Hoooray, I am back with yet another one of those super interesting fresh milk review. Well, this is not exactly fresh milk but pasteurised milk which have been heated treated and packed. Of course, this does not mean that pasteurised milk is actually healthier for you than let’s say raw milk. Raw milk is definitely the best milk for you, but we can’t find it in Singapore. Since we have no choice in the matter, pasteurised milk is the next best option. The UHT (Ultra Heat Treated) milk is like “dead milk” in which quite a lot of the nutrients and vitamins present in milk have been destroyed by the high heat process. It is sad that a lot of Singaporeans believe that UHT milk is just as good as the pasteurised milk. I have seen people buying them in the cartons, most likely for their kids or for themselves.

Anyway, I am here to review the Dutch Lady Fresh Milk. I no longer consume low fat or skim milk anymore as we all know that a lot of the nutrients in milk is in the milk “fat”. So getting rid of the milk “fat” in milk is pointless, in my opinion. Might as well don’t drink milk. It is also good to know that the longer the milk have been kept in the shelves, the lower the amounts of nutrients in the milk. This is inevitable as the nutrients will “escape” from the milk.

Check it out - Dutch Lady Fresh Milk. Don’t worry, the milk inside this milk box is not green in colour. The label on the box is misleading. The milk is pure white in order to make the milk appealing to consumers, as all pasteurised milk are. Raw milk is slightly yellowish in colour, which is what milk should be.

Pasteurised “Fresh” Milk!

100% Fresh Malaysian Milk! Ya! I am surprised that Malaysia has quite a big dairy industry. In fact, even Indonesia and Thailand both have big dairy industries, but they are not very popular in Singapore. We usually get Australian or New Zealand dairy products here, which I think is okay. No offense to our neighbours, but when it comes to dairy products, I trust Australia and New Zealand more.

Here we have the nutrition table. Nothing too impressive.

For maximum freshness, store pack between 0°C and 4°C. Once opened, keep refrigerated. Wait a minute, won’t the milk freeze when subjected to 0°C environments?

Yup, manufactured in Malaysia! Dutch Lady is a brand of friesland foods.

Nothing special about this brand of Malaysia. I normally use milk to make Kefir or yogurt, so in the end, the taste doesn’t matter. I am more interested in the nutritional value of the milk, which for most milk in Singapore, is not good. Commercial milk manufacturers seemed more interested in making money than producing good quality milk, which could be the main reason why Singaporeans and a lot of other people in other countries are suffering from poor health.

Hahaha, it is yet another yogurt review. Bet you are eagerly waiting for this right? Or not. But anyway, you are stuck with me doing little reviews on yogurt. So you guys might know by know, I am a very big fan of yogurt. I have been consuming yogurt regularly for about 9 months now - since the time when I fell seriously sick with very high fever. I feel that by consuming yogurt, my body seems to be reacting better against germs and bacteria and I definitely feel better in terms of my health. Of course, consuming Kefir might also have helped some what. I am sure that you guys should know that yogurt and Kefir comes with good bacteria (probiotics) which helps to maintain a healthy digestive system in your body. If you have a good digestive system, it means that all the nutrients in the food you eat will be more effectively absorbed by your body. I mean what is the point of eating a lot of healthy food if your body doesn’t absorb the nutrients and vitamins right? Furthermore, up to 80% of your body’s immunity against germs and bacteria depends on your digestive system!

Anyway, I purchased the Dutch Lady Low Fat Apple Yogurt from Shop N Save. As usual, they were on offer. I seldom buy stuff which are not on offer anymore since I am currently broke and penniless. And with the fact that the prices of essentials is raising like nobody’s business (even during economic slowdown), what can I afford? Not much. I have to go for the “value for money” scheme now.

Okay, here we have the photo of the Dutch Lady Low Fat Yogurt Apple flavour. Yes, those are apples in what appears to be greenish milk!

Yes, comes with live culture and fortified with vitamins A, C & E! However, the though of apples in greenish milk is kind of digusting if you ask me. Oh, I forgot to mention, this is low fat yogurt (yoghurt), so you ladies out there should have no problems/guilt consuming this.

So little! Only 140g of yogurt. Barely enough for anyone to have a real taste of the yogurt. If you want more, well, you got to pay more loh. Simple as that.

Check out the nutrition table for this yogurt.

It’s smooth and creamy, it has real fruit pieces and it’s so delicious! Sound like what I am about to say. Oh, enjoy this tasty snack, Dutch Lady Yoghurt, that contains live culture and Vitamins A, C & E.  The ingredients are - apples, milk solid non fat, surcorse, milk fat, Vitamins (A, C & E) and mixed live cultures like l.bulgaricus and s.thermophilus. It also contains permitted stabilizer, flavouring and colouring. Too bad, it comes with just 2 types of the more common yogurt live cultures. I was hoping for something like l.acidophilus culture which would be very helpful to our gut. But alas, this yogurt doesn’t come with it.

Manufactured in Malaysia by Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd. Hopefully, they are not using China milk to make the yogurt. I am not surprised to see milk from China which might be green in colour.

Comes with a spoon! Good especially for those who buys the yogurt for immediate consumption. No need to go around hunting for a spoon to eat nor is there a need to use your hands to scoop out the yogurt.  Actually if you ask me, I think that it very digusting to use your hands to dig out the yogurt.

Yes, a bit greenish but it is okay, it is the apple pieces and the colouring that is making the yogurt greenish. Overall, I feel that this is a very decent yogurt. Of course, we can’t compare it to those Diary Farmers or whatever Australian brand of yogurt, but let’s be honest, those yogurt are pretty expensive. It is rather creamy and smooth as stated on the label and there are good amounts of apple pieces in the yogurt.

Yes, I did review the Lychee flavoured Jolly Shandy. I couldn’t believe that it tasted so bad and yet they are able to keep on producing different varieties of Jolly Shandy, so I went out and tried the original Jolly Shandy. The Lemon flavoured slightly alcoholic drink. Alas, it definitely tasted better than the Lychee. Not too sure why they went and produced the Lychee flavour - in my opinion, the sweetness of the lychee clashed with the “lager” aftertaste of tha drink. And seriously, lychee flavoured alcoholic beverage should not be most people’s cup of tea. I would rather they go for apple, peach or even blackcurrant, rather than lychee. Probably they wanted to make a drink that is very unique. Who can fault them for that? I think it is the lychee flavour that got me interested in the first place. So that actually worked.

Anyway,this Jolly Shandy Lemon’s taste is quite appealing. Of course, the “beer” aroma is not that distinct, but the lemon taste and the slight alcohol works. I remind you guys that the “beer” amount in this drink is very little, so don’t worry about drinking it. Unless you are planning to have an orgy of Jolly Shandies, you would probably never get anywhere as high as drinking a can of Tiger beer. I think tha a little alcohol is good for one’s health. In fact, even Kefir comes with a small amount of alcohol (like 0.5-2% ABV). I am guessing that the amount of alcohol in this Jolly Shandy should not exceed 1%. So, go ahead and have a blast with Jolly Shandy.

Green colour can means that this is just a mix of beer and artifical lemon flavoured drink.

Okay, Jolly Shandy is enriched with 7.5ml of Vitamin C per 100ml and contains alcohol not exceeding 0.5%! Even kids can drink this and don’t feel a single thing. But of course, I am not encouraging you to feed this to your kids.  That would be stupid. Your kids should be fed industrial milk. It should also be interesting to note that the Lychee flavoured Jolly Shandy is enriched with more Vitamin C than the lemon one. Why?

See I don’t lie. It is lemon. The refreshing taste of Jolly Shandy will quench the most demanding thirst every time. And this time, it comes with Vitamin C. Good mah, the Vitamin C acts as antioxidants.

Okay, one can contains about 323ml of Jolly Shandy. Again, you won’t get drunk!

