Review: Nutridel

This weekend I discovered…

mixed with

necessitates a lot more

and a weekend full of

So, in lieu of a weekend recap filled with cold meds, soup and junk food, I’ve decided to do my first official review!

I’m playing around with the format I’m going to use for my food reviews—so if anyone has suggestions about what you like to see in a review (in terms of details, length, etc.), please do share.

As many of you know, my background is in journalism, so I figured I’d have some fun with this review and try out a Journalism 5 Ws + H format. Now that I’ve left you absolutely no doubts as to how tremendously geeky I am, let’s get to the review.

On Friday, I received a package from Nutridel—which included samples of their Almond and Flaxseed cookies.

WHO makes them? Nutridel, “a family-run business dedicated to the elaboration of handcrafted, all natural, gourmet vegan cookies.”

WHAT are they? You guessed it. All natural, gourmet vegan COOKIES! Martha Lofte, former owner of an aerobic studio, created these preservative and trans-fat free cookies so she could offer her studio members a healthy snack. The cookies are BIG, and the ingredient list is refreshingly short. While each of the four flavors—flaxseed, almond, oatmeal and pecan—has a different genetic make-up, the company’s ingredient roster consists of oatmeal, amaranth, sesame seeds, pecan, almond, molasses, coconut, sunflower seed, flaxseed and wheat germ.

WHERE can I get them? If you live in or around San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Portland, Oregon—check out Nutridel’s retail page to see if you’re near one of their coffee house distributors. In store, a package of two cookies costs $2.50. You can also order them by the case online; they offer a box of 28 packages (again, two cookies in each) for $42—which works out to $1.50 per two cookies.

HOW do they taste? As a non-vegan and a salty-over-sweet person, I was surprised to find I LOVED these cookies. I was only sent the almond and flaxseed varieties—so no word on the oatmeal or pecan flavors—but these were delicious.

The two flavors tasted similar—crunchy and very compact with whole-grain flavor. The almond was, expectedly, very almond-y despite actual nut pieces being almost non-existent; the sweet nutty flavor was certainly there. The flaxseed, in my opinion, was the front-runner. It was so incredibly sweet and cinnamon-y—and loaded with whole flax seeds throughout the cookie.

WHEN we want to jazz them up, we should…?

Smother ‘em in cream cheese and jelly.

An incredible addition to the almond cookie. I imagine nut butters would work their usual magic, and I also think the cookies would taste great crumbled over yogurt.

WHY these over another brand? Let’s see. I’d never suggest that someone with an Oreo craving try to snack on one of these instead. However, for those of you who make an effort to eat whole foods and appreciate the taste of natural ingredients, these cookies pack extraordinary sweet-but-not-too-sweet flavor and impressive nutrition stats (less than 60 unprocessed calories for a seriously grande cookie).

And an extra non-journalism W…

WOULD I buy them again? Because I’m not a serious cookie person, I wouldn’t order  a case for myself. If I were lucky enough to live in the vicinity of one of those Cali or Oregon Nutridel-toting coffee shops, I’d definitely pay the $2.50 for an occasional cookie treat.

I hope you enjoyed the review, and por favor, I would LOVE any feedback on what you liked, didn’t like, want me to add, etc.

Hope your Monday are off to a good start!

-Sarah

Review

nutridel, Review

October 19, 2009

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