contemplated the flavor of bananas before!

These fruit snacks are sweet and delightful and leave no aftertaste in the mouth.

Nutrition

Banan-A-Peel organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredient is organic bananas, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about nine months, so they are not bad for stocking up on if you eat a lot of fruit. The package we got on the last day of January (2012) expires on October 5, 2012 (or it would have had I not devoured the contents of the bag in a single sitting!).

Each 40 gram serving of Banan-A-Peel has 150 calories, none of which come from fat. There are two grams of dietary fiber and 25% of your RDA of Vitamin C. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 2% of one’s RDA of Vitamin A and Iron. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Banan-A-Peel will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is sealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Banan-A-Peel dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done! I would, naturally, be happier if there was a way to recycle these plastic bags.

Overall

Banan-A-Peel is a fruit snack that is easily one of the very best fruit snacks I have ever had. It is likely to thrill anyone who loves bananas, but loathes the sticky, messy peels!

For other Peeled Organic fruit snack reviews, check out my reviews of:
Cherry-Go-Round
Apple-2-The-Core
Pine-4-Pineapple

8.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Surprisingly Underwhelming Fruit Snack, Peeled Organic’s Cherry-Go-Round Is Just Dried Fruit!

The Good: Very nutritious, Decent shelf life for an organic product.
The Bad: Comparatively expensive, Not terribly flavorful.
The Basics: The Peeled Organics Cherry-Go-Round fruit snacks I had did not impress me, though they are exceptionally nutritious!


It has to be pretty obvious to my regular readers that I am on a health kick at the moment. I am getting fit and improving my health while my wife loses weight, so we can accomplish our goals together and live longer, happier lives. While I still crave a lot of things I am not supposed to have, I have been much better about eating things like fruit. My wife makes me shakes and I’ve been enjoying dried fruits, mostly from Peeled Organic.

Cherry-Go-Round was the first dried fruit from Peeled Organic that simply seemed like a dried fruit. It did not remind me of actual cherries, it reminded me of prunes and raisins and I was entirely underwhelmed. However, because I have been paying so much attention to nutrition of late, I could not entirely pan this dried fruit; after all, as part of getting heart-healthy, dietary fiber has become important to me. This has four grams of that and despite being unremarkable in most ways, that makes it fairly worthwhile to me!

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

Cherry-Go-Round is just as the name implies; a bag of dehydrated organic cherries! The dehydrated fruit chunks are supple, not hard. They are also not covered in a coating of sugar, wax and/or preservatives. The Cherry-Go-Round fruit snacks comes in a 1.48 oz. stiff plastic bag that is not resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Cherry-Go-Round fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Cherry-Go-Round; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Opening the bag of Cherry-Go-Round fruit snacks, my nose was instantly overrun by a smell reminiscent of prunes. This was the first Peeled Organic fruit snack I can recall that actually smelled like a dried fruit. This smells entirely like prunes!

Cherry-Go-Round, like raisins, have very little flavor when they are first placed on the tongue. Instead, these burst to flavorful life when they are ruptured or chewed. Sweeter than raisins, Cherry-Go-Round fruit snacks have a slight tart kick that reminds us that they are dried cherries. These dried fruits taste more like raisins than anything else and those who were hoping for some form of luscious cherry flavor preserved through dehydration are likely to be underwhelmed by these. I know I was.

Cherry-Go-Round leaves no aftertaste in one’s mouth.

Nutrition

Cherry-Go-Round organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredient is organic cherries, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about nine months, so they are not bad for stocking up on if you eat a lot of fruit. The package we got on the last day of January (2012) expires on October 5, 2012 (or it would have had I not eaten them all up!).

Each 42 gram serving of Cherry-Go-Round has 130 calories, none of which come from fat. There are four grams of dietary fiber and 20% of your RDA of Vitamin C. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 4% of one’s RDA of Iron. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind. This bag of treats also is careful to note that it may contain core and stem fragments. Mine contained none of those undesirable things.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Cherry-Go-Round will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is sealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Cherry-Go-Round dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done! I would, naturally, be happier if there was a way to recycle these plastic bags.

