Kardea Bars

If you’ve been reading then you will know that I received 4 Kardea bars to try last week. Well, all of them have made their way to my belly and now I’m ready to let you know what I thought of them! A little bit about the bars first (info from the website).

-each bar has 7g of fibre, 7g of protein and 4.5 healthy fats (from the almonds)
-each bar weighs in at 150 calories each (2.5 points if you are on Weight Watchers)
-they’re low glycemic and 1 diabetic starch exchange
-they deliver 4 ingredients with proven heart benefits:
-1g plant sterols
-oats
-psyllium
-vegan proteins
-they are also low in saturated fats & sodium and have no trans fats.

Kardea bars are all kosher certified and vegan, to boot!

Okay! I’ll list them in the order that I tried them in.

BANANA NUT
-as soon as I opened the packaging it smelled like my kitchen does after baking a loaf of banana bread. Awesomeness right there. Much to my delight, it tasted just like banana bread, too! This was my favourite of the 4.

LEMON GINGER-this one smelled just like a lemon tart/square and had strong overtones of ginger. I found it to be very refreshing and light tasting.

CRANBERRY ALMOND
-This one seemed to have larger pieces of almonds in it than the rest. Not complaining…just saying! While eating it I was convinced that it was cherry almond because cherries were all I could taste. I checked the wrapper to see and lo and behold it’s cranberry! HA! Again, not complaining!

CHAI SPICE
-I left this one for last because I LOVE chai anything. I was thrilled to be met with the scent of a Starbucks Chai tea latte when I ripped the wrapper off. I have to admit to being a little disappointed in the flavour, though. I would have liked it to be a lot stronger and at points I almost felt like it was a bit bitter. I have to say that it ended up being my least favourite. I wonder if I set my expectations too high for it?

As an overview; I found all the bars to have a wonderful chewy, dense texture. The addition of almonds gave a nice crunch so for a texture gal like me, I really enjoyed eating them! They seem to be widely available in the US, but unless the Canadian Whole Foods or GNC Stores sell them, I think us Canucks are SOL. Have any Canadians out there seen them around?? Because I would buy them if I could find them.

So tell me, have you tried Kardea Bars? What did you think? Which was your flavour of choice?