We Wish These Discontinued Granola Bars Would Make A Comeback

The granola bar is a thing of beauty. Taking the beloved dish and squishing it into a bar shape, these bars transcend the breakfast table, and are just as good as a mid-morning snack or dessert as they are for an on-the-go morning meal. The marriage of portability and a feeling of wholesomeness (despite the fact that there are a lot of unhealthy granola bars out there) has driven these bars to dizzying heights of popularity. While countless food companies have debuted their own granola bars, a lot of them ended up on the snack food scrap heap shortly after.

History is littered with discontinued granola bars, and oftentimes there doesn't seem to be a clear reason for why specific products were taken off shelves. A lot of these now-lost bars come in pretty standard flavors, and unlike a lot of other discontinued snack foods they don't take any big swings with their marketing or innovation. Perhaps it's the ultra-competitive granola bar market that simply edged them out, but we've gotta say that we wish there was just a little more room for competition: We'd really like to try some of these.

It's kinda wild that peanut butter purveyor Skippy took until 2005 to come out with a granola bar of its own. When it did, though, it made a big splash. Skippy Trail Mix Bars took its peanut butter and, as the name suggests, combined it with trail mix ingredients to create a granola bar with a difference. Coming in two different flavors, Triple Nut and Nutty S'Mores, each bar looked pretty hefty, with the Nutty S'Mores flavor packing chocolate chips, marshmallow, and graham crackers into every bite. The Triple Nut flavor, meanwhile, combined cashews, almonds, and peanuts with Skippy peanut butter for a seriously crunchy experience.

It's fair to say that these granola bars didn't exactly represent the pinnacle of healthy eating, with the S'Mores flavor in particular looking a bit more like a candy bar than a wholesome snack. It could have been this that led to its discontinuation just three years later, in 2008. It could also have been that unfortunately, the bars just didn't seem to hit the spot on the taste front. Reviews of the Nutty S'Mores bar found that it had a fairly boring, kinda weak taste, with an aroma that was also somewhat lacking. This wasn't the last time that Skippy would experiment with snack bars, either: Its Creamy Wafer bars sandwich peanut butter between wafers and top it with a swirl of chocolate. Like the Trail Mix Bars, however, these seem to now have been discontinued.

If you're still mourning the loss of Kudos bars, you're not alone. These bars are the stuff of legend, and for a lot of people represent the taste of childhood. Made by Kellogg's, Kudos bars debuted in 1986 and quickly became an instant hit for their combination of a granola-like texture and a healthy-seeming appearance with a candy taste. We do have to say that their "healthiness" is a little bit questionable, considering that the original Kudos bars came in nutty fudge, peanut butter, and chocolate chip flavors, and later varieties came studded with M&M's.

Kellogg's seemed to be switched on to what people were saying about its Kudos bars not being that healthy, and a 2011 redesign sought to reduce the amount of chocolate on them, in a bid to make them seem a little lighter. However, that wasn't enough to save them. In 2017, Kudos bars quietly disappeared from stores and were later confirmed as discontinued. This was devastating for a lot of people, who absolutely loved them — and while some are holding out hope that Kellogg's might bring them back, so far there's no sign that they'll be available any time soon.

When Kraft Foods debuted its MilkBites granola bars in 2012, it seemed to be aware that consumers were getting wise to what was actually in these snacks and how dry and chalky they could be. As such, the food company wanted to solve this in one fell swoop: by combining granola with milk in one bar. MilkBites were an uncanny combination of granola and solid milk, making them the ultimate portable breakfast, and each bar had a hefty dose of healthy calcium. They also came in five different flavors, setting the bars apart from those made by other food companies, which often came in just two or three varieties.

Somewhat amazingly, though, Kraft MilkBites Bars lasted barely a year and were discontinued in 2013. Kraft Foods put the discontinuation down to business decisions, but when you scratch the surface it seems like the bars just didn't quite get a strong enough foothold on the market. It's also worth considering the elephant in the room — the fact that Kraft MilkBites had to be refrigerated (presumably to prevent the milk inside them from melting), which likely made them surprisingly unwieldy and inconvenient. Kraft hasn't been brave enough to try bringing them back, but we'd be down to try them if they ever do.

Nature Valley is one of the most prominent names in the granola bar world, and there's a wild amount of Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars available at any given time. Naturally, though, it's also had to discontinue a few flavors as the years have gone by, and its Chewy Strawberry Yogurt Granola Bars are the product that we wish it'd bring back. These bars solved the perpetual problem of granola bars being too dry (which we've gotta admit also plagues some other Nature Valley bars) by incorporating yogurt into its recipe. This didn't just give it a boost of calcium, but also a hint of creaminess that moistened the whole affair.

