Well today on the blog we are doing something entirely different- our first sponsored post. Attune sent us a set of their non refrigerated chocolate bars (read: they have ones that are kept refrigerated) with probiotics, and we were happy to sample them! Attune's motto is: "Simple ingredients. Simply made.", and I think that is something we all like to hear.
First up for review are the dark chocolate variety, of course these were for me (Rosie) your dairy free girl. Both of these bars were delightfully free from milk, and I do not say that lightly, I have a very hard time finding chocolate that I can eat.
My husband and I ate these bars together, and we started with the Toasted Coconut. This bar was super yummy. As in, I would totally purchase it again. Although it is dark chocolate, with 68% cocoa, it didn't have the trademark dark chocolate bitterness, which I was happy to do without. The bar didn't taste coconutty to me at all- which I was looking forward to- I am a coconut fiend, but my husband hates the taste, and he liked this bar and didn't think it tasted coconutty at all either. What the toasted coconut did give this bar was a light crunchy texture, kind of like puffed rice does for other chocolate bars.
The "Dark Chocolate" bar wasn't our favorite, the Toasted Coconut was, but we still ate this chocolate anyway, because really, is there such a thing as bad chocolate? It was bitter, like pretty much all dark chocolate is, and I think that some people really love that bitterness. I think that I just miss milk chocolate so much, I am a little over the darks. But dark chocolate is what my stomach can tolerate, so tolerate I do!
Now a note about the probiotics. I didn't notice anything different about the taste due to it being a "probiotic chocolate bar" and I didn't notice anything tasting too "healthy". These chocolate bars are packed with 4 billion CFUs of clinically supported strains of probiotics all while having taste like yummy chocolate bars. As for probiotics, I feel the need to share the little bit of knowledge I have about them. I have a personal friend who is a ND, that is a Naturopathic Doctor, and we have spoken about probiotics. He recommends probiotics, especially the kind that are kept in the fridge (remember the refrigerated bars I mentioned earlier?). So I started taking some, I didn't notice a difference in any of my stomach issues, but I am still taking them. I mentioned them to my MD (a regular old medical doctor) and she kind of rolled her eyes at me and said that there haven't been any studies that show any benefits of taking probiotics. So, there's kind of a mixed bag of beliefs there, and now you know everything I know.
I (Holly) tasted the Milk Chocolate Crisp Bar and the Toasted Coconut. I was surprised at the chocolate flavor and smoothness. Generally I find that chocolates lose their flavor when more ingredients are added to the mix, but the probiotics had very little effect. In fact, the Toasted Coconut bar is just about as good as any high-percentage cocoa bar you can get at the store. I barely tasted the coconut because the chocolate flavor was so prominent.
The Crisp bar was good. It reminded me of a Krackle or Crunch candy but less sweet. The fact that it is less sweet might actually be a plus for a lot of people because consuming too much sugar is a huge problem in the U.S. A comparable serving size of a Crunch bar, for example, has 8g more sugar than the Attune Crisp Bar. It also has slightly less carbs. So, if you simply must eat a milk chocolate candy bar the Attune bar will cut some sugar from your day.
Overall, I enjoyed both bars I tried. Since I only ate a few bites of each (didn't want to go overboard), I can't truly speak to the digestive health claims. I also noticed that the bars were a bit waxy. This is common for chocolate candy, though, to keep it from melting into a big mess. I would eat these bars again, and I can imagine them as a great addition to recipes like cakes and cookies.
And finally just to add, I (Warren), got to try the Dark Chocolate and the Chocolate Milk Crisp bars. Unfortunately I had a bit of a "accident" with the bars and they ended up melting, but I quickly remedied that by throwing them in the freezer for a few hours (also a good idea to do in this heat in general).
I liked the Crisp bar. It was sweet, creamy and like Holly said, it reminded me of a Crunch bar but healthier.
As much as I liked the Crisp bar, the real winner was the Dark Chocolate. Rosie is right it's bitter, but I have been into that bite lately.
Now, we know that you are just dying to get your hands on these bars for yourself (we don't blame you)! The good news for all our PDX friends is that you can pick these new Attune Chocolate Bars up at your local Whole Foods Market! If you don't have one near you, you can also get these online at AttuneFoods.com.
Of course we want to get these bars to you to try for yourself!! So we're doing a little giveaway. Comment below with what you love about chocolate, and we'll pick a winner at random Monday night! Good luck!!!
The Crisp bar was good. It reminded me of a Krackle or Crunch candy but less sweet. The fact that it is less sweet might actually be a plus for a lot of people because consuming too much sugar is a huge problem in the U.S. A comparable serving size of a Crunch bar, for example, has 8g more sugar than the Attune Crisp Bar. It also has slightly less carbs. So, if you simply must eat a milk chocolate candy bar the Attune bar will cut some sugar from your day.
Overall, I enjoyed both bars I tried. Since I only ate a few bites of each (didn't want to go overboard), I can't truly speak to the digestive health claims. I also noticed that the bars were a bit waxy. This is common for chocolate candy, though, to keep it from melting into a big mess. I would eat these bars again, and I can imagine them as a great addition to recipes like cakes and cookies.
And finally just to add, I (Warren), got to try the Dark Chocolate and the Chocolate Milk Crisp bars. Unfortunately I had a bit of a "accident" with the bars and they ended up melting, but I quickly remedied that by throwing them in the freezer for a few hours (also a good idea to do in this heat in general).
I liked the Crisp bar. It was sweet, creamy and like Holly said, it reminded me of a Crunch bar but healthier.
As much as I liked the Crisp bar, the real winner was the Dark Chocolate. Rosie is right it's bitter, but I have been into that bite lately.
Now, we know that you are just dying to get your hands on these bars for yourself (we don't blame you)! The good news for all our PDX friends is that you can pick these new Attune Chocolate Bars up at your local Whole Foods Market! If you don't have one near you, you can also get these online at AttuneFoods.com.
Of course we want to get these bars to you to try for yourself!! So we're doing a little giveaway. Comment below with what you love about chocolate, and we'll pick a winner at random Monday night! Good luck!!!
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