Australian grocery store muesli bars style check: the worst is ‘both dry and moist’ | Australian life-style

I have a protracted historical past with muesli. Muesli bars have been a recess staple throughout my faculty years. As a uni scholar, I made muesli in 20kg batches and offered it from my sharehouse again yard like a drug seller. In lockdown, I began an Instagram account the place I’d evaluate and price a special muesli each three or 4 days (I’m the one contributor to the hashtag #mueslireviewsli). Even earlier than this style check, I’d guess that I’ve tried greater than 80% of all of the muesli and muesli bar manufacturers obtainable in my space.

My perception is the perfect mueslis have good elements and textural distinction – uncooked, unroasted nuts ought to be prohibited below this rule. And the perfect muesli bar is just good muesli certain collectively.

Sadly, the muesli bar trade doesn’t share my philosophy. Supermarket aisles are stacked with a weird and ever-changing roster of flavours. Would you want a muesli bar impressed by Chokito? What about rice puffs flavoured with Nesquik? Or a quasi-protein bar with mint chocolate or iced espresso?

It would have been humorous and attention-grabbing to strive all of them, however I’m not superhuman. So I set some standards primarily based on the “best muesli bar” philosophy above, but in addition contemplating health-conscious mother and father shopping for muesli bars as a lunchbox snack. I excluded something with chocolate, yoghurt (muesli bar yoghurt is usually oil and sugar) or notably candy flavours. I lower something with protein-forward branding (we’ve performed a protein bar style check already) and any product offered as a single bar – a takeaway snack is purchased for a special objective than a take-home field.

I ended up with 19 muesli and nut bars largely comprised of nuts, grains and dried fruit. I did the blind style check with 4 pals at Solstice cafe in Sydney, scoring every product for texture and style.

Even after chopping out something that resembled dessert, I believed we’d be tasting a lineup of sweet bars, however there was barely a muesli bar that was too candy. Despite this I didn’t actually get what I wished both: a great muesli in bar kind. Instead, we tasted a center vary of fundamental muesli and rectangle-shaped oat merchandise, and a few very uncommon merchandise which are arguably not muesli bars in any respect.

The greatest muesli bar

Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Canadian Maple Syrup, 252g, $6.90 ($2.74 per 100g), obtainable at main supermarkets

Score: 7.5/10

Like Anzac biscuits, muesli bars might be divided into two camps: crunchy and chewy. I don’t know what occurred between my childhood and now however the former appear to have died out. This muesli is the final champion of crunch. It has such a satisfying texture and toasty biscuity flavour (it’s 60% toasted oats), it made me realise so lots of the different muesli bars we tried are undercooked, with uncooked or under-roasted nuts and grains. “Begging for a glass of milk,” one reviewer wrote. I used to be an especially fussy eater as a child, however 10-year-old me would have beloved this for recess.

Note: we additionally tried Nature Valley’s Granola Oats & Honey, which scored a 7/10 and tastes comparable however with out the maple flavour – primarily like an Anzac biscuit.

The greatest nut bar

Sam’s Pantry Honey Salted Macadamia With Roasted Almonds Nut Bar, 170g, $4.50 ($2.65 per 100g), obtainable at Woolworths and choose grocers

Score: 7.5/10

One of the realities of the muesli bar aisle is, resulting from playground wants, many merchandise are nut-free. The nut bar is the counter swing, a nut binge for all those that have had pressured nut sabbaticals. One of probably the most helpful discoveries of the style check was, on common, they’re higher than muesli bars. Every nut bar scored nicely, this one scoring barely larger resulting from its honey-butter enchantment – there’s no precise butter, it’s simply the macadamias talking. “Energy dense but in a whole food kind of way,” wrote a reviewer, who occurs to be a researcher into meals coverage and public well being. Wrote one other: “I’ll be happy to pick this out of my teeth forever, nut bad!”

The greatest worth

Hillcrest Premium Nut Bars Almonds, Cashews & Cranberries, 175g, $3.99 ($2.28 per 100g), obtainable at Aldi

Score: 7.5/10

If this had some grains and the nuts have been extra roasted it might be precisely what I requested for. The range of elements gives a lot distinction in texture and flavour. Some bites have the chew, acidity and shiny sweetness from cranberries, others bites are extra savoury and somewhat creamy from the peanuts and cashews, some have extra almond or sesame, some have all the above. As one reviewer wrote: “Just a good nut bar.”

The relaxation

Carman’s Roasted Nut Bars Almond, Cashew and Cranberry, 175g, $7.50 ($4.29 per 100g), obtainable at main supermarkets

Score: 7/10

Imagine should you have been cloned, however it was an inexpensive job: it doesn’t look fairly pretty much as good and it has a knockoff title. How would you’re feeling if that clone turned extra common? That’s in all probability how Carman’s feels seeing an Aldi knockoff – the Hillcrest almond, cashew and cranberry muesli bar – rating larger than their unique. I’d say they’ll’t complain. This shouldn’t be solely costlier, it’s additionally unnecessarily sweeter and has a decrease proportion of nuts and seeds.

