REVIEW: Kashi Apple Cobbler Soft n' Chewy Bars

Soft n' Chewy is an awfully tantalizing subtitle, isn't it? Especially for someone like myself, who likes her cookies to be super-soft over crunchy and her bacon chewy and limp over crispy and stiff. Maybe you aren't like that, but either way, I'm reviewing these Soft n' Chewy Apple Cobbler-flavored bars from Kashi and there's nothing you can do to stop me. So there- take that, you Hard n' Crunchy crazies! A 7 oz. box containing five 1.4 oz. bars cost me $4.09.

A 40g bar contains 130 calories, 30 of them being from fat, 3g of total fat, 0g of saturated fat, 0g of trans fat, 1.5g of polyunsaturated fat, 1.5g of monounsaturated fat, 0mg of cholesterol, 135mg of sodium, 24g of total carbohydrates, 4g of dietary fiber, 2g of soluble fiber, 2g of insoluble fiber, 10g of sugar, and 3g of protein.

Anyway, did you see the front of this box?! Kashi advertises these bars as being "Made with Real Fruit and Veggie." Excuse me, but isn't veggie usually used as a plural? I don't think I've ever heard someone say, "I cooked up a fresh pot of veggie." I mean, it doesn't sound all that strange, once I think about it- but I honestly have just never heard someone use "veggie" unless they placed an "s" after it. But, anywho- I guess the stranger matter here is that this is an APPLE COBBLER bar made with VEGGIES. And what kind of veggies? None are explicitly mentioned in the ingredients list- just "vegetable glycerin." Hmm. Apparently over 1/3 this bar is made with dried pumpkin and apples as well. And no, pumpkins are NOT a veggie. Oh, okay- now that doesn't sound so strange. Veggie. Veggie, veggie, veggie.

Also, Kashi falsely advertises that there are dark chocolate chips in this bar on their page for this bar. Good thing I read that after I ate this, or I would've been SUPER BUMMED.

For once, the picture on the box seems pretty accurate compared to the actual product. The bar's got the oats on top and all. However, this bar is a darker shade of brown than picture, and also has some even darker spots here and there.

This bar, sticking to Kashi's claim, is soft and chewy. It's also very crumbly. Kinda like a cereal bar. Actually, I found this bar to have a nut bread-esque taste and texture several bites throughout. I'd say this bar is pretty apple-y, but not really apple cobbler-y. But with a healthy, all-natural snack bar, you can't ask for everything. This bar also has a nice touch of cinnamon, and has a bit of a berry-like taste, like what you might expect from a NutriGrain bar. This bar wasn't incredibly sweet, but it turned out to be sweeter that I expected it to be. I've heard people say that this bar tasted too much like pumpkin, but I didn't think so. I mean, I know, it shouldn't taste like pumpkin at all- it's apple cobbler, for Christ's sake! But since this bar IS made with pumpkin, I suppose a little pumpkin-y taste can't be helped. That's what I thought going into this bar. But really, I didn't taste the pumpkin AT ALL. I was surprised, just because I had read the pumpkin taste was really strong. But nope- I didn't get any pumpkin out of this bar. Neither veggies, so phew!

Well, after trying this bar, I have to say it tasted a lot better than I thought. See, when I picked up a box of them up in the store, I thought they'd taste good- I mean, apple cobbler?! Yeah, baby, yeah! But then it seemed to have some pretty sub-par reactions from others who tasted it, so I was like, Ehhhh... But after I tried this for myself, I thought, "this isn't so bad!" And it's not. It doesn't taste MUCH like apple cobbler- but it tastes like cinnamon apples, so at least they got the fruit part right. And this did give me a feeling of a nut/fruit bread as I ate it, so its got the pastry-like factor working for it too. This bar isn't flabbergastingly delicious, but it's really not that bad! I'd give it a 6/10.

Need other opinions from those who chewed and reviewed? Crazy Food Dude has a review up for this bar as well.

What Kashi bar flavors are YOUR favorites? Write to me in the comments below!

Till' then, this has been RiRi ri-porting!