Betterland Foods, Inc.
Woo bar
Good +
Weight: 1.6 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $ N/A - gift from a friend (Thank you Don and Wendy!)
Purchased from: N/A - gift
Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate, Nuts and Nibs Theme Week.
Today's "Woo" bar was manufactured for and distributed by Betterland Foods, Inc. (Napa, CA). The company was founded in 2021 by Lizanne Falsetto (creator of thinkThin bars).
This bar's aroma had slightly sweet, slightly salty, subtle cocoa and caramel candy bar, nut and faint plant protein notes.
This chocolate-covered bar had a caramel-y, light nougat-y and nutty, sweet center with a soft chew. Flavor notes included: light caramel, a maple-like sweetness, vanilla, subtle chocolate and nuts.
The limited edition Woo bar was formulated to have "half the sugar and 2x the protein" (of a more traditional, popular candy bar). The bar had 22 total carbs. (8 grams fiber, 9 grams of sugar(s)). The 8 grams of protein was achieved using peanuts and "cow-free whey protein" (Perfect Day's "animal-free dairy").*
Normally I prefer chocolates with a shorter ingredient list. But I also appreciated my teeth feeling slightly less sugar-coated after eating this Woo bar than after sampling other candy bar-like confections. Any chocolate (or nuanced cacao flavors) were not distinguishable in this bar, relegating the chocolate to a pleasant background flavor. Although there was added cocoa butter in the filling and the chocolate coating (which is not always the case with candy bars).
The Woo bar was comparable to a candy bar in taste, but had a more appealing nutritional story.
Ingredients: Caramel (inulin, soluble corn fiber, agave syrup, cocoa butter, caramel color, sunflower lecithin, tapioca starch, natural flavors, gum arabic, salt, beta carotene), chocolate (cane sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, vanilla powder), peanuts, cow-free whey protein, agave syrup, rice syrup solids, glycerine, water, agave inulin, cocoa butter, peanut oil, sunflower oil, sunflower lecithin, sea salt, guar gum, natural flavor, vanilla extract.
Allergen-related information: "Contains milk, peanuts. Manufactured in a facility that also processes other tree nuts, soy, egg, peanuts, milk."
*Perfect Day is a food technology startup, based in Berkeley, CA. The company uses fungi to make protein that is "molecularly identical" to (whey) protein found in cow's milk and is part of a new wave of companies creating lab-grown proteins.
The fermented alternative protein Perfect Day produces has a much lower carbon footprint than whey produced from a traditional dairy farm; and the end product can be used to make "cow-free" dairy products like cheese, yogurt or ice cream. However, while it does not contain lactose (the sugar in dairy milk that can upset stomachs), it may not be suitable for those with a sensitivity to whey protein (one of two types of protein found in cow's milk).