Confession: I’m a die-hard Burt’s Bees fan. I know this probably makes me a yuppie-in-training, but I just can’t resist their folksy packaging and quality balm product.

So when I saw Bumble Bars in the organic aisle of my grocery store, I knew I had to try them. It’s genius, really. Imitate the look of a product that your target demographic already loves, and watch your latest vegan creation fly off the health food shelves. I swear, even the words “Gluten Free” could not dissuade me from buying this snack.

But, as the sages have taught us, thou shalt not judge a snack by its wrapper. Just because something LOOKS like it will be folksy and traditional, does not necessarily mean it will be. Had I remembered this credo, I probably wouldn’t have gasped (literally, gasped) upon freeing my Bumble Bar from its sleeve.
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Trader Joes, sometimes you break my heart. If you’re going to make a snack that I can’t live without (Popped Potato Chips, I’m looking at you), you have to have them in stock every time I shop! Otherwise, I end up with something weird like these.

Here at Snackerrific, one of the four senses tends to be neglected. We write a lot about how things taste, of course, and there’s plenty of talk about how they smell, look, and feel in the mouth. But I am pretty sure this is the first snack I bought because of how it sounds.

Really. When I picked up the bag, it jangled in the oddest way. So I shook it, just to check. Yes, it made a sound like a sack full of light pieces of hardware, or maybe even decorative jingle bells. I’d never heard a food sound like that.

It was good that I was thinking about how they sounded instead of how they compared to my beloved Popped Potato Chips, or they would have been even more of a disappointment.
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If you’re like me, consuming an energy bar is like eating a bar of lies. I don’t mean that they conceal their ingredients or exaggerate their benefits (although I’ve yet to find a bar that makes me float above the street, a la Marty McFly). What I mean is that I will never, under any circumstance, use an energy bar to:

A) run a marathon
B) power-hike along the Appalachian Trail, or
C) lift something 20 times my body weight, in homage to the noble ant

My lifestyle does not involve a Jeep. Nor does it include Timberland hiking boots, a Nalgene bottle, or a dog with a bandanna tied around its neck. Rather than utilize energy bars for their intended purposes, I use them to silence my grumbling stomach as I drive to work, or elevate my blood sugar levels during lectures I would otherwise sleep through. Truth be told, most of the time I don’t even buy these products, since their marketing seems specifically designed to shame my slovenly ways.

Take Clif Bars, for example. Their wrappers feature a man scaling a mountain. Legs flailing, he clings to a granite outcropping with all this might, his battered fingernails digging into the stubborn rock before him (the man has just enough energy to hold on, thanks to that 3 oz. of granola he ingested before climbing). Ah, the average Clif bar consumer! Always spending his free time dangling above certain death!

So, if you couldn’t already tell, I’m glad that Clif has come out with a less intense snack. Because frankly, some of us just can’t handle the X-tremeness of the standard Clif Bar product.
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As an obsessed snacker, I am constantly trying to control my habit by eating some of the healthier snacks. Although it doesn’t always work out this way, at least I can say I try.

Let me start off by saying that I’m used to eating ‘diet’ foods while people around me wonder why I could put something that tastes like cardboard into my mouth. I don’t taste the nastiness they describe, so I’m oblivious to the fact that some of the things I eat wouldn’t even excite my dog.

However, I recently had a chance to try out LesserEvil snacks and was pleasantly surprised.
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