I love granola bars but lately I’ve been getting the Kashi Go Lean Crunchy bars from the wholesale club and my latest box had the flavor, chocolate pretzel.  I never eat pretzels unless they are dunked in white chocolate but I figured milk chocolate couldn’t be too bad.  I didn’t like the first bar I tried but after purchasing a warehouse size box I figured I’d have to fake it till I ate it.  As the days passed I got used to the flavor but it’s still my last choice.  

I have found myself throwing away a lot of the organic snack bars I get because the expire date sneaks up on me and the product goes rancid.  The ingredients in the chocolate pretzel bar are not organic, but they are still all natural.  The expiration date on my latest package is more than 9 months out. 

The product is in a square bar shape packed tightly with a generous coat of chocolate on the bottom.  I love the coat of chocolate.  I often choose this product in lieu of a dessert because it satisfies the chocolate craving and I feel like I get more food for the same amount of calories.  In reality, is this product really anything other than a candy bar?  The first ingredient is a sweetener along with a handful of other sweet ingredients totally 13 grams of sugar.

The word pretzel lead me to believe this product may be salty.  Getting a product that is salty and chocolaty would be fantastic, but I do not taste salt and it is certainly surprising for a product featuring pretzels.  

I wouldn’t dare eat a serving of pretzels without a drink, and I find the same with this product.  The Kashi bar is very dry and chewy and a beverage complements it well.  I have to pass on this bar when I’m on the go if I don’t have a drink with me.        

The advertising indicates the bar will help me stay full longer with 8g of protein, 5g of fiber, and all natural ingredients.  I do choose this bar over other snacks often because it does leave me full for a single item, and any cravings for sweetness immediately subsides.  The bar is 160 calories and is filling enough that it can be the only thing I eat for the snack and has at times ruined my dinner by eating it too close to meal time.  I digest the bar just fine without annoying fiber symptoms.
 
I like Kashi Go Lean Crunchy bars in general because they’re so easy to transport, not messy to eat, and keeps me content when I’m away from home.  There are several different flavors and this one unfortunately is my least favorite.  My kids also love some of the other flavors but they did not like this flavor either.    

Ingredients
Brown rice syrup, soy protein isolate, fructose, evaporated cane juice crystals, Kashi 7 grains & sesame blend, oat fiber, pretzel beads (unbleached wheat flour, malt, salt, soybean oil, yeast), mechanically fractionated palm kernel oil, rice starch, honey, cocoa, milled corn, chicory root fiber, vegetable glycerin, wheat bran, natural flavors, corn bran, salt, cocoa, calcium carbonate, soy lecithin, magnesium oxide, chocolate liquior, vanilla extract, d-alpha tocopherol (vitamin E), ascorbic acid (vitamin c), mixed tocopherols for freshness, zinc

160 calories, 3g fat, 0 cholesterol, 250 mg sodium, 28g carbohydrate, 5mg fiber, 13 g sugar, 8g protein

Recommended: Yes