Stupid Jolly Shandy manufacturer have to place the ingredients list around the can, making it rather difficult for me to take photo of the list. So, I have to do it with two photos.  I apologize if you get giddy. It is not my intention.

This Jolly Shandy, unlike the Lychee flavour variety, is made in Malaysia. The Lychee flavour is made in China. Weird. Probably, it is too expensive to make Jolly Shandy in Malaysia, so all new production will be shipped to China? Anyway, the ingredients are as follows:- water, sugar, beer, critic acid, flavouring, colour, carbon dixoide, ascorbic acid and stabilizer. So, I understand the major difference between the Lychee flavoured Jolly Shandy and the lemon flavoured Jolly Shandy. There isn’t any! Just a change in flavour! I just wonder what kind of beer they are using? Carlsberg?

Life is great. I mean, what is better than coming home from work and having a nice cup of delicious yogurt to relax and watch some TV? Nothing. Of course, this is not completely true. In Singapore, most of us suffer from too much stress and this has certainly affected our diet choices and in turn our health. Most of us think of fried stuff like those greasy fried chicken as comfort food. Yes, what better comfort food than that huge juicy Carl’s Jr burger eh? It taste great (to Singaporeans) and in the end, you feel comfortable. But then, it is not healthy. I am sure most of us know that most fried stuff we find in the shops in Singapore are terribly unhealthy. It is like eating a whole bucket-full of used disgusting grease. So what other comfort foods out there is healthy? Well…we have yogurt!

All of us know that yogurt is good for us. The live cultures in the yogurt helps to maintain a healthy digestive system in our gut and the nutrients and vitamins in the yogurt is excellent. Furthermore, the yogurt itself looks quite appealing to the younger crowd. The main problem is that most commercial yogurts are loaded with sugar and other sweeteners, which if consumed in large quantities is NOT good for us. So how? Most people will go for “lite” varieties of yogurts which have less sugar in them. A lot of consumers also go for the “low fat” or “no fat” varieties in the vain attempt to cut down on “fat” consumption which I find is ironic. A lot of people don’t know that it isn’t “fat” in their foods that is making them “fat”, it is the calories! If you eat too much, you will get fat, whether or not the food you consume contains “fat” in them.

The Yoplait No Fat Strawberry Yogurt. All the green is actually making me giddy. This will definitely appeal to the tree huggers we see crowding at the MacRitchie reservoir every day.

Oh right, no fat yogurt! Again, this will appeal to the health conscious crowd, which in my opinion is flawed. I repeat, the fat in your food don’t make you fat, it is the calories you take! And oh, lookie here, less than 1% added sugar! Of course, they forgot to mention that they have added other artificial sweeteners to the yogurt which are not defined under the label “sugar”.

Yes, Skim milk yogurt with fruit. Actually the taste of this yogurt is quite nice. Only 48 calories per tub. Now I don’t feel that guilty about my weight when I eat this.

Check out the ingredients - Skim Milk, Milk Solids non fat, strawberries, thickeners, fructose, halal gelatine, acidity regulators, stabiliser, flavours, natural colour, sweeteners, preservatives and live yogurt cultures like s.thermophilus, l.acidophilus and bifidobacterium. Yes, those are good bacteria and you should consume more of them.

Made in Australia!

Contains Phenylalanine. So if you are suffering from PKU, you will need to avoid this food.

The cover of the Yoplait “Forme” No Fat Strawberry yogurt. Open this cover and you will be able to see the delicious yogurt underneath. And if you were to dig your spoon into this yogurt and scoop a spoonful of yogurt into your mouth, you will have to agree with me, this is indeed comfort food. Best of health to you guys!

