Good & Gather Peanuts, Almonds & Peanut Butter with Cocoa Drizzle Nut Bars

Target really needs to work on their marketing, packaging, and labeling strategies. Can you imagine if you happened to LOVE these things and wanted your SO to pick some up on their next Target run? "Honey, can you pick up those Good and Gather Peanuts, Almonds, and Peanut Butter with Cocoa Drizzle Nut Bars?" That's a freaking mouthful if I ever heard one. They should give it some clever name like NICE bars. "Honey, grab me some NICE bars please!" It just rolls off the tongue.

For some reason it wasn't apparent until I actually opened the box and looked at the individual bars, but these are quite obviously GAG's take on KIND bars. They're mostly just nuts and grains all fused together with honey and rice syrup and...ew. Soy protein?

There's a thin layer of what appears to be chocolate coating the entire bottom of the bar. But there's no "chocolate" listed in the ingredients. I guess they're approximating it now with cocoa powder, chickory root, milk powder, and various oils. They call it a "cocoa drizzle." Fair enough.

I guess the bottom line is if you like KIND bars, you'll like these. I'm okay with either brand. They're vaguely not-bad-for-you and somewhat tasty.

$4.39 for four bars. Wait. You're telling me each of these little snacky snacks is more than a dollar? Dang. Inflation gonna inflate.

I give these KIND knockoffs 7 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Strawberry Shortcake Whole Grain Bars

GAG is back with another orgasmic—er, sorry—organic snack offering. It's for sporty, active, healthy individuals, and you can tell because there's a blue bicycle bursting through a debris field of giant strawberries, chunks of cheese, and angular white razor blades on the cover. I, personally, would have added an explosion, a bit of blood spatter, and maybe a dinosaur or two. But either way, it's obvious that this snack is not for the faint of heart.

Honestly, it tastes like plastic a little. I mean, the bars are dense, moist, and filling, which is good. There are 12 of them in there, which for $7.29 is a so-so value, IMO.

They don't taste much like strawberry at all. The "shortcake" is predictably less like real shortcake and more like the bread in a typical cereal bar. But make no mistake, these aren't cereal bars. They are whole grain baked bars—that's baked, never fried, in case you were wondering.

And they're gluten free. How's that possible? Ah. Oats and oat flour rather than wheat. That's unexpected.

I, personally, wouldn't buy these again. I bet the wife will like them a lot more than I do. The "strawberry shortcake" moniker is a stretch. The texture is better than the flavor.

I give these bars 6 out of 10 stars.