Recently I was sent a care package by Balance Bar Cafe. An interesting new product trying to establish itself as a high energy health conscious snack. The cafe title is not meant to be taken as a traditional Energy Bar with caffeine included, but rather the name is a subtle suggestion to eat this when coupled with coffee, as you would a more unhealthy snack.

Balance Bar Cafe’s are a product designed to be enjoyed as a healthy snack along with your morning coffee, or afternoon pick me up. It doesn’t mean that they are a meal replacement. Nor are they Diet Food. Does that mean you would eat this instead of lunch dinner or breakfast? No it doesn’t. But if you are going to try a snack during your coffee break wouldn’t it be nice if the snack was a high in protein, overall balanced alternative? Why yes… yes it would be.

As per usual all products submitted are run through the same process.

The Journey

• Smell: If it doesn’t smell good How can you eat it?
• Taste: Obvious and penultimate
• Aftertaste: Food is done, but is the flavor?
• Claims: If a product claims to be faster than a speeding bullet we’ll shoot it.

Smell: Popping open the package and I was greeted with a wonderful nutty chocolate smell. While I could smell both the chocolate and the almond i guess the biscotti was just icing on the bar. The smell was quite sweet and inviting.

Taste: While the Cinnamon Bun bar tasted mildly sweet this bar is quite sweet and has a smooth finish to it. Wile I wouldn’t say the almond was evident it did have a smooth taste to it. There was a definite complexity to the overall taste that was missing from the Cinnamon Bar. The taste rounded out nicely when paired with a good dark cup of coffee. but on its own it was a little complex. I think maybe just a cinnamon almond would have been enough. The bar itself is layered with real almond slices, and chocolaty drizzle, so you know it isn’t all chemicals and trickery. You are tasting almond because they are staring right back at you.

Aftertaste:  This is the one area that kind of let me down a little bit there was a slight aftertaste to the bar as a whole. While Icouldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was it was there. however if you drink it with coffee it wasn’t there at all. So Coffee Up!

Claims: I was satisfied, and though I’m not in the habit of snacking with my coffee this treat did seem to fill a gap in my day when I was running around without being junk food. (Weight Watchers people, the bar is 5 points, I calculated it) Full nutritional information here. Balance bar claims that their bar follows the 40-30-30 plan, which means 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat.

Conclusion: This was a tasty snack, and filling. Unlike most diet foods which sell you on a snack without calories or fat or anything this snack sells you on the fact that it replaces worthless snack with something healthier, a bit of a balanced snack. I like that. If you are eating something with no calories and no fat… what IS it? At least with this you know you’re getting filled with 40-30-30. And it does fill you up, and hold you over. I found it great as a snack while i was running around doing errands and chores. Throw back a mug of coffee and a bar and you’re ready with energy and fuel.

Overall this is a well rounded snack.  Sticking to a diet plan and trying to manage the snacks while still feeling a little indulgent is hard work. its nice to know there are foods on the market for people with a sweet tooth and a coffee snack habit. Although I’m not a sweets kind of guy this was quite good.

*Full Disclosure: I was sent a lovely care package at no cost by the fine Folks at Balance Bars for the purpose of writing this review. This in no way affected my opinions of the product nor was a desired outcome asked for or agreed upon.

 

Tags: 40-30-30, almond, Balance Bar Cafe, Balance Bar Cafe : Chocolate Almond Biscotti review, balance bar cafe chocolate almond biscotti, Balance Bar Cafe review, biscotti, chocolate, diet food, snack food

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Tonight we talk about legos star wars, star trek, coffee concepts, starbucks flavors, and sketching for fun. We cover topics both popular and niche, work in a couple bad jokes and puns along the way. Join us for the fun.