Saw this at Shop N Save the other day and I couldn’t resist. No, I am not really into Gummy Bears but the packaging is so very tempting. I had thought that it was from some upmarket brand like Marks & Spencer but alas, it is not too be. It is from First Choice, yes, the “housebrand” of Shop N Save and Cold Storage. And no, they are not cheap stuff. In fact, a lot of “housebrands” are in the middle price range, contradictory to what our government have been telling us. And this First Choice Gummy Bears is no exception. For just one small pack of Gummy Bears, it cost 75 cents.The weight? 50g! What to do, everything now is so damn expensive, even cheaply produced sugars with some flavours added to it will cost 75 cents per 50g. Of course, if they didn’t have such nice packaging (like those ugly-ass sweet packaging offered by “The Natural Confectionary”), I probably would not have bought it.

There, the photo of the small pack of gummy bears I purchased. Read carefully, it says “European Quality”.

See, it states European Quality. Does that mean that it is good quality or poor quality? I have no idea.

Okay now, the ingredients list includes Glucose syrup, sugar, gelatine, water, grape juice from concentrate, acidity regulator, humectant, artificial  fruit flavours like lemon, orange, strawberry, blackcurrant, apple and pineapple, glazing agent, vegetable oil and food colour. Ya, sorry about the photo, you probably can’t see some words on the right. I had forgotten to move the flap away when I took the photo.

Yes, this gummy bear is not suitable for children under 3 years old, so don’t go feeding your kid with gummy bears. You will need to store the gummy bears in a cool, dry place and keep away from direct sunlight. The best place to store the hummy bears is in your tummy like what I did.

Check it out - product of the Czech Republic. So, this is what they meant by European Quality. I had thought that it was made in France or Germany or Italy or some Western European nation. By honestly, this Gummy bear taste very good. Not too sweet, the texture of the gummy bears is good but the fruit flavours is a bit weak though. Overall, I really like it.

Bet you have heard of Jolly Shandy right? I remember a couple of years back when they have this big marketing campaign regarding some big relaunch of the Jolly Shandy drink with a special lemonade and beer taste. Well, I never even bother to have a look, let alone a taste. For those who don’t know anything about Jolly Shandy, it is actually a very weak alcoholic drink - sort of like a mix of lemonade and beer. The alcohol percentage is less than 1%! Yes, barely alcoholic at all. In fact, Kefir can be fermented up to 2% alcohol. Seriously, I would not consider this alcohol at all. You will most probably not get high from drinking this, unless you consume like 5 cans per hour. You will most likely puked everything out before feeling any kick from the alcohol anyway.

The Lychee flavour Jolly Shandy is a mix of Lychee flavoured drink and beer. But judging from the labels, it seems that this has an even weaker amount of alcohol, not exceeding 0.5%. Probably due to some tax law for alcohol. If you remember a while back, I reviewed on the Bavaria Apple Malt? I had thought that this Jolly Shandy would taste exactly like the Bavaria Apple Malt, but I was wrong. The Jolly Shandy had more of a beer flavour than the Apple Malt because well….there is no alcohol in the Apple Malt. But the Apple Malt do taste much nicer than this Lychee Jolly Shandy drink. I don’t know how to describe it, but the Lychee flavour seemed to go against the slight bitterness of the “beer”. I find the overall feel of the drink disagreeable.

The can of Jolly Shandy Lychee. Not sure why in the world would they choose Lychee. No no, I like Lychee, but it seems to be out of place here.

See, it is Jolly Shandy. Pink can. Pink means that the flavour is Lychee what.

Cool, the refreshing taste of Jolly Shandy will quench the most demanding thirst every time.  And yes, comes with Vitamin C! Hahahaha!

Enriched with 8mg of Vitamin C per 100ml. This means good. Antioxidants for you.

Dude, this is produced in China - Guandong. Scared? I am a bit scared. Hope that they won’t skim on Lychee flavourings and add some other chemicals instead. I really value my life. I don’t know why, perhaps it is to save cost but the Bavaria Apple Malt from Holland cost exactly the same as this Jolly Shandy Lychee drink. Why? Shouldn’t it be much cheaper if the production cost is lower in China than in Holland?