Although Nature Valley Chewy Strawberry Yogurt Granola Bars didn't set the world on fire flavor-wise, they were a perfectly respectable addition to the granola bar market. Unfortunately, it seems as though General Mills lost faith in its bars some point down the line. By 2017, they had been discontinued, and customers had to make do with the other Nature Valley products on the market. Fortunately, there are plenty to choose from.

CLIF bars have always occupied an interesting space in the granola bar market: They don't quite have the crunch that other bars do, and are considered energy bars as opposed to strictly granola — but their cereal composition and snackable quality see them stand side-by-side with the best. CLIF's flavor range also sets it apart, but it's unafraid to get rid of some fan favorites. Its Carrot Cake variety was a particular loss.

Although it's unclear exactly when CLIF discontinued its Carrot Cake flavor, it left a lot of its customers desperate for it to come back. People seriously fell for this granola bar, which reportedly nailed its taste and had the chewiness and fudginess that you'd expect from a hefty slice of carrot cake. It's unclear as to whether CLIF has any plans to bring back the flavor, or any of its other discontinued flavors for that matter. Over the years, plenty of CLIF bars have come and gone, from its Peanut Toffee Buzz to its Iced Gingerbread flavors. Although its product line is still pretty comprehensive, it has an uncanny knack for getting rid of the ones people love the most.

Nature Valley bars have been around for a while, and in that time General Mills has experimented with several different shapes, sizes, and degrees of chunkiness. Its Granola Cluster Bars looked to be the perfect balance of all of these things, and we can't quite get our heads around why they were discontinued. These bars first appeared in 1980, and they had a pleasingly round shape, which seemed to be formed of a series of granola clusters. These clusters were easy to snap off into bite-size pieces, or you could just bite straight into the bar as a whole.

Nature Valley Granola Cluster Bars came in a few flavors, including caramel and apple cinnamon, and they had raisins and chocolate chips embedded into every bite. Like other granola bars, they were marketed as an alternative to candy, but we're getting that they were still pretty sweet. Sadly, Nature Valley Granola Cluster Bars didn't last long, and as the brand's line grew they were nudged out of the pack. It's a shame, too: People really loved these bars, and to this day they evoke nostalgic feelings of childhood.

Sometimes, items are discontinued because they're just not popular enough; sometimes it happens alongside another, altogether darker reason. In the case of Quaker's Chewy Dipps Llama Rama Granola Bars, it's the latter. Chewy Dipps Llama Rama Granola Bars seemed to be a winner when they first debuted. A granola bar aimed squarely at kids, they consisted of a bed of chocolate with oat clusters piled on top, with the whole thing then topped with candy-coated chocolate chips and an additional drizzle of chocolate. While it wasn't the healthiest affair, we're betting that the little ones loved it.

Unfortunately, things went south in terms of quality with these bars. Quaker Chewy Dipps Llama Rama Granola Bars were discontinued in September 2023, but a few months after that a recall notice was issued by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration due to their potential of being contaminated with Salmonella. The Llama Rama Granola Bars were part of an expanded recall of an abundance of Quaker Chewy Bars, all of which were thought to be potentially contaminated and therefore harmful. Importantly, it doesn't seem as though Quaker discontinued this specific bar because of any risk of contamination, but it put an unfortunate stain on the memory of what could have been a short-lived, yet beloved product.

Caribou Coffee is primarily known for its hot cups of Joe, but back in 2006, it took its coffee flavors to a completely new level. In that year, the coffee chain premiered its Caribou Coffee Granola Bars, which took the concept of energy bars to a completely different level. Each of these bars had caffeine in it and was shot through with a strong coffee taste and aroma, with varieties including chocolate mocha, vanilla latte, caramel, and mint flavors.

While these bars had the potential to be pretty niche, they were a big hit amongst those that they reached. People absolutely adored the flavors of Caribou Coffee's bars, and likely also loved the fact that they offered a bit of a boost in the morning. Rather frustratingly for customers, Caribou Coffee decided to pull these bars out of its product line in 2009, and they haven't been seen since. That hasn't stopped people from heading to the internet to voice their sadness at them being discontinued, though. "My husband and I would eat these every morning with our iced coffee. They are SO delicious! Great coffee taste and not too sweet. Please bring them back, even just for a limited time!," said one former customer via Amazon – just one of many who has said how much they want them back in stores.

