Full Bar: Cinnamon Roll

April 14, 2010 by admin

Full Bar’s Cinnamon Roll bar is a 100% natural bar that markets itself as being “inspired by weigh loss surgery principles” and “developed by a leading weight loss surgeon.”  On our beverage industry site, BevNET.com, we’ve seen lots of marketers try to position themselves as being people with M.D.s, but it hasn’t worked so well (what’s so wrong with a food scientist anyway?).  That, combined with this bar’s massive size and light weight (1.59 ounces) made us very eager to give this product a try.  Opening the wrapper, we noticed that the bar was sticky and difficult to remove.  Scissors were required to get it out.  The bar uses puffed wheat (along with soy crisps and soy protein) and honey, agave, and brown rice syrup provide the sweetness and coating.  The flavors are further enhanced with natural flavors, salt, and cinnamon.  However, it seems a bit far from being a replacement for a cinnamon roll.  All in all, it’s a tasty bar that has a taste that’s reminiscent of a sweetened breakfast cereal, so we think that it’s pretty likeable.   Nutritionally, the bar has 150 calories, 2g of fat, 6g of protein, 5g of fiber, calcium, sodium, and iron.  Drinking it with water, the bar certainly makes you feel full – so in that sense it works.   As for the packaging, they’ve done a nice job of cleanly arranging the elements on the front of the wrapper.  However, showing an image of a cinnamon roll on a product that’s geared at people who are trying to lose weight seems a bit much.  We’re also not convinced that a weight loss surgeon’s ability to perform medical procedures bears relevance to their ability to formulate shelf stable food products.   Overall, we like the concept and like the flavor, but the visual execution could use some refinement.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars