I’m going to take this opportunity to rant a little bit about bars that use the name “fruit and nut”. I’m going to go on this rant because as far as this bar is concerned, it’s fairly stereotypical for this kind of bar. Often with this kind of bar the chocolate is is fairly good quality, and this Whittaker’s chocolate is no exception. I’m not sure if I would call it the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten, but it’s very good. The “nuts and fruit” (more on that later) where also a nice quality, fresh and added some nice texture to the milk chocolate, but again this is common for a fruit and nut bar.

My problem with most fruit and nut bars in general comes from the name. While I can’t deny that raisins are a dried fruit and almonds are a nut, the name seems to suggest something else. The name fruit and nut might suggest that there are several fruits and several nuts involved. However, as with this bar, most fruit and nut bars only contain one kind of nut and one kind of fruit. Most often the nut is almond (although I might have had a peanut version too) but almost always the fruit is raisins. The name of the bar should reflect the contents a little better, and raisins and almonds sounds just fine.

The other option is to expand the types of nuts and fruits in these bars. Why not stick some other fruit and a selection of nuts into the mix. You could even have themed fruit and nut bars, like tropical fruit and nuts containing things like mango and pineapple, or orchard fruit and nut with dried apples and oranges. The name is just general enough that putting raisins and almonds isn’t really a lie, but sounds like it should be more broad and maybe should contains some other combinations.

The other problem I have is that almost all fruit and nut bars contain the same fruit and nuts. So in some ways I feel like there’s a lack of creativity. I’m not saying I would love every fruit and nut combination out there, but I’d totally love trying all the different combinations to see how they worked out.