Frito-Lay Grano Salted Snacks (product information)

Image courtesy of Frito-Lay.

I'm always on the fence about how to regard junk food. Is it something that we should endeavor to make as healthy as possible so that we can improve the overall nutritional profile? Or is it something which we should simply conclude is meant to taste "good" and health be damned? I think the choice I make depends on how I happen to be feeling at the time. If I were feeling that we should make it as healthy as possible, then I'd go for this "Grano" chips. 

The selling point of these is that they include three types of grains - brown corn, rice, wheat, and oats. The grain aspects don't translate into lower calories, however, as 55 grams (about 2 oz.) is 254 calories. You can compare this to the average calorie load of potato chips which is about 150 calories per ounce, you're not really saving much on that front. I guess you'll just have to be happy with the whole grain goodness and the fine work it will do on your digestive tract. 

KitKat Cookie Plus Whole Grain Cookie

Someone at Nestlé Japan deserves a raise for thinking up a new concept to expand the KitKat flavor line even further by incorporating cookies into the mix. When I reviewed the first version of the "Cookie +" KitKat, I figured that was a dead end. That first version incorporated the black cookie from an Oreo-style sandwich cookie into the mix. Now, it seems that the sky is the limit on KitKats with cookies.


While one's initial response to a whole grain cookie version might be to think that they are trying to make something which is inherently unhealthy seem healthy... well, one's initial response would be correct. The advertising on Nestlé Japan's site says that this includes whole-grain flour which contains more nutrition-rich protein and mineral fiber. They're not fooling anyone with that sort of talk. They are, however, charging about 200 yen ($2.00) for this bar instead of the usual price of 120 yen ($1.20) and the volume is slightly smaller.


The box contains two flatter, wider fingers rather than the usual two fingered packs that conventional KitKats contain. Each one is 100 calories. The bars smell mainly like milk chocolate, but there's a slight earthy undertone which reminds me of graham crackers. The reason for this becomes apparent after you eat it. While this mostly tastes like a regular KitKat during the first bite, the secondary flavor of a graham cracker style cookie comes through as you chew. I also noticed that the wafers have a stronger hit of granulated sugar filling than usual, though it doesn't taste as cloyingly and overly sweet as a white chocolate-based KitKat because there's a slight bittersweet undertone to the chocolate.

Despite a desire not to like this too much because I think the entire concept of adding a whole grain cookie to make a candy bar "healthier" is flawed, I really did like the flavor of this KitKat. Though it could definitely do with a stronger graham cookie/cracker component, it's a pretty nice variation. I'd definitely buy it again some time, provided it stays on the market long enough. Since this was introduced relatively recently (March 16), I'm guessing there's plenty of time to revisit this one.

This is also reviewed at Snack Love.