Glucerna Chocolate Caramel Snack bar - Surprisingly good!
Written: May 09 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Delicious smell and flavor, nice, soft and chewy!
Cons: None, everything was very nice about this bar!
The Bottom Line: If want quality snacks, are diabetic, borderline diabetic or you are just watching what you eat more closely, these bars are very good!
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| Magick1's Full Review: Glucerna Snack Bars 4-Pack Chocolate Caramel - 4 P... |
Let me preface this review by stating that I am not diabetic. But, both of my parents are fighting with this disease and I try to be aware of items that they can eat and I listen to things they tell me that they are eating at home.
My company was having a health fair and they had a vendor in the office that was displaying a blood testing device and they were giving away samples of the Glucerna Chewy Chocolate Caramel snack bars. These bars are not considered a meal replacement bar, but rather a bar that helps regulate or manage their sugar levels and provide nutrition and energy for people.
The Product
I was pleasantly surprised by the “chewy” consistency first and foremost. Second the chocolate appearance was surprising. I would have thought the chocolate would be a thin covering on the top of the bars, but it was not. It was as if the entire bar was dipped into the chocolate coating! That was a pleasant surprise! The chewy quality was exactly what chewy would imply. It was not hard to bite into and it was not hard to bend or break off a piece of the bar. That is nice.
Sometimes bars advertise themselves as chewy and they are hard to bend or break off a piece or you bite into them and have resistance and a harder crunch than expected. Not with this bar! Caramel to me almost always brings about visions of sticky, hard to chew candy (if not done correctly). These bars were done well!
The crispy soy pieces in the bars add a nice texture and makes up most of the bar. The crispy soy pieces are not hard or dried out and they are easy to chew. The flavor has a very delightful chocolaty flavor that seems to take over your taste buds. The caramel is present but it really doesn’t overwhelm you with caramel flavor. So, if you are looking for something really strong with a caramel flavor, this might not be the bar to try. You can taste the caramel a little bit, but it’s not the primary flavor generated by this bar. When you first open the package though, it does really give you a caramel smell, whetting your appetite for the caramel included in the bar!
The bar is a smaller bar and it measures roughly 4 ¼ to 4 ½ inches long and possibly ½ inch thick. These bars are 1.41 ounces or 40g. These bars do help take away the hunger pangs and it does last quite a while. I always find that I am starving about 10:00 every day. I usually eat breakfast about 5:30 in the morning and lunch is still an hour or two away. So, when I have eaten these bars around this time over the past few weeks, I have felt full until lunch and not had the cravings or munchies like I have with other types of snacks that I have eaten during that time of day.
Per the website, the Glucerna line offers 3 different snack bars: Chewy Chocolate Caramel, Crispy Fudge Graham, Chewy Caramel Nut
The Ingredients
Thankfully, the www.glucerna.com website provides the ingredients for these bars on their website, so I did not have to type everything out:
CARAMEL (MALTITOL SYRUP, NONFAT MILK, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, CREAM, GLYCERINE, BUTTER, SALT, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, SOY LECITHIN, CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), CRISP SOY NUGGETS (SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, RICE FLOUR, MALT, SALT), CHOCOLATE FLAVORED COATING (MALTITOL AND/OR LACTITOL, FRACTIONATED PALM KERNEL OIL, POLYDEXTROSE, COCOA, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SOY LECITHIN, MONOGLYCERIDES, VANILLA, ACESULFAME K), FRUIT AND GRAIN DEXTRINS, MILLED RICE, CORN MALTODEXTRIN, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, LESS THAN 2% OF THE FOLLOWING: GLYCERINE, CELLULOSE GEL (CELLULOSE GUM, GUAR GUM), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, PEANUT BUTTER (GROUND PEANUTS, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL [COTTONSEED, RAPESEED], SALT), GUAR GUM, dl-ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, ASCORBIC ACID, BETA-CAROTENE AND CHROMIUM CHLORIDE.
CONTAINS MILK, SOY AND PEANUT INGREDIENTS; MANUFACTURED IN A FACILITY THAT PROCESSES EGGS AND TREE NUTS.
Nutritional Information
This information is based upon 1 serving which is 1 bar and is based upon a standard 2,000 calorie diet.
Calories 150 Fat Cal. 35
Total Fat 4g or 6%
Saturated Fat 3g or 15%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg or 0%
Sodium 150mg or 6%
Potassium 80mg or 2%
Total Carb. 25g or 8%
Dietary Fiber 1g or 4%
Sugars 3g
Sugar Alcohols 10g
Protein 6g or 12%
Vitamin A 20%
Vitamin C 25%
Calcium 2%
Iron 6%
Vitamin E 100%
Chromium 25%
Overall Impressions
The bars appearance is appetizing and inviting. The initial smell is delicious and the caramel wafts from the opened package. When eating it though, the chocolate flavor surrounds your taste buds giving you delightful snack that will help your hunger pangs, help diabetics maintain their blood sugar levels and it doesn’t taste rotten!
The chewy nature of the bar is exactly that, chewy. It is not hard or dried out and the bar is bendable and you can easily break off small pieces if you don’t want to eat the entire bar. The package does show the Circle U and D on it, for those that consider these important planning for their meals or diets.
If you are diabetic, borderline diabetic, or you enjoy snacking on items that are better for you than candy bars, these would make an excellent alternative. My parents were surprised when I told them that if they haven’t tried these, they should as they are very delicious and they are not terrible like some other foods out on the market. I am interested in the Crispy Fudge Graham since these tasted so good! I might have to pick some up the next time I am at the store!
~Thanks for spending time with me today!~
Recommended:
Yes
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