True Bar

I received some products from Bakery on Main to review about a month ago.  Bakery on Main has the slogan of "Nothing to hide."  Which means they don't add any artificial flavors, dies, or sugar to their foods.  They also are big on gluten free granola that tastes good as well.  Bakery on Main made it very clear that these are not sugar free but they are no sugar added products and they do contain sugar which on the label like all of us Type 1 diabetics know is listed as carbohydrates.  The reason it has taken me so long to review any of these snacks is that the serious camping season starts after labor day and I really wanted to try these producst on the trail.  Not just eating them at the house while watching TV. 

This weekend was an eagle court of honor for two boys in our scout troop.  The ceremony started at 4pm on Saturday and I had eaten lunch at noon and was planning on having hot dogs at the reception for the newly winged eagles around 6pm.  There is alot of stress that goes along with these ceremonies and I felt that my sugars would not hold up without having a snack.  In my brief case I keep lots of glucose tablets, gels, and drinks but, for a situation like this I keep granola snacks.  Where I need a snack to fill me over till my next meal and not something to get me up from a low BG.  The bar I had was a Raspberry Chocolate Almond "Truebar" leftover from the sailing weekend when I had planned on eating it but did not do enough activities for it.

The packaging of the Truebar is not exactly pleasant to look at.  They have it in clear see-through plastic that in the advertisement above looks great.  Just that the product looks nothing like the advertisment.  There is a generous amount of brown rice syrup to keep all the nuts and seeds together.  Just that syrup makes the product look less appetizing.  Think of how a cliff bar looks like a brownie gone wrong and how the packaging is of some person doing amazing climbs and does not have a clear window to see the browning gone wrong part of the product.  Bakery on Main could learn from other organic companies on how to market their product in a more appealing light. 

Once I ate the bar it amazed me how good this thing was and the raspberry flavor really sings with all the other ingredients but does not overpower them.  To describe what the bar really is, I would say it is a good version of what we used to eat on backpacking trips in the 80's and 90's called a "Wha Garu Chew."  Now a Whagaruchew on day one of a hike kinda tastes ok but goes downhill fast from there.  All of us guys that new about the Whagaru affect would trade ours with the new kids on day one for things like raisins or crackers.  Then by day three or so the new guys understood the whagaru affect and learned their lesson for the next hike.  Now, a Truebar is like the Whagaruchew in the nutty,granola, and caramel (the brown rice syrup is a good replacement for the caramel)style of the bar.  Just the Truebar is good.  Now on my syringe scale, I would rate the Truebar a 4 out of 5 syringes.  The reason it did not get a "5" are to do with the messy syrup and packaging look.  I would recomend these bars for anybody that has alergies to gluten and also diabetics that need something to tie them over between meals.