Unreal...

A while back I read about a new candy on the market called Unreal. The candy makers goal was to make a sweet treat that wasn't quite so bad for you.  Their story is here and is pretty amazing....

My curiosity was piqued. I'm always down for some sugary goodness and if it's something that doesn't leave you racked with guilt, all the better. But alas, being in Alaska, sometimes it takes a while for certain products to make their way here, if you can get them at all. So for the last few weeks I've watched the shelves at Fred Meyer, Target & Walgreens; all reputed to carried the product. And lo & behold, my diligence was rewarded the other night at Target.

 The candy comes in five varieties and is packaged in individual bars or in larger bags. It's priced comparably to regular candy, which was a surprise considering it's made with better quality ingredients. I bought one of each of the five kinds to give a taste test to. Here's my reviews:

 This is their version of Snickers. It was good. It had the full flavor of the peanuts and replicated the fluffy nougat of Snickers well. It only has 200 calories a bar compared to Snicker's 280. But the bar is slightly smaller than a Snickers, so that's part of the equation too. It only has 17 grams of sugar, compared to Snicker's 30 grams. And it carries 5 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. 
Bottom line: I'll choose this over a Snickers.

 This is their version of a Milky Way. Milky Way is one of my favorite candy bars, and this one was just a good. The nougat was denser than the Snickers one, just like in a real Milky Way. Of the five types of Unreal Candies, this was the one I liked the most. It carries 19 grams of sugar instead of Milky Way's 35 grams and 5 grams of fiber, which is more than you'd find in an apple.

Here's their version of peanut M&M's. These were also very good. Again, the package is smaller than M&M's, so you save some calories there. But most studies show that regardless of the serving size, we'll eat the entire portion of something put before us. So by starting with a smaller serving size it's possible to eat less and still feel satisfied. This bag has 200 calories with 16 grams of sugar, which is less sugar than you'll find in an orange. I'd also buy these again.

And here are their version of regular M&M's. These were my least favorite. If you've ever had imitation, generic M&M's you know that funky taste they have. I've noticed that taste in M&M's I've gotten in Canada, so maybe it's the real sugar they use instead of the high fructose corn syrup. This bag carries 200 calories, instead of 230 in M&M's. They've got 19 grams of sugar compared to 30 grams in the real thing.
Oh, and they also had a slight dark chocolate taste...

And finally their version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. These were my second least favorite. I'm not sure what I didn't like about these... Well, it's not that I didn't like them, they just weren't as good as the others. I'd probably buy them again, but only if they didn't have the others. They've got almost the same calories as a Reese's Cup, but they've got half the sugar and three times the fiber.




So if you can find these in your local store, give them a try. I think you'll like them. I think it's important to show stores that we'd like to have better options in the food we buy. Good tasting food doesn't have to be bad for you and we need to support innovators like the ones at Unreal.

Oh, and if you didn't click the link to read the story of how Unreal came about, you should. It begins with a 13 year old who realized his bag of Halloween candy wasn't good for him...