taste test: trader joe’s fiberful fruit bar

after a recent stop into tj’s the other day to get some organic sugar i was looking to try something different. after perusing the fresh fruits and veggies i saw a bushel filled with bars of fruit ‘leather’ type foods. i picked through a few of the available flavors: boysenberry, strawberry, apricot and stumbled on one that piqued my interest: fiberful mixed berry. the cost was nice too: only $.39. i really had nothing to lose.

being the on-again-off-again health food nut that i am decided to look closer. the package said right on the front “high in fiber 6g” and i thought, okay not bad. that’s pretty high but will most likely be just like eating cardboard. i flipped it over to find the following nutritionals:

• total fat, sat fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium (5g) – 0% each
• total carbs: 14g – 5%
• sugars: 8g
• protein: 1g
• fiber: 6g – 24%

honestly, that’s nothing to scoff at if you are able to get 1/4 of your daily intake from one bar. time to taste. i ripped open the packaging and the smell was deep, sweet and full of berries. the appearance was odd though; in that one side looked like a normal fruit bar and the was much lighter as though there was plenty of flax and bran pressed into it. looking closer at the ingredients reveals that i was right. there’s a ton of natural and added fiber to the bar. biting down on the bar has some resistance at first, but breaks through with your teeth. using a combination of biting and tearing helps the process along.

the flavors of the various fruits shines through almost to the point of being tart. the bar jogs a fine line between being overly sweet and overly tart and while you chew the sensation jumps back and forth. what’s most surprising is that the bevy of added fiber: psyllium husk, flaxseed meal, soy protein, fibre sweet fibre (inulin) don’t ever have a taste or texture. you really never know they are there, other than the feeling your colon might tell you in a day or so. it’s really like one of those old-school fruit leather bars but decidedly less sweet. overall a solid performer.

score: 9.5/10. really this is one of the best things i can think of as a ‘healthy snack’ without reaching for my beloved cadbury cream eggs. it would have scored a 10 but the fact that they are known to cause gas and since that’s not good times it leads to the half point deduction. the sweetness is what makes it a winner and at $.39 i don’t feel bad having 3 dozen of them on hand. that and the fact that they have a shelf life close to that of uranium.