Anyway, I have no choice but to take photos of the ingredients list because it spans around the can. The ingredients include water, sugar, barley malt, carbon dioxide,  critic acid, flavouring like Lychee aroma, colour (caramel), hops and antioxidant (Vitamin C). Wait, so where does the alcohol come from? Did they ferment the entire thing first before bottling like normal beer? If so, where is the yeast? I am getting a bit suspicious now. Don’t you agree with me that the alcohol must come from somewhere? I mean if it is not through the fermentation process, then it should be in the ingredients list. But it isn’t!

Yes, I know, Anlene is the same company that manufactures the ancient lady’s milk formula. Ya, the one especially made for the bone which old ladies tend to break when they fall or walk or something. Well, they are supposed to be the expert in bone nutrition, so whatever they say, we should pay attention, even when we are not at that age. In no time, you might find yourself in the same shoes as those old ladies needing hip replacement or something. And who says you can’t take care of your bones when you are young? In fact, taking care of your bones is important now because they will help when you get old. So please, sit back and enjoy reading this little review and don’t worry about being laughed at when you buy Anlene stuff. Those people don’t know what is good for them.

For those who are in the dark, other than just milk formulas and milk drinks, Anlene do have a line of yogurt, especially made from the same milk in their other milk products. So, this will mean that whatever health benefits they do to their milk, the effects will also be felt if you consume their yogurt. Well, that is what I hope anyway. But the truth is, if their milk is good for you, then the yogurt made from those milk will definitely be even better for you, especially when it comes to calcium adsorption.

Here we have the Anlene yogurt. Comes in a 2-pack which is kind of weird. Don’t be fooled by our picture, it is still rather small and consuming two of the tubs is barely enough to provide you with the health benefits yogurt confers. That is just 240ml of yogurt! And for so little a yogurt, it is still rather expensive. If I remember correctly, I bought this from Shop N Save for S$2.20.

Check it out - Hi Calcium Low Fat Yogurt! They have a formula for strong bones. Yes, it is some sort of Nano-calcium which is more than 100x smaller than the regular calcium. Cool. Oh, I forgot to mention, this is the mixed berries flavour.  In my opinion, the mixed berries flavour in this yogurt is just a bit weak. Yes, you will find bits and pieces of the fruits in the yogurt, but that’s about it. I think a little more flavour will do this yogurt justice.

Yes, Anlene - expert in bone nutirition!

The nutrition table for this yogurt.

Okay, the ingredients are water, milk solids, sugar, mixed berries, minerals like tri-calcium phosphate, nano-calcium carbonate and magnesium phosphate, vitamin  D3, live cultures like s.thermophilus and l.bularicus. It also contains permitted stabilizers, flavourings and colouring. Too bad, they don’t have other live cultures like l.acidophilus, just the basic yogurt cultures. I think it could even be better if it included other types of live cultures (probiotics) since we know that those are good for our digestive systems.

Made in Malaysia.

The weird thing is that the wordings on the yogurt tubs themselves are all in Bahasa Melayu. I guess this way, they solve all the problems with selling in Malaysia and in Singapore. Just use an English cover for those sold in Singapore and a Malay cover for those sold in Malaysia. Save quite a lot of money when it comes to packaging as well.

Hohoho, we are back reviewing yogurts again. After a short break, we are back with a vengeance! I am sure that we have a lot of readers awaiting for more yogurt reviews from me, so here I am, reviewing yet another brand. First of all, this Yoplait No Fat Yogurt (Forme) is different from the low fat variety (Yogurt Lite) I reviewed before. Check out the the colour of the packaging is different - Yoplait No Fat is green while the low fat variety is blue, so you guys will know the difference easily. If you are scared of fat, you will need to choose the green Yoplait because it is supposed to have no fat milk or skim milk. I don’t know about you, but I perfer my yogurt to have a little more body, so I am more for the low fat variety. And as I have mentioned before, full cream milk is much more healthier than low fat or non fat milk. Most of the nutrients are in the milkfat. If you are consuming skim milk, might as well drink white water.