Overall

Cherry-Go-Round is a fruit snack that is solidly below average on taste, but more than makes up for it through the nutritional benefits. They do not taste bad, they just do not impress me with being very flavorful, either.

For other Peeled Organic fruit snack reviews, check out my reviews of:
Apple-2-The-Core
Pine-4-Pineapple
Apricot-a-lot

5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Soft, Flavorful And All-Around Wonderful, Peeled Organic’s Apple-2-The-Core Is Worth Picking Up!

The Good: Very nutritious, Good flavor, Decent shelf life for an organic product.
The Bad: Comparatively expensive
The Basics: Apple-2-The-Core fruit snacks from Peeled Organics remind us of just how good apples can be!


It seems like it was not that long ago that I was writing about dried apples. That, however, was for my rabbit and while Daisy liked Peter’s Natural Treats Apple Slices (reviewed here!), I found them to be too expensive. I could not justify spending that much money on my rabbit’s snack. With Peeled Organics’ Apple-2-The-Core, I run into a similar dilemma. These just taste way too good to “waste” on my finicky rabbit!

In fact, Peeled Organic reminded me of just how much I used to like both dried apples and fresh apples with their Apple-2-The-Core. That sense of delight that I had the chance to feel again was a pretty sweet gift that only enhanced my appreciation of this pretty incredible organic fruit treat!

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

Apple-2-The-Core is just as the name suggests; a bag of dehydrated organic apples! The dehydrated fruit chunks are supple, not hard. They are also not covered in a coating of sugar, wax and/or preservatives. The Apple-2-The-Core fruit snacks comes in a 1.23 oz. stiff plastic bag that is not resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Apple-2-The-Core fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Apple-2-The-Core; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Opening a bag of Apple-2-The-Core, one is immediately bowled over by a strong, fresh apple scent that is simply delightful. At room temperature, these soft apple slices (that vary widely in shape and size) smell fruity, fresh and exactly like what one expects fresh apples to smell like. Apple-scented candles have nothing on these fruit slices!

Apple-2-The-Core slices taste like apples, as well. While there is a slight dry flavor initially, more than any other Peeled Organic fruit snack I have yet tried, Apple-2-The-Core hydrates when one leaves them in your mouth. In this fashion, Apple-2-The-Core quickly embodies the full-flavored richness of real (fresh) apples. They are sweet with some of the slices bearing a subtle tart aftertaste.

For the most part, there is no enduring aftertaste with the Apple-2-The-Core fruit slices.

Nutrition

Apple-2-The-Core organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredient is organic apples, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about nine months, so they are not bad for stocking up on if you eat a lot of fruit. The package we got on the last day of January (2012) expires on October 17, 2012 (or it would have had I not eaten them all up!).

Each 35 gram serving of Apple-2-The-Core has 110 calories, none of which come from fat. There are three grams of dietary fiber. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 2% of one’s RDA of Iron. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind. This bag of treats also is careful to note that it may contain core and stem fragments. I found one nibble of center pulp (that traditionally surrounds the seeds) and a little bit of peel in my bag, but no core or stem pieces.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Apple-2-The-Core will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is sealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Apple-2-The-Core dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done! I would, naturally, be happier if there was a way to recycle these plastic bags.

Overall

Apple-2-The-Core is an exceptionally good, dried fruit snack that might cost a little more than other dried apple products, but the nutritional benefits and taste make it worth the investment!

For other Peeled Organic fruit snack reviews, check out my reviews of:
Pine-4-Pineapple
Apricot-a-lot
Much-Ado-About-Mango

8.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Delicious, But Not Indispensible, Peeled Organic’s Pine-4-Pineapple Is A Tough Sell Next To Fresh Pineapple.

The Good: Very nutritious, Good flavor, Decent shelf life for an organic product.
The Bad: Comparatively expensive
The Basics: Pine-4-Pineapple fruit snacks are very good, but not the best rendition of pineapple on the market, though it might be the healthiest dried pineapple!


