Looking at the Calorie Mate packaing, I imagine they have one of the smallest design department staffs in the entire country. Every box of Calorie Mate is the same generic design with only a small variation in color and product naming. It must take all of a minute to roll out a new box when a new flavor is dreamed up by the alchemists who press together these little fortified biscuits.
Since I liked the maple flavor of Calorie Mate that I sampled, I decided to give the chocolate a try as well. Okay, I'll be perfectly honest about this review. It's a leftover from my "week of diet food" lot from long ago. In fact, there were several leftovers that didn't make the cut with only five slots to fill. I guess you can consider the chocolate Calorie Mate the "Miss Congeneality" of the lot from the diet and health foods week.
In fact, I think that "congenial" is actually a pretty good word for this bar. It's pleasant enough, but rather bland. The chocolate flavor comes across as flat because there isn't enough sugar or fat in the bar to prop it up. Like all Calorie Mate bars, this is a bit on the dry side and is like low quality shortbread. Each cookie is 7 cm x 4.25 cm x 2 cm (2.8 in. x 1.7 in. x .8 in.) and there are 4 of them in the box I bought at Tomod's drug store for 150 yen ($1.62). As with all varieties of Calorie Mate, each cookie is 100 calories and you're meant to consume two cookies at once as a meal replacement.
This wasn't bad. It just wasn't especially good. There was so little chocolate as part of this chocolate cookie bar that I felt there was some lack of truth in advertising. If you're looking for inoffensive bar-type food which has been fortified, you could do worse than this, but I'd personally choose the maple flavor over the chocolate.
These seem to be pretty high in fat and sugar by traditional healthy meal replacement bar standards. I'd still like to give them a shot at some point; I've always been curious after seeing them appear in the METAL GEAR video games.
ReplyDeleteI think that these are popular based on the convenience and the illusion that they are healthy. I think they're really overrated. It's not that they're bad or anything, but just like astronaut food. You eat them because you don't eat well, and it's better than a cookie. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to try the cheesecake version of these! I've heard they can be very very dry tasting though.
ReplyDeleteLike Rodzilla said I've heard of them through the Metal Gear video games.
They are so overrated. All of my uni friends here eat them! I haven't tried one, but think I should soon.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that they are overrated, but I try to see them as what people eat who have no time for good food, and it's probably "better" for you than fast food or even konbini sandwiches!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting!