Go More with NuGo Dark

It's time for our final three varieties of NuGo Dark bars. We used two of our specialists to help me, Your Chocolate Priestess, test out these bars. Because of that the quality of photos, their background, and lighting may be different since each tester took her own photos. If you don't remember our earlier articles you might want to check here for the first three bars and here for our interview with one of the employees at NuGo. Don't worry the links will open a new window so you won't lose this article. If it seems like 2017 is becoming the "Year of the Bar" here on The Chocolate Cult, I've had that thought, too. We've had bad bars, good bars, even great bars and we'll keep doing this articles for as long as we have the products to reveal to you all. Originally I was sent this box of six flavors of NuGo Dark in exchange for an honest and objective feature article about them. Some of the flavors came in sets of 2-3 bars while others (like the Mocha and Peanut Butter Cup) were single bars. No other form of compensation was received.

Let's start with the bar I tested myself, the NuGo Dark Chocolate Pretzel with Sea Salt Bar. That's a lot of words in one title, huh? The first ingredient is unsweetened chocolate; exactly what I now expect from this line of products. There is also soy and rice of those are allergy concerns. Weirdly no pretzels listed and as you can see in this photo no evidence of pretzels inside the bar. Dark chocolate is the only fragrance before and after I break the bar in half. The bars are crunchy when I chew them but make almost no sound when I take a bite. The initial flavor is a salty dark chocolate but that's overcome by an inside that does taste a lot like pretzels. Disappointingly the dark chocolate fades away before the pretzel flavor does which is not what I was expected given the other three bars I tested in March. It was still good just not as good as those first three.

Lisa, our Chocolate Coconut Acolyte, tested the NuGo Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar.  This was her experience with the bar. As soon as I opened the package, I could smell the chocolate and coconut scent.  The chocolate coating softened after holding it for just a few seconds.  It was soft, creamy and not at all waxy.  My expectations were set pretty high at this point and when I broke it in half I got another whiff of chocolate and coconut.  The bar is soft but firm.  It doesn't quite snap when broken but you can tell that there are a lot of solid things in it.  It's not a few ingredients held together with some kind of sugar/syrup. In addition to the toasted coconut, the filling contains almonds, soy crisps, non-toasted coconut, and brown rice crisps.  While not noisy when broken in half, once I start chewing I can hear all those crunchy ingredients. Even though there is soy in the bar, all I taste are chocolate and coconut. I've eaten dozens of chocolate nutrition bars and while some have been better than others, none of them can compare to the NuGo Dark Chocolate Coconut bar.  I'd give this a five out of five coconuts.

Elizabeth, our new Mocha Acolyte, tested the NuGo Dark Mocha Chocolate Bar. In terms of nutrition, it was good. only 30g of carbs and 10 g of protein. The bar had a strong coffee smell with a hint of chocolate when she unwrapped it. You can see how it looks in the photo to the right. It had soft crispy texture when I bit into it, Elizabeth reports and a nice blend of coffee and chocolate to the taste. Overall thoughts - I would buy this, Elizabeth adds.

Normally you buy these bars in sleeves of 12 per flavor and you can find the entire NuGo Dark Chocolate line on their website. Nutritionally the entire line of NuGo Dark are very close to each other but in terms of flavor they varied widely. These bars all were ones we've try to buy again. But what about you? Have you had these three flavors? What did you think about them.