I am very happy to say that with my last paycheck, I decided to spend some money on more Peeled Organic fruit snacks. But, as I sat down to consider the Pine-4-Pineapple fruit snacks that arrived in last night’s mail, I came to realize that this flavor was a bit of a tougher sell than I would have liked. I love pineapple, so – if anything – I was biased in favor of Pine-4-Pineapple. So, when I began to think about how much I love pineapple and how I was not bowled over by the Pine-4-Pineapple, I began to think about how fresh pineapple is frequently less expensive than Pine-4-Pineapple and that when I have fresh pineapple around, it seldom goes bad. In other words, for less money, I could eat the real thing.

But, I couldn’t eat it with my hands and Pine-4-Pineapple is a bit more portable, which is nice. I suppose with this dried fruit, we’re paying more for convenience than for the fruit tasting precisely like it is supposed to. That is a bit of a bummer for me, but not enough to sink this healthy snack in my mind (or rating!).

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

Pine-4-Pineapple is just as the title suggests; a bag of dehydrated organic pineapples! The dehydrated fruit chunks are supple, not hard. They are also not covered in a coating of sugar, wax and/or preservatives. The Pine-4-Pineapple fruit snacks comes in a 1.48 oz. stiff plastic bag that is not resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Pine-4-Pineapple fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Pine-4-Pineapple; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

I was actually surprised by how mild the Pine-4-Pineapple fruit picks smelled. On their own in their plastic bag, there was remarkably little aroma from the fruit. Instead, these have a vaguely fruity scent only when they are out and reach room temperature.

However, the moment the Pine-4-Pineapple pineapples hit the tongue, they break out with a great deal of flavor. These treats taste dry initially and many will be surprised by how they are not especially sweet to begin with. That changes, however, as the fruit slice lingers on the tongue. While it remains, the flavor goes from simply dry to slightly tart and then fruity and sweet as a pure embodiment of pineapple. Pine-4-Pineapple leaves no aftertaste, but I did find my mouth was very dry after eating a pack of this fruit.

Nutrition

Pine-4-Pineapple organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredient is organic pineapples, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about nine months, so they are not bad for stocking up on if you eat a lot of fruit. The package we got on the last day of January (2012) expires on October 5, 2012 (or it would have had I not eaten them all up!).

Each 42 gram serving of Pine-4-Pineapple has 140 calories, none of which come from fat. There is a single gram of dietary fiber. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 2% of one’s RDA of Calcium, 4% RDA of Iron and 10% Vitamin C. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Pine-4-Pineapple will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is sealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Pine-4-Pineapple dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done! I would, naturally, be happier if there was a way to recycle these plastic bags.

Overall

Pine-4-Pineapple is a good, basic dried fruit snack that does not quite live up to the potential of its namesake. It tastes mostly like pineapple, but it does so without any zest, making it a much tougher recommendation than I would have thought.

For other Peeled Organic fruit snack reviews, check out my reviews of:
Apricot-a-lot
Much-Ado-About-Mango
Paradise Found

7/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Peeled Organic’s Apricot-a-lot Is The First Real Dud I’ve Had From Peeled Organic!

The Good: Amazingly nutritious
The Bad: Proportionately expensive, Terrible flavor
The Basics: Apricot-a-lot dried fruit from Peeled Organic is a poor addition to their otherwise interesting and delicious line of dried fruit!


I have been on a bit of a health kick since joining CalorieCount with my wife. My intent is to get healthier so I can live longer and better with her. To that end, she “won” a whole bunch of packs of Peeled Organic dried fruit snacks and when they arrived, she split them evenly between us. So far, I have enjoyed and reviewed Peeled Organic’s Paradise Found dried fruit blend (that’s here!) and Peeled Organics’ Much-Ado-About-Mango (reviewed here!). Unfortunately, the last snack of the bunch, Peeled Organic Apricot-a-lot, did not impress me. In fact, it pretty much repulsed me.

