This rainy Sunday afternoon in Feb has bought me to finally write this long-overdue review of a product I received at Christmas very kindly from one of my clients...thanks Jen!
Before receiving this product, I had never heard of The Goodness Project ( https://thegoodnessproject.co.uk ), but on opening the package and doing a little research, I absolutely love the idea! The company sources the best vegan, gluten-free and natural products that are available on the market and make them available in subscription boxes on a one, three or six month basis.
My box included the 7 products pictured above, none of which I have ever tried, and if I'm honest I'm usually quite dubious about buying an entire box of each new product to try that comes out in case I don't like them, and I'll be the first to admit that snack bars have to be pretty tasty for me to want to buy more than one at a time!
I was so pleasantly BLOWN AWAY with the choice of snack bars in the box and they were absolutely perfect on my mornings between working with clients and teaching Barre. So on to the small details... an individual review of each bar - other reviews may differ, but for my sweet tooth, this is what I thought;
1. GOJI GOODNESS (£0.99 for 38g bar from The Goodness Project)
A raw fruity flapjack, at 118 calories and counts as 1 of your 5 a day. I'm not always a fan of these types of bar, as the texture is something a little different to get used to, yet the berry flavours bursting from this bar were delicious and kept the bar moist.
Score: 8/10
2. MONTEZUMA'S 73% DARK CHOCOLATE (30g bar, not currently available from The Goodness Project in this size)
Mum and I LOVE dark chocolate and I do genuinely feel that it sorts my sweet cravings out on days where I need a little pick-me-up. This bar was perfectly sized - although if I had the larger size I wouldn't say no to eating the whole thing! The chocolate was the perfect mix of bitter and sweetness, and on research, I found the creators of Montezuma's have a lovely little story of how they came up with their chocolate making business.
Score: 9/10 ( I could have just done with the bigger bar!)
3. RHYTHM 108 SWEET'N'SALTY ALMOND CHOCOLATE BAR (£1.49 for a 33g bar on The Goodness Project)
GAME CHANGER! I first thought it may just be another typical nutty bar, supposed to taste like chocolate that can sometimes be a little dry... but boy was I wrong! I can't even explain what it was that I loved exactly because it wasn't your typical chocolate bar either, but I just enjoyed every single bite, satisfied my sweet tooth and as always could have eaten more!
Score: 9/10 (Near perfect... but something has got to be spectacular to get the full score...)
4. DELICIOUSLY ELLA CACAO & ALMOND OAT BAR (£1.29 for 50g bar from The Goodness Project)
I've followed Deliciously Ella for a while on Instagram and have always been keen to try her products - I love that she bakes using all natural ingredients, and the description is in the name... delicious! It wasn't quite a flapjack, but it wasn't a biscuit either; somewhere in the middle with a great mix of oats, raisins and cacao nibs.
Score: 8/10
5. PERKIER GOJI & CRANBERRY QUINOA BAR (35g bar, not currently available on The Goodness Project)
Perhaps my least favourite of the products from the box, but that's not to say that it wasn't nice! The bar was fruity, and filled me up, but it was just too chewy for me... I had to eat the bar in two parts as I felt like I'd had a workout before I had even hit the gym. Saying this, I would probably still have another of these bars if someone offered it to me as it still felt healthy and the flavour was good. Perhaps being naive with some ingredients, I didn't know that you could bake quinoa in a bar so that was interesting to try and I would say that it gave the bar a good crunch.
Score: 6/10
6. DOVE'S FARM CHOCOLATE CHIP FLAPJACK (£1 for a 35g bar, from The Goodness Project)
Growing up as children, Mum always encouraged us to have a healthier option snack when we wanted something sweet, so she would often make or buy flapjacks for us to give us the energy boost for our sports clubs, rather than just a sugar high. If this bar had been about during our childhood then I have no doubt it would have been one of the bars we would have tried! It had a great crumble (as I believe all flapjacks should) mixed with little chunks of chocolate - on research I found this chocolate to be 70% cocoa which in someways made this bar taste a little different to your typical chocolatey flapjacks.
Score: 8/10
7. PULSIN MACA BLISS RAW CHOCOLATE BROWNIE (£1.70 for 50g from The Goodness Project)
100% natural ingredients (although mostly peanuts) this bar is rich in fibre and provided a little punch of chocolate for my sweet tooth.. it just wasn't quite a "brownie" as you would expect it. I think sometimes with these "raw natural" bars you have to eat them with an open-mind, since it was more like a biscuit-bar that tasted like chocolate in my opinion and not the gooey brownie you may expect. It was still nice, but not the sickly sweetness that I quite wanted.
Score 6/10
Overall, this box was a great present for the healthy eater in your life, or for those who prefer to eat vegan/gluten free. I would definitely consider getting myself the subscription to try out some new bars too and would recommend for any of you to try it!
AJR x
Below I've included website addresses for each of the bars to their original companies in hope that you too can try some new bars for yourself. I often find that companies give you some sort of discount code on your first order, and more often than not have a mixed box of each of their products to try.
Goji Goodness - https://thegoodnessproject.co.uk/shop/creative-nature-goji-goodness-raw-superfood-flapjack
Montezuma's - https://www.montezumas.co.uk/our-story-i35
Rhythm 108 - https://rhythm108.com/our-story/
Deliciously Ella - https://deliciouslyella.com
Perkier - https://perkier.co.uk
Dove's Farm Freee - https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/freee
Pulsin - https://www.pulsin.co.uk