Snack Review: New! Kashi TLC Pumpkin Pie Fruit and Grain Bar
After eating Kashi’s newest addition to the ever-expanding granola bar universe, I have reached the following conclusions:
1) There is no truth in advertising.
2) I enjoy High Fructose Corn Syrup more than Evaporated Cane Juice Syrup
As we’ve previously established here on the blog, I am a veritable fall flavor fiend – enjoying anything and everything cinnamon, apple, and of course, pumpkin. As a health consciences snacker and previously established fan of several of Kashi’s cereal, I decided to give these seasonal relevant granola bars a try when I spotted them at a local grocery store. Kashi, which never misses its chance to advertise their “seven whole grain mix” (which I usually enjoy) describes these bars with the following:
Pie lovers will enjoy the sweet blend of pumpkin, real soft fruit and warm pie spices, sprinkled with pecans. Our Pumpkin Pie fruit & grain bars have 4g Fiber and 4g Protein. Of course, our TLC Fruit & Grain bars are filled with so many tasty goodies, you won’t miss high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and preservatives – we promise.
Guess what Kashi? I noticed, and I’m none too pleased.
Don’t get me wrong. These bars aren’t horrible, and there are some good elements to them. For starters, they have a great spice flavor. And I’m not just talking about that “hint of cinnamon” crap you get from most granola bars, but rather a real deal, sophisticated taste of cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. Yes, ginger. Props for that, Kashi. Likewise, the bars have a pronounced pumpkin flavor in the fruity, gelly underside.
While I enjoyed this moist, spicy underside, the bars themselves lack a “wow” factor or a punch. As you can see from the photos, they are VERY small. Considering I got a box of six of these on sale for $2.50, I would pronounce them on them on the pricy side for their 32g size. Likewise, the pecans advertised in the photo on the box were almost nonexistent. This wasn’t a huge deal for me because I’m not really on the nut bandwagon to begin with, but I thought I should mention it nonetheless. The major downside for me was the bars’ lack of pronounced sweetness. Yes it’s “all natural,” but it’s also dull and limited to the jellied underside. In fact, the granola element of the bar was exceptionally bland, and once more lacked any real chewiness – no doubt due to the lack of partially hydrogenated oil.
I understand the health benefits from these bars, and at 120 calories and only 3 grams of fat they certainly are an exceptional treat (actually, like 3 or 4 of them at one time are) but frankly the cost of the bars, coupled with their small size and lack of sweetness, make me skeptical of buying them in the future.
BTW – Where the heck was the “fruit” in the “Fruit and Grain” element of these? Last I checked pumpkin was a veggie…
Pros: Sophisticated pumpkin flavor with great spice undertones. Real Pumpkin. Only 120 calories and no saturated fat. 2 grams of soluble fiber.
Cons: Expensive. Small. Dull sweetness. This does not taste like Mommy’s Pumpkin Pie. Boring, flavorless granola is kinda stale. Donde estan las Pecans?
Price: $2.50 (on sale)
Overall GrubGrade: 5.25/10
More Info: Kashi.com
Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size: 1 Bar (32g)
Calories: 120
Total Fat: 3g
Sat Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 50 mg
Total Carbs: 22g
Fiber: 4g
Soluble Fiber: 2g
Sugars: 8g
Protein: 4g
Categories: Reviews, Snacks
Tags: All Natural, Granola Bar, Healthy Snack, Kashi, Kashi Fruit and Grain Bar, Kashi Pumpkin Bar, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie Bar
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Tried these too. I didn’t really care for the flavor. Maybe because I was expecting a pumpkin pie flavor, which wasn’t there.
Or maybe I’m afraid of Kashi’s 7 Whole Grains.
Holy crap! Where are the nuts?! One can expect there not to be as many as in the picture, but that is just unacceptable.
I reviewed a couple of Kashi products a while back, and wasn’t too impressed with them. These won’t be making it into my shopping cart.
@Marvo: Pumpkin Pie needs sugar, especially if it is built around the “whole grain” concept. Brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice syrup do nothing for my taste buds. I actually like Kashi cereals and even some of their frozen stuff, but the bar thing is not working for me. They should go the Fiber One route and basically just infuse a candy bar w/ fiber. Then we can talk.