Carman’s Muesli Bars Classic Fruit & Nut, 270g, $7.50 ($2.78 per 100g), obtainable at main supermarkets, and Hillcrest Premium Muesli Bars Fruit & Nut, 270g, $3.99 ($1.48 per 100g), obtainable at Aldi

Score: 7/10

If the Hillcrest and Carman’s nut bar battle was laborious fought, the competitors between their traditional muesli bars is comfortable, like watching a wrestling match between Teletubbies. It’s laborious to choose a winner however I don’t know if it issues a lot both manner. Hillcrest’s variations have barely extra sugar and marginally fewer nuts. Both have such an enormous cinnamon hit, I discovered myself asking, for the primary time in my life, is that this an excessive amount of cinnamon? Ultimately, each manufacturers’ muesli bars are so plainly inside the expectations of what a supermarket-quality muesli bar is. No one will hate both, or the 2 manufacturers’ different muesli bars.

Koja Oat Bites Muesli Slice, 150g, $7.50 ($5 per 100g), obtainable from Woolworths and choose grocers

Score: 7/10

The reverse of the Carman’s/Hillcrest expertise – a muesli bar with ambition. Like so many issues striving to be distinctive or totally different, it finally ends up being divisive. Every reviewer gave this an eight, a 5 or a 4, however nothing in between. Unlike the dense chew of traditional muesli bars, that is softer, like a buttery cake. The coconut provides it an Anzac biscuit really feel however the chia seeds, one of many least joyful muesli grains, give me the identical shivers that ward me off bliss balls, turmeric smoothies and carob. Regardless of how you’re feeling about chia, those that like this bar will adore it, in all probability greater than every other product within the style check. And should you do, like me, it’s best to search for Koja’s single bar choices within the well being meals aisle of your grocery store.

Oh So Natural Date & Chia Gluten-Free Bars, 180g, $3.99 ($2.22 per 100g), obtainable at Aldi

Score: 5.5/10

One of the numerous hacks I found reviewing muesli was that, on common, gluten-free mueslis have been much better. Instead of utilizing oats as a base, they depend on a range of grains that give an extremely textural expertise, like buckwheat, rice puffs or cornflakes. I believed this could be the very best scorer of the day. Sadly, it’s undercooked, sticky (the principle ingredient is glucose syrup) and homogeneously chewy. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn’t even know the cornflakes are in there. It made me consider being a wobbly toothed child confronted with a brand new muesli bar – would this be the meals that pulls out my valuable tooth?

Uncle Tobys Chewy Apricot, 185g, $5.50 ($2.97 per 100g), obtainable at main supermarkets

Score: 5/10

I’ve eaten this product so many occasions, even in a blind style check it’s laborious to style with out being transported to highschool. I wasn’t the one one. The scorecards have been suffering from feedback about lunchboxes, recess and childhood, however not notably good scores. I’d by no means thought-about we are able to have a nostalgic expertise of one thing we don’t notably like – it’s the time we bear in mind fondly, not the muesli bar. Criticisms have been largely in regards to the artificial flavour – the apricot is unusually highly effective – and the sweetness. The one one that didn’t write about faculty time nostalgia thought this is likely to be a flowery model, albeit a horrible one.

Mother Earth Golden Oats Baked Oaty Slices, 240g, $3.80 ($1.58 per 100g), obtainable at main supermarkets

Score: 5/10

What says “Mother Earth” a few reconstituted bar of roasted oats that appears like a canine deal with? It’s not the sugar (23.6g per 100g makes it some of the sugar-laden), the elevating brokers or the egg powder. Maybe it’s the actual fact it tastes like, as one reviewer mentioned, “Something you’d buy from a vending machine before a walk in Katoomba.” It’s candy, coconuty, with a gentle baking powder flavour and a fibrous, dusty texture. It’s a reminder that well being meals is the fact TV of the culinary world, a style with its personal conventions that aren’t a real reflection of its title. But on this case, a minimum of Mother Earth is budget-conscious.

Ceres Organics Organic Oaty Bars Banana, 100g, $6.50, obtainable from Woolworths and choose grocers

Score: 4/10

Several merchandise elicited feedback alongside the strains of: “Is this a muesli bar?” Both Ceres merchandise (we additionally tried their berry-flavoured bar) have been victims of the accusation. They seem like house meals designed for a tiny astronaut and scent like a well being meals amalgam. In flavour and texture, that is someplace between a “healthy” muffin and second-rate cafe banana bread. I don’t thoughts that, however what I can’t get round is the overt use of chia seeds, an ingredient that has much more superfood hype than it does flavour. They could as nicely put an indication on the entrance of the packet saying, “Deliciousness is not a priority.”

Hillcrest Oat Bars Golden Oats, 240g, $2.99 ($1.25 per 100g), obtainable at Aldi

Score: 3/10

This is the Pringle of the muesli bar world, a reconstituted approximation full of salt and numerous elements which are much less about flavour and extra about optimising shelf stability. But in contrast to Pringles, as soon as I popped, I instantly wished to cease. Part of that’s the scent, an odd and unnatural candy aroma, like a fruit from one other photo voltaic system, presumably one not suitable with carbon-based life varieties. The texture is equally unhappy: dusty and crumbly. “How is it both dry and moist?” one reviewer requested. The grainy flavour additionally has an unknowable and weird nature that lasts for much too lengthy. “The last thing you’ll eat when you’re stranded in the bush after a hike,” one reviewer mentioned.

Table