Review: Yawp Bars

Back in 2012 when I started this blog, if I wanted a paleo-ish snack bar without soy/sugar/weirdness, it was essentially Larabar or bust. And I have nothing against Larabars, but variety is important.

Luckily, now there are YAWP bars. Rejoice!

The lovely North Carolina ladies of YAWP generously sent me a sample box of their nutty, grain-free snack bars to test out. I'm thrilled to report that these bars are excellent — and quite unique in comparison to the other paleo bars on the shelves now.

I'd compare them to those crunchy Nature Valley granola bars, but extra dense. Frankly, they are harder than hell to bite into (they even joke about that on their packaging), but the jaw-breaking is totally worth it.

Why so dense? They are packed with all kinds of whole nutritious goodies like almonds, pepitas and sesame seeds. In comparison to the sugary energy bars that can be rather heavy on the Medjool dates or other dried fruit, YAWP bars only use one date per bar — I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I love this. Then they dehydrate the resulting recipe for eight hours to get that super-addictive crunch.

Meg sent over all three YAWP flavors: Naked, Cafe Mocha and Coconut Chai. I was most excited for the chai (because, chai), but my surprise favorite of the trio ended up being the classic Naked bar. It has this perfect buttery, cinnamon-y thing going on that was really special. Nom.

Oh, and if you're wondering where the "YAWP" name comes from, it was inspired by a wonderful Walt Whitman quote that I would like to be my life mission statement.