Lara Bar: Coconut Cream Pie

 While we appreciate this product’s extremely simple ingredients list (dates, unsweetened coconut, almonds, cashews, extra virgin coconut oil), the Coconut Cream Pie is a definite misnomer.  Specifically, this bar is not what we expected from the “Cream Pie” part of the name.  First of all, it doesn’t taste like any cream pie that we’ve ever had, aside from maybe the touch of coconut oil that’s in the finish.  Otherwise, this product tastes like shredded coconut, dates, and nuts.  It’s not bad, but the pairing of coconut and dates seems less than perfect.  Packaging is decent and uses the standard LaraBar look.  However, making the flavor name a bit larger would probably help given the bar’s lack of graphics.  Nutritionally, the bar has 5g of fiber, 3g of protein, 200 calories, 10g of fat, and a variety of vitamins, making it appropriate for a snack more than anything else.  Overall, it’s good, but the flavor really needs a bit more balance than it currently has.

LaraBar: Peanut Butter Cookie

You have to respect the pure aesthetic of any bar whose ingredients consist solely of dates, peanuts, and salt, but to say that this is similar in any way to a peanut butter cookie would be a disgrace to cookies everywhere. Basically a log of fig with chopped up peanuts inside, this variety of the Larabar does have a flavor that accurately reflects its ingredients. But that might not be a good thing, in the end, as the tiny chop of the peanuts  gives the bar little substance and the fig body of the bar, while showing the variety of sweet complexity that we love them for, is a bit dry, giving the pairing a pasty texture, with not enough salt to liven things up. The Larabar wrapper is simple but we’d recommend putting the ingredients on the front below the brand name – a product like this is going to do better on what’s in it than false claims of what it would taste like in a planet without sugar.
Rating: 2 stars

Calories: 210
Fat: 13 g
Carbs: 23 g
Fiber: 4g
Protein: 5 g