Sunday, September 27, 2009

View and Review: Back to Nature Trail Mix


I think I was born opinionated. That, or I had a model of someone who was very opionated to learn from. In either case, from a very young age, I have enjoyed reviewing things. When I would go to restaurants with my parents, I had a rating system that included the food taste and quality, service, and cleanliness of the washroom. Is this normal behaviour for a 10 year old?

When I heard that BloggerAid: Changing the Face of Famine was initiating a View and Review component, I was immediately intrigued.

BloggerAid: Changing the Face of Famine have partnered with cookbook publishers and food purveyors to offer members the opportunity to participate in book and product reviews. To date, more than 14 members have received copies of some great books and products for review.


Does it sounds like something interesting to you? Join BloggerAid: Changing the Face of Famine here and sign up for View and Review.

The only way I can agree to giving a review is to be able to tell the truth -- good and/or bad.

This week, I received my first product. A basket filled with six different nut/trail mix combinations from Back to Nature.Over the past couple of years, I've discovered that I actually like nuts. Starting with the ease of transporting them for camping purposes and then learning about their health benefits, I now regularly eat nuts. The Back to Nature website reiterates these benefits:

•Studies have shown that including nuts in your diet can reduce the amount of harmful cholesterol in the blood and can reduce the risk of heart disease.
•If total calories are controlled, eating a handful of nuts daily may help prevent weight gain. The fat, protein and fibre in nuts keeps you feeling fuller longer, so you may eat less during the day without feeling deprived. Studies also show people who regularly eat a small amount of nuts have a lower Body Mass Index those who do not.

I don't typically buy salted nuts, so I was a bit weary about seeing some sea salted packages in my basket. But, I was quite impressed to see that even the salted nuts were low in sodium. Compared to a serving of non-salted nuts (as little as 5 mg sodium)/serving (1/4 bag -- 42g), the salted nuts are closer to 140 mg of sodium (about 5% of recommended daily intake). Not bad...not bad. Plus, the taste of the salted nuts is more of a light dusting as opposed to those nuts that are so salted you need a glass of water to just get them down.

I took a bag of cashews to work and they were happily shared among my colleagues. I also served a bag of cashews, almonds and pistachios to neighbours as we unwound from a long day at work.

This weekend, I opened up the raisin, almond, pumpkin seed, pecans and apricots to dress a salad.

As usual, the nuts tasted fresh. But, I would have to say that the apricots were not a high point for me. I don't generally have anything against apricots, but these ones were quite chewy, particularly in contrast to the remaining nuts. I may be crazy, but I'm pretty sure there are walnuts in this package too. I'd rather see more walnuts in lieu of apricots (although I'm sure cost would be a factor in determining the package's distribution).

Most recently, I opened the cranberry, chocolate covered almonds and vanilla almonds. I really like the vanilla almonds. I was less crazy about the chocolate covered almonds, because the chocolate is semi-sweet (not a flavour I'm crazy about). But, a nice snack all around.

Overall, a good product. I'm happy to see them at my local grocery store too. StumbleUpon

11 comments:

LivingInAurora.ca said...

So you like doing reviews, this is actually funny when you were 10 years old - so you got lot of experience. Sounds like a good product. I may try it too. Anna.

Hopie said...

Haha, I love that you had a point system when you were 10. Sounds normal...for a foodie ;-) Your review gives a good idea of the trail mix and it's ups and downs! Good to know.

kat said...

I'd really go for those semi-sweet chocolate covered ones!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I took my last bag of product to SF with me. I had the pumpkin seed mix for breakfast as I was straining my way up the hills of San Francisco.I love chocolate almonds so this was the ultimate for me, but everyone has their preferences. Good product all around.

NĂºria said...

You did that with 10 years? Wow that is amazing! I bet you were a smart girl :D.

The products look fantastic... could you tell I'm a nut fanatic? Would love to View and Review. Do you think that living in Spain is a problem?

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

I don't know if it is unusual behaviour, but even though my daughter doesn't have a rating system, at 13 she is particular about all those things! :)

These sound good, just wishh they were available here.

Lori said...

All these type of snacks are right up my alley. I love nuts and dried fruits.

Liliana said...

Great review! These Back to Nature Trail Mixes would be great snack food for my daughters to bring to school.

I can identify with your point system. I do that now! It drives my family nuts!

Adam said...

Nuts and seeds are a really great thing... as long as moderation is used. Thanks so much for that. For a minute people would think you can't get fat off almond butter... oh boy :)

Great review, I really like a little sweetness with my salt, so these look perfect, especially on the go :)

Deeba PAB said...

I like opinionated people, LOL, and you've been doing this long! WOW!! I'm a huge 'NUTs' person & I ike the sound of this product. I've found it's good to introduce kids to nuts early in their life, otherwise they often become fussy! Those vanilla almonds are calling to me...yum!!

Madison Harris said...

Hi There,

My name is Madison Harris and I'm a relationship manager at NutsOnline.com, a leading web retailer for Trail Mix (though I should note we also sell many other snacks, dried fruit, candy and pumpkin seeds). :)

Our users love our products but have increasingly told us that they’re interested in information about the nutritional aspects of Trail Mix as well as health tips and recipes. As we only seek to please our customers, we’ve begun compiling a list of the best informational sites for Snacks lovers-- you can see our progress here: http://www.nutsonline.com/links#trailmix

As you can see, we’ve linked to your site in an effort to connect our customers with useful information about the Snacks they love, and we’re hoping you’ll be willing to return the favor by linking back to our Trail Mix product page. :) If you do a web search you’ll see NutsOnline consistently has low prices and very favorable customer satisfaction.

We’d be eternally grateful if you could place a link to: http://www.nutsonline.com/snacks/trail-mixes/health-trail-mix.html within the text "Trail Mix" on your site, so that if people are interested in buying Trail Mix, they’ll know exactly where to go!

Let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions, and I’ll follow up right away-- feel free to contact me directly at madison@nutsonline.com. I’d be more than happy to tell you more about NutsOnline and provide any follow up detail you’d like!

Very Best Regards,

~Madison

Madison Harris
Relationship Manager, NutsOnline
madison@nutsonline.com

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