Product Review: Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Bars

This sugar-free, low-carb raspberry chocolate bar has a superior texture and chocolately taste. It is sweetened with erythritol, the sugar alcohol with the lowest impact on blood glucose. The only caveat is some may find the raspberry flavor a little too potent. The bars can be purchased through Carbsmart (see link below) and will soon be available through Netrition as well.

This bar was developed by Jimmy Moore (of the Livin' La Vida Low-Carb blog, book and podcast) in conjunction with the makers of ChocoPerfection bars. His goal was a sugar-free, high-quality chocolate raspberry bar free of maltitol. A worthy endeavor, but did the actual bars live up? Here's what I and my panel of three tasters found:

Texture: This bar undoubtedly has the smoothest, creamiest texture of any low-carb chocolate I've eaten, and this opinion was shared by each of the testers. Jimmy says the secret is the coconut oil in them. Whatever it is, the texture of this chocolate is absolutely wonderful, far surpassing the ChocoPerfection bar made by the same company.

Flavor: This bar is raspberry-flavored dark chocolate and has, as advertised, an "intense raspberry flavor." My tasters were divided on how much they liked the intensity. One liked it very much, and two found it to be a bit overwhelming. If you like the combination of raspberry and chocolate, you'll probably like these bars. That flavor pairing is not my personal favorite, so I'd love these bars even more if Jimmy put out a similar version without the raspberry.

Ingredients: Dry cocoa solids: 60%, oligofructose, erythritol, cocoa butter, coconut oil, natural flavors, soy lecithin. May contain traces of peanuts and other tree nuts.

Note that the bars do not contain maltitol, which I consider to be a very problematic ingredient commonly found in "sugar-free" products.