We set up a blind tasting in a shopping centre and collected 578 votes to score the best tasting muesli bars. We also take a look at the nutrition and price, view all the bars and apply filters in our muesli bar review.
Do you eat muesli bars? Tell us why (or why not) and share your favourites below.
We find that manufactured muesli bars contain a lot of added sugar and also have a similar background taste (and are sweet on the palate).
As a result, we prefer to make our own which is very easy to do. It also allows us to add varying ingredients to change flavours or what may be on special at the time of we make them (peanuts, almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, dried coconut pulp, oats/oat bran, bran etc). We usually add an egg, honey and butter as a binding agent and cook until either soft (rather than chewy) or crunchy (they do need to be cut in the tray prior to cooking). We don’t have a recipe, as we make the recipe up every time and judge the consistency of the mixture before cooking.
We tend to make muesli bars about once a month then the oven is on for something else to reduce electricity consumption.
We don’t eat muesli bars. Mr Z distrusts my muesli despite my protests that it is only porridge oats, dried fruit & nuts, which I sometimes eat for breakfast boiled up as porridge.
I find the bars to be too high in sugar (the limited range at our small shop) with less than stellar Health Stars. I’m not fooled by references to “healthy” yoghurt, nuts, etc when sugars feature so highly. Apart from that, we don’t snack between meals as our usual fare keeps us feeling full. If we snack it is on fresh fruit; banana apple mandarin & orange are on our trees now.
OPTIFAST™ and Optislim™ produce VLCD meal replacement bars that could be described as “muesli bars” and they are lower sugar/carb, higher protein but around 900 kj of energy per bar (bars weigh around 60 - 70 g compared to around 30 g for a normal muesli bar). More expensive than a typical muesli bar offer at around $20 for a 6 bar pack, nevertheless you could choose to eat one instead of having breakfast or lunch. They taste reasonably good but they do rely on some artificial sweetening.
I prefer not eating those artificial sweetener. What ever they make it out of it seems easier to just eat the raw ingredients or use honey as a binding agent. No bar on tbe market seems to be very good. Whilst some have nuts or goodness they have silly amounts of sugar.