It's a small sideways step for nut companies to make granola bars, and Planters got in on the action around the end of the 2000s with its Big Nut Bars. These bars, as you might expect from the name, went big on the nuts, and crammed peanuts, almonds, and cashews into every bite. At a weight of 1.62 ounces each, we've gotta say that Planters was kinda using the word "big" in its product name a little liberally — they weren't that big, after all — but we'd imagine that this was still a pretty filling snack.

However, Planters seemed to have trouble making its Big Nut Bars stand out. Although they stuck around for a little while, eventually they evaporated from store shelves and weren't to be seen again. We're not quite sure exactly what went wrong with Planters Big Nut Bars, but reviewers had noted that peanuts were by far the dominant flavor in the snack, and that the other nuts didn't really make much of an impact. The granola, too, didn't stand out too much, and in a granola bar that's kinda important, right?

Granola bars tend to fall into two camps: those which are composed of a crunchy mass of oats, nuts, and assorted toppings (like Nature Valley or Quaker Chewy bars), and those that have a softer texture and are filled with a fruit jam or jelly (like Nutri-Grain bars). Fruit Start Bars fell firmly into the second camp, and while they were only around for a year, people remember them pretty fondly. Made by Betty Crocker, each bar consisted of two slim oat-based bars, with a fruit paste sandwiched between them. The bars came in blueberry, strawberry, and apple flavors, and every bite looked juicy and moist — and, we'd imagine, pretty sugary.

Alas, they weren't destined to stick around too long. Despite Fruit Start Bars being beloved, Betty Crocker soon decided that they weren't worth the hassle of making, and they haven't been back since. Nowadays, the closest you'll get is a Nutri-Grain bar. Betty Crocker didn't stop its granola journey there, and today it sells an Oatmeal Bar that delivers that same chewy texture.

Were you a kid in the '80s? Then you might just remember the Dandy Bar, which was introduced in the mid-'80s and was the brainchild of General Mills, who also created the ultra-popular Nature Valley bars. The invention of the Dandy Bar was thought to be a response to Nature Valley losing its hold on the granola bar market, thanks to Quaker Oats coming out with the Chewy Granola Bars and Granola Dipps bars and threatening the former's dominance.

As such, the Dandy Bar was born. Where Nature Valley bars looked wholesome and healthy, Dandy Bars were way more like candy bars. Each bar was coated with milk chocolate and had a granola center topped with caramel. Coming in peanut butter, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and chocolate almond flavors, they were also stuffed with goodies like chocolate chips and nuts. Dandy Bars were clear competitors to the more candy-focused bars out there, but it appeared that it didn't quite make as much of a splash as General Mills might have hoped. Soon, the Dandy Bar was discontinued, and Nature Valley bars remained its flagship product.

Kashi Foods is a company that prides itself on making nutritious breakfast items that still taste excellent. So it's little surprise that it eventually branched out into making granola bars. The brand's bars sought to create that healthy feel in snackable form, and its flavors were pleasingly mature. Instead of the standard caramel and peanut butter toppings that most granola bars have, Kashi offered its customers cherry dark chocolate, dark mocha almond, and dark chocolate, almond & sea salt flavors. It also offered an abundance of whole grains and a good dose of fiber per serving.

Kashi bars were around for a good few years, but all good things must come to an end — and in 2022, that's exactly what happened. Kashi responded to a customer on Twitter, formerly known as X, letting them know that its Chewy Granola Bars had been discontinued. A flood of comments followed, with disgruntled snackers alerting Kashi to the fact that they thought the company had made the wrong choice with their beloved bars. As of 2024, however, no decision seems to have been made to bring them back.

Keebler Granola Fudge Bars represent perhaps the ultimate in granola bars being more like candy. They debuted in 2011, and instantly stood out for their sweet taste – which came from the generous chunk of chocolate on the bottom of each one. Upon this slab of chocolate sat granola clusters, with the whole thing then topped off with milk chocolate chips (or if you were buying the peanut butter flavor, white chocolate chips and what looked like peanut pieces). Keebler claimed on its packaging that the bar was a good source of fiber and had 10 grams of whole grains, but c'mon. We know a candy bar masquerading as a healthy snack when we see it.

Perhaps customers caught on to this too, or perhaps competition was just too fierce in the granola bar game. For whatever reason, Keebler Granola Fudge Bars were discontinued, and by the end of 2015 they were no longer available. It seems as though Keebler, which normally specializes in more traditional sugary snacks, hasn't ventured into the granola bar space since.