Shame on Nature Valley for trying to pull the wool over our eyes! If you were a fan of these bars when they first came out, then be warned. The recipe has changed and the bars are much different and NOT for the better. Not only are they much smaller, they also contain far fewer nuts/fruit and the bar itself now has an airier consistency like the Rice Krispie's treat.
How do I know all this? I bought these bars on a regular basis from Costco and still had some leftover bars from the first batch and I was able to compare them side by side. These were always my favorite hiking snack and now they aren't much better than every other bar out there. I think Nature Valley will quickly regret its decision once they realize that their are a lot of unhappy customers. I'd gladly pay a little extra if it meant keeping the bars the way they were.
If you don't believe me then by all means buy them and judge for yourself.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I love these trail mix bars. They are chewy, sweet and flavorful. They taste a bit like a very chewy, very sweet Rice Krispie / oat bar. The amount of almonds (nice that they are whole) was a bit sparse and the cranberries are sort of ground up not so much like actual trail mix. The amount of goodies in the bar does not really match the picture on the box, which shows many more almonds, cranberries and raisins than I actually found to be in the product (based on my eating 3 bars out of the package so far). The bars are convenient to take "on the go".
However, in my opinion, this product is masquerading as a "healthy" trail mix bar and should be considered more like a cookie or candy bar. It has 14 grams of sugars per bar, which is 40% by weight, as another reviewer pointed out, and it is SWEET. It also only has 1 gram of fiber per bar, so it is not so healthy in that respect. That said, I still rate the NV Chewy Trail Mix Bars as 5 stars for the good taste, but I personally would choose a healthier product (with less sugar and higher fiber) for everyday eating or if I were actually bringing this on a hiking trip.
The product I received has a slightly different list of ingredients than listed on the Amazon site at this time and has likely been reformulated to avoid the use of high fructose corn syrup, which has been under scrutiny lately. This product contains high maltose corn syrup instead.
List of ingredients from the box I received:
Whole Grain Oats, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt Extract, Salt), Sugar, Raisins, Almonds, Honey, Roasted Peanuts, Fructose, Sunflower Seed, Canola Oil. Contains 2% or less of: Cranberries, Rice, Maltodextrin, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural Flavor, Baking Soda. Mixed Tocopherols added to retain freshness.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Nature Valley has a pretty wide variety of granola bars to offer, but I've never had a chewy bar of their's until I had this Trail Mix kind. Mixed (although mostly positive) results ensued...
Fruit, good. Nuts, good. Chewy, not that great. The consistency is quite sticky, and frankly a bit tough on your teeth. You shouldn't have to channel the force of a shark's bite to enjoy a granola bar.
Consistency aside, the flavor is great. It has raisin and cranberry fruitiness to pair with almond and peanut nuttiness. And of course there are oats and rice. The fruit flavors aren't overly sweet and it's not like you're eating a handful of nuts either. It's trail mix in bar form really, and Nature Valley has that right. And with 25 grams of carbohydrates and 14 grams of sugar per bar, these would be good for outdoor activities demanding energy.
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I had my hopes for this bar. The box reads "Fruit & Nut Almond, Raisin, Peanut, and Cranberry", but after taking my first bite, I was surprised by the actual ingredients. The first two ingredients in the nutritional information are Oats and High Maltose Corn Syrup. This is not a fruit and nut bar. It is a grain bar with some fruit and nuts sprinkled in. There are far better products, including ones with almonds and fruits as the main ingredients, and with honey sticking the ingredients together instead of a boat load of corn syrup. I am completely dissatisfied and amazon doesn't offer returns on this product so save yourself some money and buy a better bar.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program These bars are convenient for hiking.
They are very crunchy and crispy. Be careful of biting into pecans, especially if you have any bonding or cosmetic work done on your teeth.
Unfortunately, my two front teeth are capped, when biting into a pecan proved to hard, I bit off the hard piece with my side teeth. The package does say "chewy", but I didn't find them of chewy consistency.
They are very, very sweet, due to the high corn fructose and honey,a little too sweet to be a favorite for me. Though I'm sure many people will favor them for the sweetness.
Compared to Quaker's Simple Harvest which is just delicately sweetened and less hard,I'd choose the latter for myself. This only my feeling though.
My family and I have been enthusiastic consumers of this granola for years. We even switched grocery stores when our old one stopped carrying it. I'd say we went through about 2 bags a week, pretty regularly. Recently I have not been able to find my familiar package at the store--like the one pictured on Amazon. Instead the grocery store carried only the new "clusters." Disappointed by the change in structure and recipe, I went to Amazon to see if I could get the old one back. I was pleased to see it pictured--the old one, not the clusters. So I ordered SIX packages of the stuff. Instead of getting my old favorite granola, I got the darn clusters. We are hanging on to the granola we got from Amazon (it's not so bad that I need to send it back) but unless the old one returns, count us as "used to be customers." The clusters, which is what you'll get now, have far fewer nuts in favor of what seems to be less expensive fillers. Not fans of the new and "improved" clusters.
