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Walk through the granola bar aisle at any grocery store and you’ll find lots of options that aren’t much better for you than a candy bar. They’re often full of carbohydrates and added sugars.
Aldi is no different. I used to buy some of their fiber bars and fruit and grain cereal bars for easy snacks to drop in lunch boxes. However, with the New Year, my family has been trying to be smarter about snacks. I’m stocking the pantry with a lot more nuts (which we already love and buy often), and I’m being more deliberate about keeping fresh fruit in the fridge and in our fruit bowl on the kitchen counter.
I’ve also begun trying some of the bars in the Elevation product line at Aldi. This brand, which is not a company but instead is an Aldi private label house brand, features a lot of protein bars, shakes, and protein powders aimed at helping you recover after athletic training or a workout. Some of them are also ideal simply for everyday snacking. Most Aldi Elevation products are imitations of name brands such as Clif Bars, LUNA Bars, Lärabars, and KIND bars.
With kids in the house, I’m always looking for snacks and lunch box foods that will appeal to younger taste buds. I found some Elevation Kids Baked Oat Bars at Aldi that looked intriguing. They come in Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Brownie varieties, and I bought a box of each to try at home.
Elevation Kids Baked Oat Bars are Regular Buys, which means you ought to be able to find them at Aldi all year.
These look like knockoffs of name-brand CLIF Kid Zbar energy snack bars, so I bought some of those from a local regular grocery store to try alongside the Aldi imitations. The ingredients are fairly similar, with both the Elevation brand and the CLIF Kid brand listing oats as the first ingredient. (More specifically, CLIF Kid Zbars list an oat blend of rolled oats, oat flour, and oat fiber.) The Elevation Kids bars contain somewhat less added sugar, with 6-7 grams per bar versus 9-10 grams in the CLIF Kid Zbars. (You’ll find more on ingredients and nutrition information farther down in this post.)
These cost $3.99 for a 7.62-ounce box at my local store at the time of writing, which is about 52 cents per ounce. Each box contains six 1.27-ounce bars, which comes out to about 67 cents per bar.
For comparison, name-brand CLIF Kid Zbars cost about 84 cents per bar at Walmart for the same-sized bar as the Elevation bars, and that price is if you buy a large box of 18 bars. The price goes up by a few cents if you buy a box with fewer bars. That makes the Aldi bars the better deal in terms of cost.
These Elevation bars are a product of Canada. They contain 11 grams of whole grains per serving and are advertised as a good source of fiber. They are certified gluten free by the Gluten Intolerance Group, and they’re certified organic by Pro-Cert. They’re also non GMO.
If you’re looking out for allergens, both flavors of the Aldi bars may contain tree nuts. (For comparison, CLIF Kid Zbars list soy as an allergen, and they may contain milk, sesame, and wheat in addition to possible peanuts and tree nuts. So if allergens are a concern, the Aldi bars have fewer potential allergens.)
Keep reading for more info about each flavor.
Elevation Kids Chocolate Chip Baked Oat Bars:
CLIF Kid Chocolate Chip Zbar on the left, Aldi Elevation Kids Chocolate Chip Baked Oat Bar on the right. I’m always amused by how closely Aldi dares to imitate name-brand packaging.
The Aldi bars look and taste almost identical to their CLIF Kid Zbar counterparts. The only difference I noticed is that the Aldi bars seem to have more noticeable chocolate chips that offer some “crunch,” and I slightly prefer the Aldi bars for that reason. These bars are soft and chewy, with the oats providing some texture. They contain fig paste, which gives them a flavor and texture somewhat similar to a Fig Newton.
Nutrition information and ingredients. CLIF Kid Chocolate Chip Zbar on the left, Aldi Elevation Kids Chocolate Chip Baked Oat Bar on the right. (Click to enlarge.)
Ingredients for the Aldi bars include oats, tapioca syrup, fig paste, oat flour, sunflower oil, chocolate chips, cane sugar, invert cane syrup, oat fiber, natural flavors, sea salt, and baking powder.
There are a few differences in ingredients between the Aldi brand and name brand. The CLIF Kid Zbars contain soy lecithin and vanilla extract, for example. However, these look pretty similar in terms of ingredients.
The Aldi bar has 10 more calories per serving, but it has half the sodium of the name brand. The Aldi bar also has 3 grams of dietary fiber versus 2 grams in the name brand, and the Aldi bar has 6 grams of added sugar versus 9 grams in the name brand. Just looking at it from a nutrition perspective, the Aldi bar seems superior to me.
Overall, one 36-gram Aldi bar has 150 calories, 5 grams of total fat (6% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 50 mg of sodium (2% DV), 25 grams of total carbohydrates (9% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 10 grams of total sugars, 6 grams of added sugars (12% DV), and 2 grams of protein.
Elevation Kids Chocolate Brownie Baked Oat Bars:
CLIF Kid Chocolate Brownie Zbar on the left, Aldi Elevation Kids Chocolate Brownie Baked Oat Bar on the right.
These have a similar texture and flavor to the Chocolate Chip bars. The chocolate flavor isn’t all that strong in the CLIF bars, but I hardly taste the chocolate in the Aldi bars, so if chocolate flavor is important to you, you might prefer the name brand with this flavor. Again, these have fig paste, which gives them a taste and texture similar to Fig Newtons.
Nutrition information and ingredients. CLIF Kid Chocolate Brownie Zbar on the left, Aldi Elevation Kids Chocolate Brownie Baked Oat Bar on the right. (Click to enlarge.)
Ingredients in the Aldi bars include oats, tapioca syrup, fig paste, invert cane syrup, oat flour, chocolate, sunflower oil, oat fiber, cocoa powder, cane sugar, natural flavors, sea salt, and baking powder.
The name brand Chocolate Brownie bars contain soy lecithin and vanilla extract, while the Aldi bars don’t. Otherwise, ingredients are very similar.
The Aldi bars once again have 10 more calories compared to the CLIF Kid Zbars, but again, the Aldi bars have half the sodium of the name brand. Also, the Aldi bars have less added sugar, coming in at 7 grams while the CLIF bars have 10 grams. So the Aldi bars again seem to have some health advantages compared to the name brand.
One 36-gram Aldi bar has 140 calories, 4 grams of total fat (5% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 50 mg of sodium (2% DV), 25 grams of total carbohydrates (9% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 11 grams of total sugars, 7 grams of added sugars (14% DV), and 2 grams of protein.
The Verdict:
Elevation Kids Baked Oat Bars are imitations of name-brand CLIF Kid Zbars. They come in Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Brownie varieties and feature oats as the first ingredient, with 11 grams of whole grains per bar. In terms of taste and texture, we think the Elevation Chocolate Chip bars are slightly better than the name brand, while we slightly prefer the name-brand Chocolate Brownie bars over the Aldi version. Any differences are small, though. Nutritionally, the Aldi bars get kudos for containing half the sodium and less added sugar than the name brand. The Aldi bars also cost less than CLIF Kid Zbars.
