Product Review - JC's Trek 'Cherry Crunch' Protein Flapjack

The Product - JC's Trek 'Cherry Crunch' Protein Flapjack (Oat Flapjack with Protein Crunchies - 10g Protein) 56g

First Impressions
It's nice that they have stuck to the vegan line, using golden syrup were they could easily have gone for honey instead. Its also good to see a product that is clear that it's suitable for vegans, but not insistent on it being seen as a product solely for vegans. This is great, as it's a subtle education to people that you don't need animal ingrediants to be tasty.

Nutritionally, they aren't as calorie packed as most of the prepacked flapjacks on the market, and they hold a nice amount of protein 18.3% (10.2g per bar), which is always good. They do have a good wedge of sugar, but since they product is marketed with a very strong bend towards being a sports/hiking snack, that's really not a bad thing. To put it into context, 241kcals per flapjack is a less then most flapjacks.

I was a bit surprised when I read through the ingredients that there is no explict statement that they contain cherries (the cherry infused raisins don't actually state they contain cherry, but they might). I expect if I wasn't reviewing this I'd have totally failed to notice this as all the ingredients are fairly natural.

Appearance
Flapjacky. Oats are visable on the top, and if you turn it over, the protean crunchies were kind of grouped on the bottom. These look a little like puffed rice.

A few cherry infused raisins visble on the outside, but not loads. Nice level of brown

Aroma
Very much like a cherry bakewell, but a lot less sweet. Typically subtle, as is the rest of their products

Texture
Not as heavy as the brownies, and with a definate crunch. The crunchies have a similar feeling to puffed rice, but a bit more grainy... almost like a mix of popping candy and puffed rice. Less dence then most flapjacks for sale. The Blackfriar ones, for example, often feel like you have eaten a brick after, these aren't like this.

There wasn't that lingering, oily mouthfeel that you sometimes get with flapjacks.

Taste
Again, kinda like a bakewell, the cherries really come through. There is an oddly, marzipan like flavour, which settles well against the oats, I guess this is the golden syrup . The raisens had grouped together for safety at one end of the bar. I pulled one out to taste on it's own... it had subtle cherry overtones with a raisin finish.

If you are like me and don't have an overwhelmingly sweet tooth, you'll probably find these towards the sweet end of the scale, but not unpleasently so. If you like very sweet things, you might wish it were a tiny bit sweeter.

Satiation
I was starving before I had this... and it really satisfied. I lingered over it a little, but at the end I felt satisfied. I didn't get hungry again for a good 4-5 hours

Overall
Very nice. I was expecting to either really like this product, or really hate it. The ingrdiants don't actually mention cherries anywhere, so I was a little skeptical, but it had a pleasent Cherrish taste. If you were to eat a cherry and it tasted like this bar, you would be surpriced, but if you bought a cherry fruit tea, you wouldn't be.

I would like to see a Nakd bar with the same flavour. Perhaps called 'Cherished Cherry' or some such?

Verdict - Would I buy again
Well, yes I would. I slighty prefer the brownies as they are a little less sweet and a little more dence, but if I were going to be selecting a snack to take on a hike or bike ride, if go for this as it seems more substantial. It's also nice to have options.