Kit’s Organic fruit and nut bars appear to be CLIFs version of the all popular LaraBar. Up until these, CLIF was mostly offering grain based protein bars for active folks and a specialty brand of the same for women. I am not a fan because they have grains and they have soy. It was one these brands actually that I started consuming shorty before my thyroid disaster. When CLIF contacted me about trying these bars I was a nano second away from hitting delete when I saw that these were fruit and nut bars only. Well, okay, sure…why not?
When I got my Kit’s Organic bars in the mail I was curious to see if they could topple the other fruit and nut bars from my pantry shelves because LaraBar is pretty much King in this house. I eat them daily and my husband usually does as well. After diving into my Kit’s Organic box I quickly decided that CLIF is in fact trying to compete with LaraBar because the flavors are pretty much the same as some of LaraBar’s best sellers.
I started with the competition for my absolute favorite LaraBar…Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. The CLIF version is simply “Peanut Butter”. I don’t eat peanut butter anymore due to the aflatoxins, except I will eat these. Not going to give them up any time soon. LaraBar remains supreme for this flavor IMO. The Kit’s Organic peanut butter bar was only so-so.
This is where it got interesting though…
The Berry Almond Kit’s bar is very, very similar to the LaraBar Blueberry Muffin bar, which I also love. It is my second favorite in fact. Kit’s came out on top though. Their bar tasted like a moist and delicious blueberry cake.
The Cashew bar from Kit’s is exactly like LaraBar’s cashew cookie, except the LaraBar version is not very tasty IMO and the Kit’s version is insanely delicious. I might actually pass up a Peanut Butter LaraBar for this one!!
The Chocolate Almond Coconut Kit’s bar can be compared to LaraBar’s Chocolate Coconut Chew. Once again Kit’s comes out on top. I really like coconut and chocolate but never found the Larabar with these flavors to be really that good but I was wowed by the Kit’s brand.
Got to give props were they are deserved. Kit’s Organic bars are off the hook! Plus they are 100% organic, gluten free, soy free, and dairy free. The only drawback that I can see is that they are $1.59 per bar, which makes them about $.30 cents more expensive, per bar. Plus I only buy LaraBar’s in bulk when I see the price dip to $.80-$1.00 per bar. If Kit’s bars have similar sales I will definitely buy in the future.
Oh, I loved Larabars, especially when I was lactose free when I breastfed. But now that I’m on a high protein diet the calorie/protein ratio I can’t have them. How is the protein content vs sugar on the Kit bars?
It varies slightly but about 12 grams fat, 25 grams carbs (15 sugar), and 4 grams protein. All the sugar is from fruit.
Oooh, thank you for posting on these! Yesterday evening I was asking for suggestions for something to eat prior to a morning workout and Lara Bars were the solution, but I haven’t liked the ones I’ve tried. Hope Kroger’s starts carrying these soon so I can try one!
so good to know! I have been trying to eliminate soy from my life lately, not an easy thing to do. Pretty much you have to make it yourself – everything from bread to cookies to chips to even chocolate and ice cream! It just blows me away how prevalent soy is in our food system.
The Kit bars sound delicious. My son has Aspergers (highFunctioning Autism) and we have him on a pretty strict diet. My daughter also has several allergies, soy being one of them. They both enjoy LaraBar by Planet Foods. I just looked at a box of LARABAR. And the only ingredients in cashew cookie are cashews and dates. The other two flavors they sell in this multi pack are apple pie and cherry pie and they are
only fruit and nut. Also, To check and
see if I was missing something I did search on Clif’s site and could not find
LaraBar. Is there another LaraBar I
am not aware of?
LaraBar is not made by CLIF and it is made only of fruit and nuts. The grain and soy bars I alluded to in my post are either CLIF brand or Luna brand.
Do you know if the Clif bars use the brown rice syrup? Thats the main reason I stopped eating their other bars and switched to the Larabars.
No brown rice syrup…just fruit and nuts.
Another great option is to make your own! Here are recipes for 5 different varieties. http://www.livingcrunchy.com/2012/04/homemade-lara-bars/