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

The Apricot-a-lot blend is just as the title suggests; a bag of dehydrated organic Apricots! The dehydrated fruit balls – they are 1” discs of dark brown/orange ribbed fruit - are supple, not hard. They are also not covered in a coating of sugar, wax and/or preservatives. The Apricot-a-lot fruit snacks come in a 5 oz. stiff plastic bag that is resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Apricot-a-lot fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Apricot-a-lot; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Apricot-a-lot is weird when it comes to the scent. Honestly, when I opened the bag to smell this treat, it did not smell like fruit at all. Instead – and I kid you not – it smelled like vanilla cake frosting. After about thirty seconds of that aroma, the Apricot-a-lot treats smelled pretty much like composting fruit.

On the tongue, the Apricots from Apricot-a-lot are dry and pretty tasteless. Actually, they taste dry and like dirt or sand. Mind you, it does not taste like anything bad in that dirt, but it is a pretty earthy, woody flavor without any real fruit flavored relief. In fact, one of the real disappointments of the Apricot-a-lot fruit snacks is that when one presses the tongue into the soft middle of the dried apricot, the taste does not improve. There, one is greeted by a soft, grainy, texture and a flavor that is more like bamboo than apricot.

Nutrition

Apricot-a-lot organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the sole ingredient is organic Apricots, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about eight months, so they are not ideal for stocking up on. The package we got on December 26 (2011) expires on July 9, 2012.

Each 40 gram serving of Apricot-a-lot has 120 calories, none of which come from fat. There are also 3 grams of dietary fiber. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 30% of one’s RDA of Vitamin A and 8% Vitamin C. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Apricot-a-lot will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Apricot-a-lot dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done!

Overall

Apricot-a-lot is a very disappointing fruit snack that left me underwhelmed. For the expense, one might think Peeled Organic could make dehydrated apricots taste good. The fact that even this wonderful company cannot suggests that maybe this is not the ideal dehydrated fruit, despite the nutritional benefits.

For other fruit-related reviews, check out my reviews of:
Pomegranate Craisins
Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Apricot Juice
Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange tea

3/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Peeled Organic’s Much-Ado-About-Mango Blend Brings New Healthy Life To Mangoes!

The Good: Amazingly nutritious, Very flavorful
The Bad: Proportionately expensive
The Basics: Much-Ado-About-Mango fruit snacks are a great dried fruit option from Peeled Organics, even if they do cost a bit more than other dried fruit products!


For those who might not have seen my review of Peeled Organic’s Paradise Found dried fruit blend (that’s here!), my wife is on a healthy-eating kick and she has gotten me into it as well. As a result, I have been trying and reviewing all sorts of new (to me) healthy foods! The latest of those is the Peeled Organic Much-Ado-About-Mango fruit snacks.

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

The Much-Ado-About-Mango blend is just as the title suggests; a bag of dehydrated organic mangoes! The dehydrated fruit strips are supple, not hard. They are also not covered in a coating of sugar, wax and/or preservatives. The Much-Ado-About-Mango fruit snacks comes in a 2.8 oz. stiff plastic bag that is resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Much-Ado-About-Mango fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Much-Ado-About-Mango; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Much-Ado-About-Mango is a collection of nice, long mango strips that smell like stewing mangoes when one opens the bag. There is a rich scent that is not entirely indicative of fresh mangoes, but is no less enjoyable.

On the tongue, the mangoes from Much-Ado-About-Mango hydrate to be delicious and sweet. The sweetness is not overbearing, leaving a surprisingly juicy flavor on the tongue (surprising considering it comes from such a dry fruit). The mango strips are slightly tough, so this is like fruit jerky and ultimately, the dominant taste of this snack is sweet and dry with a slightly rich and juicy aftertaste. More than any other Peeled Organic product, the Much-Ado-About-Mango fruit snacks vary in flavor based on how dehydrated the fruit strip is.

Nutrition

Much-Ado-About-Mango organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredient is organic mangos, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about nine months, so they are not ideal for stocking up on. The package we got on December 26 (2011) expires on August 5, 2012 (or it would have had I not eaten them all up!).

Each 40 gram serving of Much-Ado-About-Mango has 120 calories, none of which come from fat. There are also 2 grams of dietary fiber. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 30% of one’s RDA of Vitamin A and 20% Vitamin C. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Much-Ado-About-Mango will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Much-Ado-About-Mango dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done!

