Review: Nut Bars by Meridian
July 26, 2017
I was recently doing a little food shop in my local supermarket where I came across Meridian nut bars. I knew they created nut butter and seed butter as I am a huge fan of their peanut butter range but I hadn't seen their bars anywhere previously (although they have been around for a few years after researching them). I was immediately intrigued so I, of course, bought a couple to try.
Who are Meridian you may ask? Meridian is a whole foods company specialising in nut butters and seed butters. What makes these butters different is the fact that Meridian don't use palm oil which acts as an emulsifier, preventing the oils in the nuts and seeds from separating. Palm oil isn't beneficial to our health and also causes mass deforestation so the fact there is no palm oil in any of their products is perfect!
There are so many nut bars appearing on our supermarket shelves that it makes it confusing as to which nut bars to buy and which nut bars to avoid. Sometimes, the nutritional content, mainly the sugar, is just as bad as that in a chocolate bar! However, these particular Meridian nut bars that I have reviewed below do not contain any refined sugar.
The only varieties they had were the peanut and coconut nut bar and the peanut and cocoa nut bar. After browsing through their website, I also discovered they do a peanut bar, cashew bar, peanut and banana bar, peanut and berry bar, peanut and pumpkin bar and an almond bar. I wanna try them all!
The peanut and cocoa nut bar was slightly chewy yet moist and you could definitely taste the peanut element which was unsurprising due to the fact that the bar is 52% peanut. I found the cocoa was more of a side note which after reading the ingredients made sense. A combined 9% of the bar was made of cocoa powder and cocoa butter. This bar is perfect for a pre or post-workout snack and gives you that chocolatey fix that everyone craves with fewer calories and sugar! One 40g bar contains 10.5g sugar and a whopping 6.1g of protein!
The peanut and coconut bar was my favourite of the two. I am absolutely loving coconut as of late. I would say I could taste the coconut more than the peanut butter although 41% of the bar is made of peanuts and only 20% of the bar is made of coconut. But this explains why I could taste more coconut than cocoa in the previous nut bar. Again, this bar is perfect pre and post-workout. One 40g bar contains 9.1g of sugar and 6.4g of protein!
Both of these bars are dense and compact and strangely solid but soft, almost like a flapjack texture, making it perfect to pop into your handbag or gym bag without you having to worry about it breaking into pieces or it getting squashed. I also love the fact that these bars aren't overly sweet meaning one bar at a time is quite enough. These particular nut bars are also dairy free, gluten free and soybean free. They are free from GMOs, transfats, hydrogenated oils, artificial colours, preservatives and flavourings as well as being free from refined sugar.
These are also suitable for vegetarians and vegans! For a full range of Meridian products and information on their products, click here.
I am so excited to try the other nut bar varieties. What is your favourite nut bar? Let me know in the comments below.
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