Bear Naked - Cacao and Cashew Granola - Feb. 22, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Bear Naked Granola, Inc.
Cacao and Cashew Butter Granola with fair trade chocolate
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.9 oz. (54 g.) / 11 oz. (311 g.) in total package
Calories: 250 calories in 1/2 cup serving
Cost: $3.78 for 1 package
Purchased from: Walmart, Mountain View, CA (see receipt for price)

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and EFGHI Theme Week, where I'm featuring chocolates that include flavors, or foods that contain chocolate, that begin with the letters E, F, G, H and/or I. 

Today's Cacao and Cashew Butter Granola with pepitas, sea salt and fair trade chocolate was "distributed for" Bear Naked Granola, Inc. (Solana Beach, CA).

There are now many packaged granola cereals that contain bits of chocolate or cocoa. Some of these are so sweet, they taste like broken oat chocolate chip cookie pieces. Others hew closer to the 1960s take on European oat cereals (muesli + brown sugar, etc. with chocolate chunks).  And a delightful few, like today's granola, add a few new elements to arrive at something new and improved.

Today's Cocoa and Cashew granola had a traditional pleasing oat-y aroma and flavor. It also had just the right amount of crunchiness, enhanced by rice crisps. Pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels) added nutritional content (protein, vitamins and minerals), natural color and a soft crunchy chew. The cashew butter and cashew bits added a satisfying, light nutty flavor. And a faint hint of ginger added some warm spice.

And last, but not least, fair trade and semi-sweet chocolate pieces provided rich hints of dark chocolate flavor.

The added sugars were balanced by almost all the other ingredients, oats, rice, semi-sweet "dark" chocolate pieces, nuts, seeds and a touch of sea salt. The resulting sweetness level seemed just right.

I enjoyed this granola three different ways: by itself, with just a little water, and with a little  Genius Mocha Coconut beverage (instead of milk). 

Ingredients: Whole grain oats, semi-sweet chocolate (cane sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), invert cane syrup, rice crisps (rice flour, cane sugar, salt), cashew butter, expeller pressed sunflower oil, cashews, pepitas, whole oat flour, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, sea salt, ginger, rosemary extract for freshness.