REVIEW: Kashi Soft n' Chewy Berry Muffin Bars

I reviewed Kashi's Soft N' Chewy Apple Cobbler Bar awhile back on this blog and was sufficiently impressed, so now I'm tackling their Berry Muffin flavor. The Soft N' Chewy bar I REALLY wanted to try next was the Banana Chocolate Chip ( I mean, CHOCOLATE, come on), but since I had a coupon for $1.00 off any NEW Kashi product, I settled on these bars instead.

A 7 oz. box containing five 1.4 oz. bars costs around $3.29.

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, 140mg 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.

Over 1/3 of all of Kashi's Soft N' Chewy bars are made with some sort of fruit puree- whether it be apples, or pumpkins. These Berry Muffin bars include both of these fruits, along with berries to boot. These bars are also supposed to be made with veggies of some sort, but the ingredients panel points to no specific type of vegetable in particular, so the veggie content must be minimally small.



Removing it from its cutesy pink and white packaging, I found this bar to be a darker shade of brown, with some shaved oats on top and dried cranberries protruding from the surface. It emanated a smell similar to NutriGrain bars, and was very soft to the touch.

True to its name, this bar was soft and chewy at first bite. It had a bready texture- it was pretty thick, but not hard or crunchy, except for the small nut bits placed here and there. It wasn't very flavorful, and the overall taste was that of very mild strawberries. The cranberry flavor really comes from the dried craisin-like berries found inside the bar, of which there was plenty of.  This bar isn't super sweet... It has more of a natural, almost earthy taste, and you really have to concentrate if you want to get a good taste out of your bite. If I thought real hard about it, I could make out the fruity taste of strawberries, but this definitely was not a flavor explosion. The nuts didn't add any of their own tastes either. However, this bar wasn't terrible, even if I'm making it out to be- sometimes it's quite nice to eat a very mild, natural-tasting snack. It felt healthy and organic, you know? This definitely had a nice, bread-like texture- it was almost like eating a nutritious slice of fruit loaf.

To conclude, this was a pretty average bar in terms of flavor. But yet I'd have to say it's naturalness also made it unique in its own kind of way (I know, I know... Paula Abdul of reviews over here!). The taste was natural and earthy, something you don't normally get from the chemically, processed more commercial snack bars nowadays, but had a vague flavor of strawberries to it and was pretty unflavorful, to be frank. The soft, bready texture, however, was quite pleasant and melted away in my mouth. There were plenty of dried cranberries to add little bursts of cranberry flavor, and even some tiny pieces of nuts to add a crunch here and there. I don't think I'd want to buy this bar again- the taste just wasn't enough to sell me on it -but I think I can manage to finish off the rest of the box.

I'd give Kashi's Soft N' Chewy Berry Muffin Bar a 5.5/10.

What Kashi bar do YOU reach for to satisfy your snack craving? Let your opinions be heard in the comments section down below!

Need other views from those who chewed? Crazy Food Dude also has this one reviewed.

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