REVIEW: Yu! Healthy Snacks

Jus Fruit 100% Fruit Chews

 Now I’m back on the diet bandwagon, hosted by the lovely Jane at 7hippopotamus, I’ve been looking for some healthy snacks to get me through the working day when those hunger pangs hit. Luckily for me, Yu! sent me a delicious selection of their treats in response to a highly complimentary message I sent them on Twitter about their mango Jus fruit chews, which I had bought on a whim at Tesco and was absolutely made up with.

So, over the last few weeks, The Boy and I have been giving the whole range a go, to see how satisfying they are, which tastes the nicest and whether they really deal with that fanciful mood! I’m terrible for snacks at work. I never used to snack at all before I got my first full time job – now, it there are biscuits or any treats available, I just can’t resist! I seem to get ravenous at work in a way I have never felt before. Perhaps it’s all that physical activity and brain power I’m using. 

Yu! Jus Fruit 100% from fruit
These fruit chews are the first from the range that I tried. I loved the mango flavour, as it was a real hit of mango flavour with a chewy sweet style texture. They are made from fruit all squidged together and I found them satisfying without being too moreish that I ate the whole package in one go. I found I could stretch a package out over an afternoon, treating myself to one or two here and there in between jobs, which was loads more satisfying than just having a chocolate bar all in one go.

The fruit flavour is really strong and natural tasting, particularly the strawberry ones I noticed. A 24g package of these contains just 90 calories and is of course gluten and wheat free and suitable for vegetarians.


Yu! Bar

Yu! Bar

The bars are a mixture of a coated cereal bar and a real fruit layer. I found that these gave the most energy and were the most satisfying to eat when you were really hungry and needed something to put you on and help regain focus.

The bar is coated with a yoghurt layer which is light and creamy and pretty much like a thin chocolate layer, lets face it. But without the guilt – bonus.

Inside is a sandwich of cereal layers with a sticky fruit layer in the centre. I thought the wild berry flavour, a combination of fruits, was particularly tasty and complimented the creamy yoghurt well. The mixture of textures is also nice with the crisp cereal adding interest to the softer ingredients.

At 133 calories per bar for the wild berry, I was really surprised at how satisfying these were and I found them particularly good to take with me to the gym, to have shortly before an aerobics session, or directly after.

Yu! Fruit and Yoghurt
Now, you all know that when I do a review, the one thing I am is honest. And to be honest, I really didn’t like these. Is is because the banana flavour was so concentrated in the fruit pieces that it tasted more like banana sweets than actual bananas? Well, yes, a little bit. I’m not mad keen on bananas at the best of time, so I was never going to be the biggest fan of these, but more, much more than this, was the comment The Boy made when I gave some to him to taste:

Teeth

 And yes, yes they do look like teeth. Which is gross. Sadly, Yu! only sent me the banana flavour of these snacks, so I cannot give you better news about an alternate flavour. I am sure the principle is sound, it’s just this whole banana thing does not seem to work. 

If you do fancy the idea of eating little yoghurty, chewy teeth, then you’ll be pleased to know that these are only around 116 calories per bag. So guilt free toothy pegs.

Yu! Granola
These were delicious, but I felt a much smaller portion size than the other snacks, presumably because the tasty carbs in the granola soon eats up your calories allowances, so you get less bang for your buck. Whereas the fruit pieces lasted me over a whole afternoon, I snaffled the whole pack of these in about 3 minutes.

I guess that shows you that they are pretty darn delicious though! And at 96 calories per packet you can probably cope with a short, sweet snack attack, just this once!

I happily give Yu! Healthy Snacks a stonking 8 out of 10 for the overall range. There are some flavours that didn’t suit me and some formats I didn’t like as much as the others, but the Yu! Bars and the Jus Fruit will certainly be a regular part of my work lunches from now on.

You never know, perhaps they’ll sponsor my Christmas Challenge and help me get this stone off using only healthy, natural ingredient snacks… (I know, aren’t I shameless?)