Nut Bars Giveaway from Knowing

I was in Lassens, Echo Park (Los Angeles) the other day and spotted out the corner of my eye a guy handing out samplings of his wares. Ever curious, and a bit of a pig, I ditched the procuring of my salad ingredients and manoeuvred my way to his table of goodies. Upon enquiring if the little morsels of crumbly cake-y things were vegan and gluten free, the man said yes. There after I had my first taste of a Knowing Nut Bar. Insert HAPPY smiling icon here. I was expecting just another raw food bar..but oh no. They are a two layered bar, a crumbly topping on a stickier base. The coconut gave a biscuit texture and the flavours were sensational..the cinnamon coconut..wow the cinnamon just sang. The chocolate coconut was richly chocolatey. Somehow the flavours within each bar each managed to have a separate moment of glory. Delicious. Moreish!

I asked the guy (whose name I had now gathered was Nicholas) to tell me the story behind the name of the bars and why they decided to put all their energy into bringing another snack bar onto to market (though these are not just another snack bar. These are really ‘stand out’ bars).

Nicholas and his brother Alex, who work out of Los Angeles, are the owners of Knowing. Nick told me that perfecting the recipes has taken a ton of effort. ‘We’ve been working on various nut bars for years, trying different combinations of nuts and preparation techniques. We finally settled on using an amazing combo of cashew and coconuts as the base for all three Knowing bars. Knowing was the result of my brother and I having worked in restaurant kitchens, farmers markets, and our Dad’s kitchen while growing up and then seeing the food being sold in grocery stores’.

But why Knowing I asked? ‘Much of the time, there is a huge lack of understanding as to what people are actually eating. The Nutrition Facts can be helpful, but can also be misleading - it’s really important to know WHERE the calories, sugars, and fats are coming from to determine their actual nutritional value’.

The brothers’ main goal is making great tasting snacks from nutritious whole organic, whole foods. They just wanted to make the ingredients front page, so people know what they are consuming. To be honest, their nut bars taste so good that I forgot all about their great nutritional value. Over the years I have become used to the fact that vegan sweet treats can be very tasty AND good for you. So it comes as no surprise to me. But these bars taste like they should be ‘naughty’.

The bars 100% organic. Soy, dairy and grain free. Gluten free. Vegan. Knowing nut bars are currently available in Lassens, local Whole Foods as a part of their Local Forager Program, EarthBars in Southern California, a handful of independent grocery stores and cafes, online farmers markets like FarmBox and GoodEggs, as well as our website.

I was excited to tell you about the bars, so is Nick. So he decided he wanted us to run a giveaway. He’s offering 1 winner a box of the 3 flavour bags. I wish I could enter to win them! I can’t, obviously, but you can, if you live in America. Each flavour pack (3 bars in each) retails at around $3.99. So the winner gets 12 bars to chomp on, and share (if they can bear to!).

Scroll down to enter.