Tags: chocolate, Coffee, fusions, kitchen, Lego, moleskine, mona lisa, murals, Star Trek, Starbucks, vuvuzela

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Besides all that today’s show has a nice eclectic feel for the content. Being that I amassed the stories over the past little while its a true blend of all the best and brightest news and fun stuff from the internet over the past week or so. Hopefully you like Hockey, Aliens, Coffee, Baristas, Apple, Hulu, Crayons and more

Tags: adult content, alien, apple, barista, chocolate, Coffee, crayola, crayon, facebook, hulu, ipad, Lego, liberty, Star Wars, Steampunk

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Today’s Show is being powered by fantastic coffee

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visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts

—

So this week is going to be crazy. Its a short week for me in work and out. Listen in to get a general idea of whats going to happen to the show over the next week or so. Things are going to be a bit up in the air so we’re trying to keep the episodes short and sweet. Hence the title, not only did i not want to take the time to spell out the whole word but its also a perl function/library, which makes it geeky too!

Today’s show comes with Homework. I’m always surprised when I speak with people who don’t know what TED is. So today’s show has two of the most stunning presentations I’ve seen from TED, you are required to watch them… no excuses, there will be a test.

Enjoy the show and Stay Caffeinated!

• CaffiNation Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Where else can you find me? www.paulrjmuller.com

Geek Cruft

• Quirky name, awesome stuff, WolframAlpha Deploys
  • TED: Tim Bernards-Lee, Give us the Data
• Glasses for the 3rd world, More data, and simply stunning
• Its a great big universe and we’re all really puny, Nasa and Tiny little specs
• Skulls have always fascinated me, now you can own a cyborg skull
  • TED: Obsessions are a way of learning, Adam Savage from mythbusters
• Pac-man mural impresses
• Two unbelievable paper-crafts, Chocobo or Bob-omb
• Classic Lego video game scenes
• TSA really won’t like this, firestarting knife wielding laser pointing credit card
• Algae powered transformer?
• Recycled USB drive
• Light brite cubed
• Mario cart proves you can’t txt and drive

Food & Caffeinated Bits

• Today’s fantastic coffee was purchase from the House of Coffee in Lahaska PA
• Tweet and cook at the same time
• Floating cooler and coozy
• Dirty rotten trick, swiss army chocolate

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People!

Tags: Algae, chocolate, Coffee, cooler, credit card, house of coffee pa, houseofcoffee, Lego, litebrite, pac-man, Pacman, recycled, Skulls, TSA, USB, wolframalpha

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Today’s Show:  Bacon, Chocolate, Coffee, Xmen, Hummer, Bamboo, Coulton, Remix Culture, Starbucks, Lego

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—

Its been an awesome weekend. My personal batteries are well on their way to being recharged. I spent most of the weekend unplugged gardening, fishing and spending time with the family, friends and catching a movie. Its springtime people, load the portable music device up andstep out into the wide world.

There was a ton of nifty things happening online this past weekend. From Swine flu to Bacon stories. Any well heeled geek needs to find a happy medium when consuming mainstream media, so we have all of the back alleys and dark corners covered in this show. We deal with Remix Culture, legos, and design.

Enjoy the show and Stay Caffeinated!

• CaffiNation Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Where else can you find me? www.paulrjmuller.com

Quick Hits

• X-Men: Non Spoiler Review, lighting quick
• Strange sightings in the English Channel
• Tree or Arcade Cabinet?
• Free Lego Starwars Minfig Poster
• Door or Stairs?
• Beware Caution before Swine
• If you know what to look for Google can predict anything
• Giving it back to the pigs

Geek Cruft:

• How can we trust the Drug Companies
• CNC Music? Jonathan Coulton breaks barriers
• No Bigger Geek, Lotr fan film?
• Remix Culture beckons with a PWYW business model
• Unbreakable Code, for the CIA
• Why a 100mpg Hummer? Why not?
• Pay through the nose for a map of your kids imagination?
• Headphone Owl
• Bamboo Bike Frame
• Lego Donkey Kong

Caffeinated Bits

• Coffee a Money Drain?
• Its not about the coffee, Starbucks thinks You’ll be sorry
• Concept Coffee Cookie, almost perfect
• Chocolate Magnet, nifty
• Bacon magnets, Starting to look like beach towels
• Spoons hiding everywhere, Munchkin Holes
• Glass Plastic bag
• Jarring old School coffee Commercials

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People!

