Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Natural Balance Foods: Nakd Fruit and Nut Bars Review

Hello Everyone!

 
 


This post is sponsored by Natural Balanced Foods. Thanks for sending me these health bars for review. All opinions are 100% my own.

I was recently contacted by Natural Balanced Foods, a company that is based in the United Kingdom to try some of their fruit and nut bars. This company sells health snack bars that are gluten and sugar free. The health bars are also vegan food. The website describe these bars as fruits and nuts smooshed together.





About Natural Balanced Foods


We're a young British company devoted to increasing world happiness with yummy healthy snacks, humor and helpfulness.  That means we make delicious, good-for-you munchies, do our best to help others, and try to spread a little joy along the way.


I believe that I was sent the Eat Nakd Sample box. I provided some information from the  Natural Balanced food website.

Eat Nakd Sampler Box

 

 


Fancy trying some of our yummiest Eat Nākd bars in one go? The Eat Nakd sampler box is the perfect solution. With thirteen great flavors to try, this handy little case gives you the chance to find your favorite and work out which Eat Nakd snack tickles your taste buds the most.

What’s in the Sampler box?

In this box of natural, yummy treats you’ll find a variety of healthy snack bars, ideal for between meals, snacking on the go and school lunchboxes. Be tempted by the gorgeously fruity Berry Delight, the nutty and nutritious Cashew Cookie, or how about the citrusy chocolatey Cocoa Orange?
All of these bars are made with natural, wholesome ingredients with no hidden extras such as syrups or chemically bits. They’re quite unlike anything you’ve tried before - so give them a go today!
Here’s what you’ll get in the Find Your Favourite box:
  • One of each 9 Eat Nakd fruit and nut bar flavors; Rhubarb & Custard, Caffe Mocha, Cocoa Orange, Cashew Cookie, Pecan Pie, Berry Delight, Cocoa Mint, Ginger Bread and Cocoa Delight (9x 35g bars)
  • One of each 4 Eat Nakd Crunch bars: Apple Crunch, Strawberry Crunch, Banana Crunch and Cocoa Crunch (4x 30g bars)

Many of the bars count towards your 5 a day (for nutritional information, please see individual bars)


My Ingredients

There are so many delicious snacks packed into this box, each loaded with so much goodness, it’s hard to list them all! Please refer to individual products for detailed information on the nutritional content.

We can proudly say is that each bar is:
  • Dairy free
  • Wheat and gluten free
  • Vegan friendly
  • Low in saturated fats
  • Free from added sugar and syrups
  • GMO Free
  • Kosher 

Cost for the sampler box $9.99 
*FREE DELIVERY ON ALL USA ORDERS. A SPRINKLE OF FREEBIES IN EVERY ORDER!



I'm going to try to describe the bars to the best of my ability and I will rate them on a 1-10 scale
1=lowest and 10=highest


1. Nakd Cocoa Delight- Rating: 4

 

 

This bar has a very bland dark chocolate taste with nuts and raisins. This bar tasted is ok.


2. Nakd Cocoa Mint- Rating: 5


 

 

I could definitely taste chocolate in this bar. This bar puts me in the mind of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies except for a bland to semi-sweet taste with nuts.


3. Cocoa Orange- Rating: 6
 

 

I was actually surprised that I liked this bar since I don't like chocolate and orange together. This bar has a sweet orange and chocolaty taste. Pretty good


4. Caffe Mocha- Rating: 3

 
 

The only way I can decide this is by saying it taste just like it sounds coffee and chocolate. It has a sweet taste, but I don't care too much for the taste.


5. Nakd Cocoa Crunch- Rating: 1

 

This bar really didn't taste much like chocolate which is kind of strange being called Cocoa Crunch and all. I only tasted the nuts and raisins in this bar. Not a fan of this bar.


6. Nakd Banana Crunch- Rating: 7

 

This bar tasted like semi sweet fresh banana and the cashews tasted fresh as well.


7. Nakd Apple Crunch- Rating: 2

 

This bar tasted like a sour apple. When I write sour, I mean VERY BITTER. Once I could get over the bitter taste, that's when I could taste the raisins and cashews.


8. Nakd Ginger Bread- Rating: 1
 

 
One word for this bar YUCK!! I really like ginger bread, but this bar didn't taste anything like ginger bread. I also didn't taste any pecans, but I did taste almonds which I dislike.


9. Nakd Pecan Pie- Rating: 6

 

This bar tasted sweet and the pecans tasted fresh.


10. Nakd Cashew Cookie- Rating: 7

This bar tasted like fresh cashews. This bar has more of a wholesome cashew taste rather than a sweet taste.