Anyway, this Yoplait from Australia is very common in our local supermarket shelves. You should easily find them at NTUC, Giant or Shop N Save. And pricing is quite reasonable as well. Sometimes you do get good offers as well. As for the taste, it is nothing special but at the very least it is slightly better than the Marigold tubs. And it is indeed creamier than most brands. The flavours they offer seems a bit limited in  my opinion and it comes it just those regular normal flavours. But we are talking about Singaporeans here, so we usually don’t like to experiment with exotic flavours.

Yes, the greenish Yoplait Forme no fat yogurt. This is the mango flavour.

Net weight of this yogurt is 125g. I know, not much but what to do? Hey, it has less than 1% added sugar. But it is surprisingly not sour at all. Must be all those other artificial sugars which made the yogurt palatable to the masses. That is one thing I am afraid of when it comes to all these “no fat” health freak-appealing yogurt, they usually come with all sorts of artificial sweeteners which might be worst than regular old table sugar (sucrose). Not sure why a lot of people think that artificial sweeteners are better than table sugar.

Skim milk yogurt with fruit! And contains only 50 calories per tub! Wow! That is exactly what you get when you drink white water with just a little sugar in it. Not really good.

Okay, here we have the ingredients list - skim milk, milk solids non fat, mango, thickeners, halal gelatine, acidity regulators, fructose, flavours, stabilisers, sweeteners, preservative, natural colour, live yogurt cultures like s.thermophilus, l.acidophilus and bifidobacterium. In my opinion, the small amount of yogurt you consume per tub, those live cultures from the yogurt will not be effective. You should be consuming about 250-400g of yogurt per day.

Ya, contains artifical sweetener acesulphame potassium! Again, I don’t think it is good to consume artificial sweeteners. Oh, I forgot to tell you, this brand of yogurt is manufactured in Australia!

See another one of those fancy names! Here we have Phenylalanine, whatever that is.

Yup, they have 3 active cultures and (as mentioned previously) is made in Australia!  The best before date is 19th of July. Not bad. That means that this is quite fresh.

Are you guys surprised to read that I am reviewing Dr Pepper? If you have no idea who or what is Dr Pepper, it is actually a drink, very famous in America. In fact, it is on par with Coca Cola there. I have watched numerous American TV shows to know that this Dr Pepper soda drink has a good following in the United States and even Europe. They seem to love Dr Pepper over there. But what is surprising is that in Singapore, you can hardly find this drink anyway. Worst still, most Singaporeans never heard of Dr Pepper before, and if they did, they vaguely remember what it is. Not sure why the Dr Pepper drink has not made a major appearance in Singapore. Perhaps it is because in Singapore, we are already flooded with many many brands of Soda drinks, some of which are stupidly named “Anything” or “Whatever”? Or perhaps taste a bit different from the rest of the soft drinks we have here?

Anyway, I bought this from Cold Storage. I doubt that you can find this drink anywhere else in Singapore. For me, I think that Dr Pepper does have a very unique and delicious taste. But some Singaporeans might find it a bit too complex for a simple soft drink and very different from the rest of the soda drinks available to Singaporeans.

The photo of Dr Pepper. Nothing too special about the this Soda drink can.  Do note that this is the original Dr Pepper drinks. I am sure that there are a lot of varieties of Dr Pepper.

Wow, established since 1885! I wonder whether we can consider this a traditional drink?

355ml of delicious Dr Pepper ready for your enjoyment.

Hmmm….nutrition table for a soft drink…..cooooool! Okay, I admit, my photo taking skills leaves a lot to be desired. Sorry for the slightly blurred pictures.

Ahhh…ingredients include carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel colour, phosphoric acid,  natural and artificial flavours, sodium benzoate and caffeine.

Try as I might, I cannot find out in which country this is manufactured in. In my opinion, it should be manufactured somewhere in the US. For more information about Dr Pepper, you have to visit drpepper.com. And I think that it is agood idea to try out different drinks once in a while, just to widen your tastebuds. Every day drinking the same drink makes everything so dull.