Tags: bacon, Bamboo, chocolate, Coffee, Coulton, Hummer, Lego, Remix Culture, Starbucks, Xmen

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Today’s Topics: Samba, Olympics, voting, politics, Parenting, Textbooks, and printers

• PodCamp Philly September 6 and 7
• Back Channel Links Tumblr Blog Grinds
• The Everything Feed: Friendfeed
• The RSS Feed for this Podcast

With so many different news hungry topics dominating the internet lately its interesting to see the cool stories that surrvive long enough to catch on. We hit a couple of the big stories and do service to the quirky little guys along the way. I hope you enjoy what we have for you today!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chocolate, migraine, Olympics, Parenting, Politics, Printers, Samba, Textbooks, Voting

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Yes it is late, But it was so good i had to do it TWICE. Follow me on Twitter to get the weekly play by play

On Today’s Show: Vikings, Monkeys, Robots, Coffee, Chocolate, Keyboards, Beer

Tech Cruft

• Viking DNA?
• Spray on Explosive detector
• This is how you build an empire, Wii
• Giant Fabric keyboard, Big anyone?
• The hour is at hand, the stars are aligned…
  • ROBOT MONKEYS
  • A Million monkeys + Typewriters, but what if they were robots?
• You can Have MS Surface. I want Pong, LED style
• Robots for the greater good
• This was a bad day several miles up, but it could have been worse
  • In space, no one can hear you flush
• Remember to send your zombie plans in!

Caffeine & Food

• New Recipes Coming Soon
• Strawberries!
• Smacks Head: Why didn’t I think of this
• Guilty pleasure Chocolate with Calories written on them
• Huge Amount of Beverage Hacks
  • My Favorite is the Guiness Beer-Sicles
• An Update on the All in one Beer Brewing Machine
• Dubbed the Nano Brewmaster
• An updated design, and a sleek exterior

Contact Me:

• Phone Me: 215-240-1319 :: Email Me @ CaffiNation@gmail.com
• Skype Me thecaffination :: Full Contact Details

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People!

My Office!

I have craftsman grill tools, Tabasco Brand Oven Mits, a Beer and a Grill Full O Food. Life is good

Tags: beer, chocolate, Coffee, Keyboards, Monkeys, Nasa, robot monkeys, Robots, space, Vikings, Wii, wii fit, zombie plan

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On Today’s Show: Patents, Magenta, papercraft, coffee, tea, chocolate, google, Jokes

Announcements and General Cruft

• WordPress 2.5 is now out, and in, and sweet
• Firefox 3 beta 5, First Impressions
• my April Fools day run down

Real News Bytes

• Magenta by any other name… is still pink. gets uppity again
• Patent donations, awesome Idea
• Who watches the watchers. Skewz news
• Google Apps offline
• From Twitterati, Awesome Papercraft

Tech Cruft

• Shiny toy for a milestone achievement for Beckham
• Att gets all the toys, Microsoft surface coming soon
• In Car Flashlight, Another great tiny idea
• Hate batteries for your speakers? We hear you

Caffeine & Food

• Show us your Mug, The Return!
• Not twisted tea, but twist for your tea
• play with your food, sculpt too
• Designer Chocolate, customized for your pallet, decadence

Want to Contact Me?

• Phone Me: 215-240-1319 :: Email Me @ CaffiNation@gmail.com
• Skype Me thecaffination :: Full Contact Details

Podsafe Music Addendum

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People!

Tags: april fools, chocolate, Coffee, google apps, jkes, Magenta, offline, papercraft, Patents, pranks, Tea