Overall

Much-Ado-About-Mango is a surprisingly good, but basic dried fruit snack. It is, however, far more nutritious than most fruit snacks that have a surprising amount of additives in them. Despite the expense of these fruit treats, this is a snack very much worth picking up!

For other fruit-related reviews, check out my reviews of:
Pomegranate Craisins
Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango Juice
Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange tea

6.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Great Dried Fruit Without The Preservatives, Peeled Organic's Paradise Found Blend Is Trendy And Expensive, But Worth It!

The Good: Amazingly nutritious, Very flavorful
The Bad: Proportionately expensive
The Basics: A good snack, Paradise Found fruit snacks are a flavorful, if expensive, way to consume some much needed fruit!


My wife has gotten onto quite the health kick. I am all for improving your health and self-esteem through obtaining the body image you want, but no one has ever made me worry about my health and well-being like my wife does (that includes my first wife!). So, because she seems to genuinely want me around for years to come, I am trying some of the healthy foods she is picking up for herself. The first one that I’ve taken a shine to is Peeled Organic’s Paradise Found fruit blend.

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

The Paradise Found blend is a combination of dehydrated organic mangoes, pineapple and bananas. This blend is enough to make one entirely rethink what dried fruit ought to be. The dried organic bananas are a far cry from other company’s dried fruit. These bananas are supple, not hard. They are also not covered in a coating of sugar, wax and/or preservatives. Similarly, the pineapple chunks that are a part of the Paradise Found assortment are flexible, not sugared and look like they might have just been cut from a pineapple and left in the sun! The dried mangoes look like dried mangoes, but that is reassuring in and of itself. The Paradise Found fruit blend comes in a 3.5 oz. stiff plastic bag that is resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Paradise Found fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Paradise Found; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

The organic mangos in the Paradise Found blend completely absorbed the scent of the bananas. When the fruit was placed on my tongue, this sweet fruit came alive with the subtle, mildly fruity taste of the mango. This tasted more like a traditional dried apple than the flavor of mango, but it was not unenjoyable. It is worth noting that my bag of Paradise Found only had two mango slices in it.

The banana, on the other hand, was exceptionally flavorful. Smelling just like banana, the soft, slightly brown fruit chips came alive on the tongue. In fact, what was so neat about the banana pieces in the Paradise Found blend was how they made me appreciate bananas. These fruit chunks are banana without the excessive water, so the mostly-dehydrated pieces of fruit are sweet and rich in flavor, as opposed to dry and somewhat tasteless. I hadn’t realized just how far from the actual taste of bananas things like Top Banana Jelly Belly jelly beans (reviewed here!) were until I tasted the bold flavor of bananas in the Paradise Found blend!

Finally, the bag was about half-full of pineapple chunks. These inch-long treats are dehydrated pineapple wedges that are about one-fourth as thick as the traditional pineapple chunk. What caught me up was how these chunks smelled very woody, more like bamboo than the delicious pineapple fruit I have loved all my life. But on the tongue, this treat reconstituted to taste exactly like fresh-cut pineapple. The texture may have been drier, but the flavor was exactly as sweet, with the touch of tart flavor at the end, that one expects from pineapple!

Nutrition

Paradise Found organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredients are only organic banana, organic mangos and organic pineapples, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about six months, so they are not ideal for stocking up on. The package we got on December 26 (2011) expires on June 5, 2012 (or it would have had I not eaten them all up!).

Each 1.4 ounce serving of Paradise Found has 130 calories, none of which come from fat. There are also 2 grams of dietary fiber. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 10% of one’s RDA of Vitamin A, 6% Vitamin C and 2% Iron. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Paradise Found will remain fresh for a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Paradise Found dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done!

Overall

Paradise Found are a wonderful fruit snack that maintains the nutrition of fruit with a longer shelf life than fresh fruit has. While I found these left me thirsty, there was nothing bad in them and that makes it very easy to recommend . . . despite how expensive the packs of this treat can be!

For other fruit-related reviews, check out my reviews of:
Pomegranate Craisins
Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango Juice
Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange tea

5/10

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