November 11 – In an effort to double my tester pool of one (me), I gave my partner a taste of my Kelp Krunch bars – original and ginger flavors – and asked for his input.
“So this is candy with a little bit of kelp mixed in?” He said as he looked at the bars I had just handed to him. Visually they mainly register sesame seeds. “They should sell it with a magnifying glass.” He went on to list possible headlines: “Hate kelp? Don’t be afraid.”
Joe’s snarky comments aside, I love Kelp Krunch and buy it whenever I find it – lately at Harbor Fish Market, Monte’s and the Portland Food Co-op. The bars live in my cookie jar, where they provide a salty-sweet snack that is much healthier than the cookies it would otherwise be filled with.
I think of Kelp Krunch, manufactured by Hancock-based Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, as a Maine version of the Middle Eastern sesame candies of my childhood. The original flavor consists of just four ingredients, all organic: sesame seeds, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, kelp. (OK, Joe, granted, the kelp is last in line.)
But when it came down to it, the ginger flavor is my favorite. It seductively coats the bars with ginger, cayenne pepper and vanilla extract. The Ginger-Sesame Kelp Krunch has a little more going on than the original and a nice light kick at the back. Neither bar is too sweet, yet both bars are sweet enough. Insider tip: don’t eat these in the library. They don’t joke about the ‘crunch’.
The bars are vegan and organic. They contain no gluten and no cholesterol. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables markets them as “seaweed nutrition bars.” Whatever the sales pitch, eating it is a pleasure, not a hardship – with a sneaky little bonus of making you feel virtuous.
Even more so now that I’ve read the label, which reads: “Because we find joy in the company of kelp and whales, a portion of the proceeds from this bar will be donated to Allied Whale,” a whale conservation group. Just count. And why had I never noticed the drawing on the label? A whale breaks the waves with a long trail of feathery kelp in its jaw.
Kelp Krunch, $2.79 each for 1-ounce bars, available online at Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, and in stores at Brown Trading Market, Harbor Fish Market, Heritage Seaweed, Monte’s Fine Foods, Portland Food Co-op, Waterlily and elsewhere.
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