Lol, health food. Yes, these are the foodstuff which a lot of people think of when you say “Health Food” - cereal bars! They usually come packed with all sorts of cereals, rice, wheat flakes, dried fruits and nuts. Kind of disgusting if you ask me but since everyone says that it is healthy for you, I just have to try it. So I went ahead and looked for the most attractive cereal bars I could find and I found it - Alpen Light Cereal Bars. I admit that it is a bit pricy for such a small amount of cereal but it seems to have everything a health freak would want - low in calories and fat, plus guilt-free eating. If it was up to me, I would not have bothered with “Light” and just go with the original “fatter” versions.

You can find this Alpen Light Cereal Bars in NTUC and Shop N Save. However, I don’t seem to be able to find them at Sheng Siong. Probably a bit too high tier for Sheng Siong.

Okay, here we have the 5 bars box. I bought the Summer Fruits flavour. Yes, it is low in Saturated fat and comes with prebiotic to aid healthy digestion. For those who have no idea what prebiotics are, they are actually fibers which are not digested by our bodies but flows to our gut where the bacteria (both good and bad) consumes them. So if you have a unhealthy gut, you probably shouldn’t consume prebiotics. However, if you have a healthy gut, this prebiotic will definitely help maintain a good digestive system.

Woooohooo! Less than 70 calories per bar - a health freak’s wet dream.

Yup, it is a prebiotic mixed cereal bar with apple, sweetened cranberry, raspberry, strawberry and a yogurt drizzle. The total weight for the 5 bars is 105g. Yes, very small bars my friends, very small bars.

The back of the Alpen Light Summer Fruits pack. Not to worry, if you cannot see any details from the above photos, I have small more detailed photos just below.

Well, you will love their “lighter” cereal bars from Alpen. They contain less sugar and half the fat of regular Alpen yogurt bars. With less than 70 calories per bar, they are a great way to keep in shape. And there is no compromise on taste. High fibre wheat flakes and nutritious oats combined with the tasty summer fruits of cranberries, raspberries & strawberries and finished with a delicate drizzle of yogurt. Alpen light bars are a delicious snack you can enjoy any time of day. The truth is, no matter what you add, a cereal bar will always be a cereal bar. Wheat, oats or rice will always taste the same - bland. So it all depends on the mix of fruits and nuts to give the cereal bar the difference in taste.

Anyway, they claim that the big difference is the addition of prebiotic which can boost friendly bacteria to help maintain a healthy digestive system. This I completely disagree. Prebiotics do not differentiate between good bacteria and bad bacteria, so if it is food for the bacteria as claimed by the manufacturer, it will also affect the bad bacteria. So if you have digestive problems, it would not be wise to consume prebiotics.

Ahhhh….the ingredients list - Cereals (42% wheat, oats and rice), prebiotic Oligofructose (30%), Sugar, Fruit Juice Concentrates (apple, strawberry and raspberry) , humectant - glycerol, dried apple pieces, glcuose syrup, vegetable oil, dextrose, sweetened craberries, freezed dried raspberry, wheat gluten, malted barley extract, milk lactose, milk yogurt powder, salt, maize starch, flavourings, skimmed milk powder, milk whey powder, defatted wheat germ, citric acid, emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), acid regulator (Malic acid) and antioxidant (tocopherol). Wow, what an ingredient list! Kind of scary if you think about any the processed stuff in this bar.

Oh, if youhave allergies against wheat, barley, oats, milk, soya, sulphites and nuts, you might want to steer clear of this cereal bar.

The nutritional table. Quite a lot of fibre!

There you have it - one bar of Alpen Light Summer Fruits Cereal Bar. Time to enjoy!

Look at the little yogurt drizzle. This soft, slightly sticky mix of cereal and fruits is actually quite tasty.  If you like cereals, this would make a good choice for busy people on the go. Just put a few bars in your handbag and you can munch them on the MRT or buses. Just don’t get caught by the security people.