December 11th: Seeds of Change Chocolate & Raisin Cereal Bar

Kcal 132 Fat 2.9g Carbs 24.9g

When I see the 'Seeds of Change' brand I instantly think organic pasta sauces and soups. So when I saw this 'Chocolate and Raisin Cereal Bar' sitting in my local OneStop shop I was intrigued to say the least. Constituting of 'chocolate chips, raisins, oat flakes, crisped rice and corn flakes', I thought I would give this a run through the ChocolateMission rating system.

The product came in a deceivingly large looking 36.0g bar. I say deceivingly as it actually looked very thick, bigger than your average chocolate bar anyway. Lifting the bar up revealed this was misleading - a lot of the product was formed of very light cereal pieces. The outer packaging looked a bit plain for my liking. The white background struck me as quite unimaginative, there is definitely room for improvement there. Aesthetically the actual product wasn't up to much either. I guess it is to be expected from a cereal bar, but it looked very shoddily put together. For instance one end of the bar was crammed full of raisins, whilst the other contained none whatsoever. As if the look of the product hadn't set my expectations low enough, the smell was hardly inspiring either. The product only had a minor sweet, dried fruit smell which was far from enticing in the slightest.

Despite the poor presentation the taste of the product wasn't altogether that bad. The bar was nicely held together by a sticky honey glaze that gave the bar an ever present sweet flavour. Though the chocolate chips were not as portioned as generously as they could have been, where present they brought a creamy, chocolaty edge to the dominant wheaty flavours of the cereal. By far the most exciting flavours of the bar came from the raisins, which unlike their uninspiring smell, actually added a nice extra sweet, fruitiness to each bite. Despite the bar feeling quite light, each bite actually felt quite dense, what with the ingredients packed tightly in, it was actually a surprisingly fulfilling bar.

Overall this was thankfully a product that tasted a whole let better than it looked. Seeds of Change aren't going to be winning any prizes with this product in a beauty contest, but as cereal bars go this wasn't half bad. The bar had a nice base formed of different cereals that was held together well by the sweet honey. The real flavours came from the added chocolate and raisins, that where present, offered unique creamy, sweet flavours to the taste. For people who like their cereal bars I would actually recommend this bar, for people like me who are none to fussed by this sector of the market, this is probably just another you can let pass you by.

6.8 out of 10