"snack bars" news and stories

Well the 2008 Natural Products Expo West Show is over now. It was held this past weekend in Anaheim, CA and thousands of natural and organic products were displayed, sold or introduced.

One of the highlights, though, was the introduction of the new Kefir Wellness snack bars. Made by Lifeway, the snack bars have the same probiotic cultures as their popular dairy drink. The bars will come in three flavors: sweet and salty, chocolate, and pomegranate.

There's no word yet on when the new Kefir bars will actually hit the supermarkets. I don't know about you, but I'll be on the lookout for them.

Source

If you stand in front of the shelves at the grocery store with a blank stare on your face, maybe you're just not able to decide on which of the bazillion protein bars you want to get. If that's the case, why don't you just make your own?

With YouBars, you can make your own, and you don't even have to go to the kitchen to get them; unless your computer's in the kitchen. You just pick all the ingredients you want in your bar, submit your order, and magically, they appear at your door! You get to pick the base, protein source, and any number of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and other "stuff." The handy ordering form also keeps a running total of nutrition information as you make your choices.

It costs $40 for a box of 12, which comes out to about $3.33 a bar. That's quite a bit more expensive than what you'd pay at the store, but getting to name your own bar might be worth it.

Source

Larabar specializes in making healthy, delicious snack bars from a blend of fruits, nuts and spices. Their energy bars are completely unprocessed, uncooked, non GMA, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan and kosher - and despite their simple makeup (each has less than six ingredients) they taste great thanks to the natural sweetness of the high-quality ingredients that they use.

Last year, they added Lemon Bar and Cinnamon Roll to their lineup of bars, bringing the total number of bars in the line to ten for a few months, but the reaction was so positive that they just announced that another pair of new flavors are being launched on March 5th: Key Lime Pie and Pistachio. Hopefully, the Key Lime Pie will have the same bright, almost juicy flavor that the excellent Lemon Bar does.

The other recent addition to Larabar's offerings is the Jocalat line. Jocalat has evolved from the Maya bars that the company was offering last year and are a more candy-like product than the standard Larabars because they use fair trade certified organic chocolate in each one, in addition to their standard fruits and nuts. The bars are available in Chocolate, Chocolate Orange, Chocolate Coffee and Chocolate Mint (the coffee is my favorite) and each has just 190 calories, in addition to being entirely organic, high in fiber, protein, good fats and antioxidants.

They might look like cookies at first glance, but these oatmeal breakfast bars from Sugar and Spices are really a healthy way to start off the morning. The bars are packed with oats, raisins, walnuts, a modest amount of sugar and minimal fat. Soft and chewy, they sound like the would be very satisfying without being too heavy - much like the Matisse and Jack's energy bars that I baked up a couple of weeks back. On top of their relatively healthy profile, homemade bars are a good alternative to store bought snack bars because they offer you the chance to adapt them to your taste. Want dried cranberries or blueberries instead of raisins? Or hazelnuts instead of walnuts? Not a problem. The bars do not take very long to make and spending an hour on them over the weekend will definitely save some time if you tend to be in a rush on weekday mornings.

Source

We love coffee - a sentiment that most bloggers probably share - but you cannot subsist on coffee alone and the pastries at coffee shops often leave much to be desired when it comes to flavor, as well as a little extra that we don't desire around our waists. With coffee and better-for-you options already on our minds, the new granola bars from Caribou Coffee caught our attention right away. The bars come in two coffee flavors - Vanilla Latte and Chocolate Mocha - but have only as much caffeine as decaf coffee, despite their taste. Each bar has about 140 calories and 3 grams of fat. Caribou says that they're a good source of calcium and whole grains, too.

Both flavors of bar are available online, so you can pick them up without trying to hunt down a store that carries them.

Source