11. Nakd Rhubarb & Custard- Rating: 1
 

 
I don't like rhubarb and the raisins and nuts didn't help this bar taste wise in the least.
 
 
12. Nakd Bakewell Tart- Rating: 7 (This was a freebie)
 
 
 
This bar tasted primarily like cashews with a hint of dates.

13. Nakd Strawberry Crunch- Rating: 8

Out of all the bars, this one hast the freshest taste. The strawberries, raisins, and nuts balance well together.


14. Nakd Berry Delight- Rating: 7


This bar tasted like sweet raspberries and cashews.


My Thoughts

I'm all for eating healthy and promoting good health, but I must admit eating these bars did require me to have an open mind about it since I'm not used to eating gluten free and vegan foods. I noticed that after I ate the bars, I didn't feel as tired. I really liked that I had more energy when I ate these bars. I'm not a big sweet eater so the lack of sugar taste in some of the bars didn't really bother me too much. I'll mention this again, I had to have an open mind to try these bars because some of the bars tasted a little bland and dry.  Also please read the ingredients in the bars and check with your doctor before consumption. If you have allergies like me, it's so important you pay attention to the ingredients because these bars contain nuts, peanuts and sesame seeds etc. Before I ate these bars I decided to take a Benadryl just to prevent any potential problems with the ingredients. I was fine, I didn't  have an allergic reaction to any of the ingredients. Also if you're lactose intolerant, you may like these bars because they are dairy free which is another plus.

I like the health benefits in these bars and I'm just not all that crazy about the taste of a few the bars. In a nutshell some of the bars were ok, and some were just not good. You probably already noticed how I felt about some of these bars based on reviews and ratings. These aren't the sweetest snacks, but that isn't to surprising with these snacks being health foods. So if you don't like bland tasting type food or gluten free products you may not like these bars. If you like trying healthy snacks with beneficial health prospects then you may want to try these bars. It all depends on your taste, and having an open mind makes the difference if you will or will not like these snacks.


To check out this sampler box and more here is the link to the Natural Balanced food website:

Fruit and Nut Bars



Announcement:

I may take about a week or so off my blog. I wanted to let you all know so you wouldn't think I went M.I.A. In the meantime I'm not sure if I'll be posting on MY FACEBOOK PAGE or Instagram, but I know I'll be reading and commenting on your blogs!


Thanks for stopping by my blog!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Thats awesome that you got to try these out and they sent you so many Pilar! Too bad some of the flavors weren't very good and they were just bland and dry tasting though, I think I remember Kim did a blog post on these and said something similar. I'm all for healthy and vegan food and snacks like these, but I think I'd be better off making my own granola bars!

Jackie Harrison said...

I just got my box yesterday so looking forward in trying it. I love healthy gluten free food since is a beneficial factor for us in the same note I do agree with you about open mind if you never had any gluten or vegan food is all in the palette and set of mind. Great review Pilar.

Marie said...

Sounds like an interesting health snack. Great review!

willsingformakeup said...

That's great you got to try these! They sound like they're super good for you! Glad you reviewed them individually too!

Shireen L. Platt said...

I have seen a few reviews on these and I thought they sounded pretty good. I stayed away from healthy bars after my experience with one that I thought was dog food, it was so nasty that I never want to try another.

A Very Sweet Blog said...

LOL Pilar! I remember testing these. My ratings were all over the place like you! Overall they weren't my cup of tea, but there were a couple of winners out the bunch. I was disappointed in the gingerbread also. I KNOW MY GINGERBREAD! Honest and great review.
http://www.averysweetblog.com/

Pilar said...

Thanks Ashley! This is my first time trying vegan based foods and I wish some of the bars tasted better. Some of these bars were very dry tasting and not good. I never thought of making my own granola bars. If you decide to make granola bars, I hope you share the recipe!

Pilar said...

Thanks Jackie! I hope you enjoy taste testing your snack bars! Before I decides to do the review, I already decided to keep an open mind and I wanted to try gluten free and vegan food.

Pilar said...

Thanks Marie!

Pilar said...

Thanks Lauren! I can see the health benefits, I just wasn't crazy about the taste. I wanted to write about each bar individually to help describe them better.

Pilar said...

Thanks Shireen! I Some of these bars weren't that good, but the bars weren't as bad as how you described your past experience!

Pilar said...

Thanks Kim! I remember when you did this review too! I think if the company tweaked the ingredients in some of the bars they might taste better. Some of the bars tasted nothing like the description on the package. That gingerbread was so disappointing!

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