Gaby’s Gourmet Chocolate Banana Cherry Granola

I was a little leery when I opened up a bag of Gaby’s Gourmet Chocolate Banana Cherry Granola. I don’t know that my perception is based in fact, but I always feel that making a healthy snack chocolaty and sweet is bound to diminish its nutritional benefits.

Gaby has done a good job of making the grain part of this mix less sweet than many granolas, so when you get a piece of chocolate or fruit in there, it isn’t over the top. Organic agave syrup is used as the sweetener instead of high fructose corn syrup or honey, which seem to be more common, at least to me. This provides a more subtle sweetness, and omitting honey helps make this snack vegan as well. There’s also some maple syrup in it, but that’s pretty low on the ingredient list.

This is a relatively soft granola. My preference is a bit more crunch, but I’m still enjoying these clusters of organic oats, pecans, organic hemp seeds, organic barley flakes, and organic flax meal. The pecans and bananas add some crispier texture.

Speaking of bananas, I wish there were more of them in the mix. Maybe that’s just me; I’m a huge fan of all things banana. I also encountered no cherries in my first few tastes, which made me forget that they were in here at all. A little later, they started showing up, adding an enjoyable fruity bittersweet flavor to the overall taste. I like the fact that the cherries are not preserved with sulfur.

The chocolate pieces are delicious. They melt smoothly and cleanly, with no waxiness or other unwanted textures. There’s a good amount of chocolate in here, but I think they’d do better to make the chocolate pieces a little smaller so more mouthfuls would have a little taste of it. Actually, smaller pieces of banana would provide a similar benefit with that flavor as well.

Overall, I thought this granola mix was good…not quite great for my tastes, but definitely worth a try It is pretty healthy…compared with a popular brand of granola bars, for example, it has less sodium, a little less sugar, and a little less fat. A 28.3g serving (1/4 cup) contains 25mg sodium, 6g sugar, and 6g of fat.