LÄRABAR

Field Report
February 09, 2006

Tester Information

Name: Raymond Estrella
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 3" (187.5 cm)
Weight: 210 lbs (95 kg)
Email address: rayestrella@hotmail.com
City: Huntington Beach
State: California
Country: USA 

Backpacking Background: I have been hiking for over 30 years, all over the state of California. I have also hiked in Washington, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho. I hike year-round, mostly in the Sierra Nevada, and put 555 miles (888 km) on my boots last year.  As I start my 4th decade of backpacking I am making the move to lightweight gear, and smaller packs.

The product

Manufacturer: Humm Foods Inc.
Web site: http://www.larabar.com
Product: Larabar
Year manufactured: 2005.
MSRP: $27.00 (US) per case direct.
Flavor and weight listed as follows.
Apple Pie 1.6 oz (45 g) Actual 1.9 oz (53 g)
Banana Cookie 1.8 oz (51 g) Actual 1.9 oz (53 g)
Cashew Cookie 1.7 oz (47 g) Actual 1.9 oz (53 g)
Cherry Pie 1.7 oz 47 g) Actual 2.0 oz (56 g)
Chocolate Coconut Chew (51 g) Actual 1.9 oz (53 g)
Cocoa Môlé 1.8 oz (51 g) Actual 1.9 oz (53 g)
Ginger Snap 1.8 oz (51 g) Actual 1.9 oz (53 g)
Pecan Pie 1.6 oz (45 g) Actual 2.0 oz (56 g)

Insight to my hiking and eating style

I like to get an early start on my hiking day, and almost never stop to eat lunch. In the 1970’s and early 80’s I made gorp to take for lunches, but wanted a more nutritionally balanced food. I have been using bars since the introduction of the original PowerBar, and have tried, I believe, everything available. For the past two years I have been using bars as my breakfast in addition to lunch to facilitate a faster start to my backpacking days.

I am very interested in nutrition, and analyze each bar I take very carefully. I try to look for a balance of calories in my bars. A high calorie-to-weight ratio is important also. And of course taste. There are many bars I only tried once and knew that they would not work for lengthy trips.

I appreciate a raw and/or natural bar, but do not exclude others. The nutritional content is the bottom line for me. At the time this test started I was mainly using two brands of bars. One the Original Organic Bar, a similar product to the Larabar, and Balance bars.

Field Conditions

To get the most out of this test, I saved the bars until I went on a long winter snowshoe hike in the Bristlecone Pine Forest in California. Over the course of three days I covered 27 miles (43 km) and had an elevation gain (and loss) of 4000’ (1467 m). The temperatures while active ranged from 13F (-1C) to 30F (-13C), with winds up to 30 m/ph (48 km/h). (All readings taken with a Kestrel 4000 Pocket Weather Meter). I was walking on snow 9”- 40” (22 -100 cm) deep. I burn a lot of calories in these kinds of conditions.

I took 12 bars on this trip. The bars were carried in a food sack in my backpack. The pack traveled in the back of the truck to the trail-head, and was then lashed to my gear sled. They were all frozen by the start of the hike.

Field Use

Each afternoon while setting up camp, I would take four Larabars out of my food sack. Two I would toss near the head of my sleeping bag. The other two would go in a tent pocket nearest the door of my tent.

Around 2:00 am I would place the bars by my head into the sleeping bag to let them warm up to body temperature. At 5:00 am I would eat one of them while still laying in my bag. After dressing, and while deflating, stuffing, re-packing etc. my gear I would eat the other bar. That was breakfast each morning.

The two bars that had spent the night by the door went into the side pocket of my Alpine shell. There they could thaw while I was hiking, and be ready to eat when I needed them. I would eat one of them between 11:00 and 12:00 each day. The other would get eaten around 2:00 pm. I repeated the process the next two days.

Of the remaining four bars sent to me, one was eaten in my office just to see what the initial impression was going to be. One was given to my brother-in-law, who is my hiking partner, and an Organic Bar user. The last two went to Mammoth Mountain ski resort for a cold day of skiing.

Impressions

Nutritionally these bars were very good in the field. Even though I was working very hard, in some pretty cold conditions, I never felt hungry between my planned meals. I put them at near the top of my list of preferred bars for hiking.

All of the flavors share some things in common. All have dates as their base ingredient. And all have a lot of nuts in them, most likely the reason for the high percentage-of-calories-from-fats I mentioned in my initial report. I like nuts very much, so that was a pleasant surprise for me.

They all handled the freezing and thawing well. They held together well, with the exception of the Ginger Snap flavor, which was crumbly for some reason. None of the flavors were sticky or messy in any way. None of them left any residue in the package either.

The multitude of flavors (eight) is great. During the hike my brother-in-law, who had brought only one type and flavor of bar was getting tired of me exclaiming at the taste of another Larabar. The following are my thoughts and reactions of the individual flavors.

The Apple Pie walloped me with big apple and cinnamon taste. Now I want to put walnuts and almonds in my next home-baked apple pie. A top-four flavor for me.

Banana Cookie smells just like fresh banana bread, and the taste is a match as well. They claim it contains one whole banana in each bar. This will be the bar I purchase the most of myself when this test is over. I like the 12% of daily Potassium requirements in each one.

The Cherry Pie is an explosion of tart cherry flavor. So tart it made my mouth water. Have one of these after dinner and I will forget that bland freeze-dried meal. Another top ranked flavor.

The Cashew Cookie flavor is made of just dates and cashews. That is it. And it works well. As I do not have a big sweet-tooth, I liked the subtle flavor of this bar.

I was worried about the Chocolate Coconut Chew as I am not a choc-holic by any means. But the cocoa powder is bitter enough to keep the bar from being sweet, and the coconut and nuts made for a pleasantly chewy bar.

The Cocoa Môlé was an interesting flavor also. As I regularly eat very hot foods, I did not notice the “heat” that the manufacturer’s description mentioned. But it was a good bar, the chili and cinnamon play well together.

Anyone that likes old fashioned real Ginger Snaps will enjoy this flavor. The ginger, cinnamon and cloves opened my sinuses up, they were so strong. This is the flavor I gave to Dave to let him try something with some pizzazz. He was dutifully impressed.

The Pecan Pie bar was my most highly anticipated flavor, as it is my favorite kind of real pie. Unfortunately I was a bit let down. It was good, but did not meet my taste buds expectations. It was still in the upper ranks.

None of the bars were distasteful to me. None were too sweet, a problem I have with lots of other bars. The only thing that I can list as an item of concern is the high fat content. But as I find that to be an asset in the mornings while backpacking, I will undoubtedly use these bars in the future for breakfasts. Especially in cold weather, like this trip was. I will use something with less fat, and more carbs at lunch.

So all in all I would give these bars an A+ for flavor, an A- for calorie-to-weight ratio, and a B for nutrition. They are a good addition to my hiking menu.

 I would like to thank Humm Foods and Backpack Gear Test for allowing me to participate in this test.