But it doesn’t even look like a pumpkin anything…..excitement lost.
@YumYucky my thoughts exactly. I got pretty excited when I saw the title lol
But high fructose corn syrup comes from corn. Its from the earth.
(dont jump on me, im just quoting the commercial)
Thats disappointing.If you take stuff away it better taste amazing. Otherwise I rather have the bad stuff (and try to self moderate)
These are so small the HFCS thing wouldn’t even kick in. People shouldn’t be worried about HFCS in a 32g granola bar. They should be more concered with the 32 oz Coca Cola they’re downing…if they want to worry about those kinds of things at all. I don’t wanna get into a big stink about this (because that will never end up anywhere) but needless to say I’m one of those who thinks that this whole “OMG IT HAS HFCS IN IT” thing needs to stop. All I wanted was a tasty fall treat. Now I just want my $2.50 back to go buy some Pumpkin Bagel Poppers 🙂
Actually pumpkin is a fruit by classification because it has seeds and comes from a flower. Therefore, tomatoes, cucumber, all squashes, and anything else that has seeds and comes from a flower is a fruit.
I like the pumpkin pie bars! But Kashi’s best TLC bars are the mocha almond flavored. Delicious!
I get one of their crunch bars at the airport every Thursday morning, costs me $2.19 but it is relatively healthy for airport food. This one seems to have a bit less protein than the one I usually get.
Great review Adam!
Maybe it doesn’t fit the whole all natural thing but sounds to me that a nice drizzeling of a nice sugar-sweetened icing on top of this bar would’ve helped alot.
Everybody loves whipped cream on their slice of pie don’t they?
I actually tried one of these a few weeks ago and it tasted nothing like a pumpkin pie. The spices definitely hit my taste buds first. This is not something that I will be getting again and I am glad that I got one from a friend and didn’t have the rest of the box left to eat. For the record, mine had more nuts on it the one in the pic above.
I hate everyone. I LOVE these bars. I may or may not just scoop off the pumpkin layer and just eat that…tee hee but either way I think it’s a great bite of pumpkin if you are craving a pumpkin treat…NOT the pumpkin PIE they promised but I (and I alone apparently) like this!
FYI I’m eating one as I type again.
Great review Adam!
I’m enjoy the other flavors of these bars but theis one doesn’t look very good. Sounds to me that a drizzeling of a sweet icing would have helped greatly.
Who doesn’t like whipped cream on pumpkin pie?
On the whipped cream topic: Maybe dipping these in a tub of whipped cream, like you do a breadstick with cheese sauce, would work! LOL
Wasn’t a fan mostly because of that frosting. I found myself biting into them “side-wise” to avoid getting the stickyness all over my teeth. I also bought their crunchy version of a pumpkin granola bar and liked it much more.
Pie lovers would not be eating Kashi. I am a kashi fan, but I had the worst Kashi product ever the other week. Their honey and cinnamon oatmeal is the most truely repungent thing ever!! I do like the Apple Cinnamon. Fruit vs. Vegetable actually depends on whether you are speaking botanically or culinary. The supreme court ruled the tomato a vegetable in 1893 despite its seeded botanical nature for tax purposes.
Omg Raider! haha, i bought these for snacks as work and that was my first thought when i opened it. seriously, no nuts is nuts.
Diana! You can have the weird jelly layer off mine! I really didn’t like it! For something that’s supposed to be healthy and natural or whatever they’re going for, it tasted soooooo artificial to me.
come on everything kashi does SUCKS… i’ve tried it all..and it all tastes like… that stuff you feed llamas, smells.
Pumpkin is a fruit
Hmmm. Perhaps Kashi has improved the flavour since this review was published more than a year ago. I have purchased the Pumpkin Pie bars for the past two months and have enjoyed each and every one. As for the size, well, it seems all products have been downsized over the past decade and that may not be entirely a bad thing. Too much of a good thing can still be too much for history’s most obese generation ever.
“Last I checked pumpkin was a veggie…”
It’s a fruit…