Since we are trying so hard to eat natural, organic, and unprocessed foods we have not been purchasing snack foods aside from popcorn kernels. Well, lets face it sometimes you just need a sweet snack, and now I've found one we can enjoy without guilt!
Newman's Own Organics started as a division of Newman's Own in 1993 by Nell Newman and her business partner, Peter Meehan, but became a separate company in early 2001. The two companies have completely separate product lines. I was sent an assortment of their products to review, and I must say while we loved everything there were some very clear favorites!
When Newman's Own Organics began in 1993 their first product was pretzels, and we were not disappointed with the pretzels we tried! I normally am not much of a pretzel eater, I find them dry and bland, but these were different. Newman's Own Organics pretzels were crunchy, salty, and ever so slightly sweet, they were not bland at all and I really quite enjoyed them. These were a favorite of little Twiggles, he'd beg and beg for them!
Chocolate bars were the next product introduced to the line in 1995, and having never tried organic chocolate before I had no idea what to expect other than it would be good! I was sent several flavors of chocolate bar to review, but my favorite by far was the Espresso Dark Chocolate bar. This bar was not terribly sweet, which I really liked, and the espresso flavor was easily identified. This chocolate was perfectly balanced in flavor, and was creamy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious. All of the chocolate bars I tried were good, and they were all creamy and full of flavor. One thing I can say is that I can't believe it took me so long to finally try organic chocolate, the flavor is much more intense but not unappealingly so, and the texture just can't be beat!
The next product we tried was the licorice line, I was sent black, strawberry, pomegranate, sour cherry, sour apple, sour mango, and sour strawberry to try. The big boys both loved the sour flavors, and even I found them quite tasty, they were not pucker your face sour but they also were not overly sweet. I really liked the black licorice as that's my favorite licorice flavor, and I think the shape did something nice for it as well.
My husband really loved the Fig Newmans, so much so that I didn't even get to taste those cookies, but I didn't mind much since I'm not too fond of fig cookies anyway. He quickly finished off the package and requested that I buy more of them because he found them to be the perfect balance of fruit to cookie, sweet to savory, and that all the flavors were really noticeable and perfectly blended.
My oldest son doesn't care one bit for anything mint flavored, which I didn't mind at all when I got to the Mint Newman O's (which btw I had to open as soon as I saw them) because it meant one less person to share with. These were my personal favorite, and the one product I was most excited about trying! I am not a big fan of sandwich cookies usually because the cookie portion is very dry and crumbly while the filling is way to sweet just not enjoyable. I must however say that Newman O's were different, yes the chocolate cookie is crunchy and as such not as moist as a chewy cookie, but they were not excessively dry, and didn't crumble when I bit them. The mint filling is just sweet enough and in perfect proportion to the chocolate cookie part. Everyone also loved the Original and Peanut Butter Newman O's, the Peanut Butter were surprisingly good for me, the peanut butter filling wasn't too sweet, or too flaky, or too dry and it had just the right amount of peanut butter flavor!
The Hermits were a tasty, ginger flavored soft cookie with raisins. I almost didn't eat these because I am not a fan of raisins in baked goods, but I felt obligated to taste at least one. I am glad I did, because I really enjoyed these cookies! The raisins did not have that overly plump for a raisin, but too dry for a grape feel to them and the ginger flavor was perfectly presented. I would certainly buy these again, even knowing they contain raisins.
Next up are the mints, which came in adorable little tins that my Twiggles now uses to hold his crayons for preschool! Anytime a product comes in packaging that I can reuse instead of throwing it away I am happy, and these tins are perfect for holding a great many items, not just mints and crayons. I really love strong flavors and these mints fit that bill perfectly, the ginger is awesome and gives a little kick, the peppermint is powerful but pleasant, the wintergreen is the softest of the four flavors but still packs a lot of flavor, and the cinnamon is not quite as spicy as some cinnamon flavors, but is also not too sweet it's a perfect display of cinnamon flavors.
The crunchy cookies we received were: Double Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, and Alphabet Cookies. If I had to pick a flavor to be my least favorite it would be the oatmeal chocolate chip simply because I really don't enjoy crunchy oatmeal cookies, however they were good and the kids loved them. The alphabet cookies were perfectly sized for little hands to hold and snack on, and the vanilla flavor was amazing!
Lastly I received a bag of Prunes, which were the first item Twiggles got his hands on, and he loved them. I had never had a prune before and did not know what to expect but they were quite sweet and had a nice flavor. My only complaint here is that they were sticky, and I really have a thing about sticky hands in this house so I was chasing little Twiggles to keep his hands clean and stick free after eating the prunes.
All in all Newman's Own Organics were a hit here in the Birbitt Thinks house and will become a permanent addition to our snack cabinet! Everyone had their favorites that they enjoyed most, and Newman's Own Organics has been generous enough to offer a giveaway to one of you lucky fans! Your prize pack will contain Newman O's, Newman's Own Organics Chocolate Bars, Newman's Own Organics Pretzels, and Hermits.
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Birbitt Thinks Newman's Own Organics should be in every home, because their snacks are even more delicious than the conventional market snacks and contain no chemical ingredients that you can't pronounce let alone identify.
