Love me, love me not
The last thing I tried with dates was a peppermint brownie snack bar from Skout Organic. No good. This made me hesitant to try the Must Love -Chocolate Graham,
mainly because I do not like dates… whatsoever.
However, I’m a risk taker, so I ordered my 5 oz box of Must Love Chocolate Graham from Thrive Market for $4.79.
Must Love promised a
plant-based, vegan sweet treat with real, simple ingredients and a touch of natural sweetness.
The downfall?
It contains wheat, so it isn’t gluten-free.
I was surprised when I looked at the nutrition label because the grahams have 2 grams (no pun intended) of protein. And they are fairly high in calories—130 per serving to be exact.
When I went to the brand’s website to do a little research on the company, they did not have even a lick of information on their company.
The only information directly from the founders was on the back of the box. That was disappointing because inquiry minds want to know.
What’s your story, Must Love??
Because the website was vague, I went down the Professor Google route and learned the company had been profiled on Shark Tank. Based on this appearance, I learned the company was
founded in 2016 by two women named Hannah Hong and Mollie Cha.
They are a plant-based, vegan company and they only have a handful of products. They did not receive Shark approval on the show in season 13. Interesting…
But that didn’t stop Hannah and Mollie from building a business. In July 2023, the company was estimated to have $3.7 million dollars in earnings just based on the boost they created for themselves by going on the popular television show.
See? It really is not what you know but who you know!
Following the airing of their episode on the show, the brand began selling in retail stores, including Whole Foods, Sprouts, and their online shop. By February 2022, it became available at Costco in Hawaii.
While the company had a good start, today
it is getting more and more difficult to get your hands on their products through retail stores.
Again, interesting… is this a tell-tale sign? Perhaps…
When I opened my nearly $5 box of chocolate grahams,
to be brutally honest with you,
I was absolutely pissed off.
I paid nearly $5 for a bag of air. WTH??
They noted on the box that one serving is 10 cookies. I believe there may be 3 servings, IF THAT, as opposed to what the box claims… 5 servings per container.
“I’ve been robbed!”, I thought.
But then I opened the bag and the smell of fudge brownie eased my pain. The aroma was incredibly enticing.
But then I thought back to my review of Skout Organic’s peppermint brownie, where I was absolutely fooled by the smell, and it didn’t taste like chocolate at all.
Fingers crossed I wasn’t fooled again (I just can’t take the flavor of dates again), and I reached in and grabbed a graham.
I ate one cookie and was pleasantly surprised. They were not absolutely disgusting like Skout Organic, thank goodness. I think the difference between the two cookie products is the grahams have a bit of natural sugars, and they probably are a little sweeter. BUT, they were not extremely flavorful, with only a hint of chocolate.
Furthermore, the graham squares were VERY hard and potentially had a hint of stale you get when a box has been open for a few months.
My teeth are sensitive, so it honestly hurt my teeth a bit to chew. It was kind of like chewing a hard candy.
IMBHO, these cookies are a hard no from me.
The flavor was okay, but I will not be paying for air and these extremely hard cookies ever again.
