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Reviews > Food > Energy Bars and Drinks > Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites > Test Report by jerry adams

SETTON FARMS PISTACHIO CHEWY BITES
TEST SERIES BY JERRY ADAMS
LONG-TERM REPORT

INITIAL REPORT - November 16, 2015
LONG TERM REPORT - March 12, 2016

TESTER INFORMATION

NAME: Jerry Adams
EMAIL: jerryaadamsatyahoodotcom
AGE: 62
LOCATION: Portland, Oregon, USA
GENDER: m
HEIGHT: 6' 1" (1.85 m)
WEIGHT: 195 lb (88.50 kg)

I started hiking about 45 years ago. My first backpacking trip was 40 years ago. I currently try to do one backpack trip of 1 to 5 nights every month (which can be tricky in the winter). Mostly I stay in the Western half of Oregon and Washington. In recent years I have shifted to lightweight - my pack weight without food and water is about 12 lb (6 kg). I make a lot of my own gear - silnylon tarp-tent, bivy, synthetic bag, simple bag style pack.


INITIAL REPORT

PRODUCT INFORMATION & SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: Setton International Foods, Inc.
Year of Manufacture: 2015
Manufacturer's Website: http://settonfarms.com
MSRP: US$1.99 for a package of 2 bars of Pistachio Chewy Bites
US$5.99 for a package of Dark Chocolate Pistachios
Listed Net Weight: 1.42 oz (40 g) for a package of 2 bites of Pistachio Chewy Bites
5 oz (142 g) for a package of Dark Chocolate Pistachios
Measured Weight: 1.7 oz (48 g) for a package of 2 bites of Pistachio Chewy Bites
5.3 oz (151 g) for a package of Dark Chocolate Pistachios

The Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites are products made with Pistachios from Setton Farms. I got 7 packages to test. They also included two packages of Chocolate Pistachios.

The Chewy Bites are bites of shelled Pistachios and dried Cranberries with sugar, oil, and salt. The package says "over 50% Pistachios". Each package has two bites, individually wrapped. The outer package, and the inner packages are fairly light weight plastic that I can see through. Each bar is 0.7 ounce (20 g).

The Chocolate Pistachios are chocolate covered shelled Pistachios with gum arabic and sugar. There's a sugar glaze on the outside. They come in a fairly thick plastic bag that's resealable with a zip top. The package is 5 ounces (142 g) net.

Interesting - the bites are metric (20 g) and the Chocolate Pistachios are English (5 ounces).

Both products say "product of USA". The Chocolate Pistachios say "Made in house, in small batches,...". That's at their Terra Bella, CA farm, processing and storage facility in the San Joaquin valley. They are sold at major grocery store chains, amazon.com, puritan.com, and they export to many countries.

The two snacks:

IMAGE 1

Chewy Bites nutrition information:

IMAGE 3

Chocolate Pistachio information:

IMAGE 2

Close-up:

IMAGE 4

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

Both packages look good. I'll wait to open them until I go on a trip.

SUMMARY

Chewy Bites and Chocolate Pistachios are snacks from Setton Farms that contain Pistachios.

I'll be taking them on a backpack trip within a month or so, and then write another report. I'll get some pictures of the products unwrapped and report on how they taste.


LONG-TERM REPORT

LONG-TERM TEST LOCATIONS AND CONDITIONS

Mostly I ate the Pistachio Bites and Chocolate Pistachios on a backpack trip to the beach of the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington, November 21, 2015; 3 nights; 32 to 45 F (0 to 7 C); Hiked in 3 miles (5 km) and then dayhiked 39 miles (63 km); 400 feet (150 m) elevation gain.

I also ate a few at home before and after.

PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD

I measured the actual weight without packaging - one Chewy Bite - 0.76 ounces (21.5 g), Chocolate Pistachios package - 5.04 ounce (143 g) - slightly greater than the listed weight.

I ate all the Bites and Chocolate Pistachios on my 3 night Sand Point backpack. I ate one package of two Bites in the morning, and one package of two Bites in the evening. I ate about a third of the Chocolate Pistachios each evening.

Like the package said, the Bites had over 50% pistachios. The dried cranberries were intermingled. There was some sticky stuff holding it all together. When I looked closely through the Bite, I could see through it at a few places - the Bite is loosely compressed.

Package opened, one bite taken:
IMAGE 1

I thought these tasted quite good. When I have eaten straight dried cranberries in the past, I thought they were just a bit too strongly flavored, but the combination of nuts, cranberries, and sugar syrup in the Chewy Bites was quite good.

I like to eat dried fruit and nuts when backpacking. I don't like heavily processed food. The Chewy Bites fulfill these needs.

There's kind of a lot of sugar in the Chewy Bites. This maybe isn't the best thing to mindlessly eat sitting around at home. For backpacking, the amount of sugar is fine because I'm exercising so much.

There are no preservatives in the Chewy Bites. This might make them more healthful. I would probably take more care in storing them, like in the refrigerator or freezer, rather than sitting at room temperature for an extended period.

The Chocolate Pistachios are an adult version of a popular candy that I frequently take backpacking (except it has peanuts rather than pistachios). This popular candy has more sugar in it though, and there's bright coloring on the outside. The Chocolate Pistachios are better in these regards.

Here's a handful:
IMAGE 2

The Chocolate Pistachios were quite tasty. I like the taste of Pistachios. The dark chocolate is probably better tasting than typical milk chocolate. The Setton Farms chocolate seems like a fairly good grade of dark chocolate, although I'm no expert.

I put them in my pocket for a while to see if they melt. A lot of times when I'm backpacking, it will get warm and chocolate will melt, which makes a mess. The Chocolate Pistachios have a sugar glaze on the outside which seems to prevent them from making a melted mess. After a while in my pocket, I could tell it was soft inside the glaze, but my hands didn't get messy.

Okay, I'll say it - "melts in your mouth, not on your hands".

My wife tried part of a Bite and several Chocolate Pistachios and also thought they were quite good. She remarked the dark chocolate was especially good, even though she's no huge chocolate addict.

SUMMARY

The Setton Farms Chewy Bites and Chocolate Pistachios are high quality products with pistachios in them.

I like how they tasted.

They have a good nutrition content that fits into my backpack trips. They have a lot of sugar, but that's okay for a backpack where I exercise a lot.

The packages are a good size - one package of two Bites is a good snack, and the Chocolate Pistachio package is resealable after I eat part of the package.

I like the idea they're made in the San Joaquin valley by the farmers that grew them.

I don't know if I'll buy these in the future. They're kind of expensive. If I can find them in a store, I'll probably get some, especially the Chocolate Pistachios.

This concludes this Field Report and my test of these products.

Thanks to Setton Farms and BackpackGearTest.org for letting me test these.

This report was created with the BackpackGearTest.org Report Writer Version 1.5 Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.
Read more gear reviews by jerry adams

Reviews > Food > Energy Bars and Drinks > Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites > Test Report by jerry adams



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