Sweet & Salty
Nature’s Valley makes a ton of products that I really like. While I may not buy these week in and week out, I do pick up a box every now and then when they are on sale at Publix. By far, I think it is safe to say the Oats & Honey and Oaks & Chocolate Crunchy bars are my favorite but, I’m always game for trying something new. The last time these were on sale, I did just that. I opted for the Sweet & Salty Peanut variety bar. $2.50 for 6 bars sounded like a good price to me. The name on the box may be Sweet & Salty but, in my box, they only gave me the Sweet.
A few days after I purchased these suckers, I decided to try one out. At first look, I could see the nut pieces on the top and a peanut-butter esq layer on the bottom. I love peanut butter. Love it. I figured for sure, these would be good. The first bar I had, I really didn’t like at all. I didn’t like it so much that it took me a couple of weeks before I had another. The second bar, I had after washing 3 cars before I started on my 4th. Perhaps I was just really hungry but, this bar was much better.
The consistency of the bar is pretty soft but, the peanuts do add a little bit of crunch. I found the bar to make my fingers quite sticky. The peanut part of the bar was pretty sweet…I did not feel as if it was too salty at all. The peanuts had more of a sugary-sweet flavor than a salt-all-over-your-fingers flavor. While I could taste the peanuts, the sugary sweetness was the flavor that really stood out. As for the peanut butter on the bottom – wow, was it sugary. Yes, peanut butter can have a bit of a sweet flavor to it but, jeez…this was strong. I also found that the peanut butter bottom melted in my fingers very quickly. This, combined with the sticky top layer, made for a bit of a mess.
I don’t think Nature’s Valley Sweet & Salty Peanut Bars will be cracking my top 5 NV products any time soon. Yes, the 2nd bar was better than the 1st, and the 3rd was on par with the 2nd but, still, the overall of this bar is just not for me. If you prefer sweet to salty, and enjoy a sticky-melty-peanut-butter-flavor on your fingers, this is the bar for you. I find that I mostly like the Crunchy bars but, I do look forward to trying more NV products and adding more to my favs. This time around, Sweet & Salty was just not a winner.