Kim's Magic Pop: A Snack Review

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In my opinion, snack time definitely deserves as much attention as meals. In fact, many of my favorite foods (yogurt, cereal, bars, apples, etc.) can be considered snack foods!

Today's review is of Kim's Magic Pop snacks. Kim's Magic Pop is an all-natural, vegan (except for the cheese-flavored one, of course), fat- and sugar-free snack that's cholesterol-free and low in sodium.



There are a bunch of different varieties, including one gluten-free option.



Kim's Magic Pops are essentially big rice puffs and Kim's Deli Pops are essentially rice cakes.



As you can see, Kim's Deli Pops (which are sturdier, in general, the larger, lighter Kim's Magic Pops) traveled well. Not a single one was broken, which surpassed my expectations, given the not-so-carefulness of some mail carriers.

The Kim's Magic Pops, on the other hand, were pretty much hit-or-miss with shipping.



While some traveled well, some (like the pumpkin Magic Pops above) did not.



There wasn't a single unbroken Magic Pop in the whole bag of 15 Magic Pops! Others, like the sweet potato (below) were totally fine and not a single one was broken in the bag! What gives?



But the pumpkin flavor was pretty good, not too strong, and they had the wheaty-grainy-carby taste that all Kim's Magic Pops share. Still a pretty decent yogurt topping:



But that amount of topping times a bunch (like x10, no joke) because these are really light and airy. I kept the bag on hand and kept pouring more in.

Unless you love volume eating/are on a diet/have issues with binge eating, the tediousness of eating these (you pretty much have to eat just about the whole bag to make any kind of significant energy contribution - which is, after all, the point of eating) can get to be a bit much after a while.



Because you can eat the whole bag of Magic Pops in a sitting without having overindulged (less than that would not even constitute a proper snack, in terms of energy) Kim's Magic Pops would be a good option for dieters or people who like to eat a lot of food but have low energy needs. There's no stale or artificial flavor in these, and they have a nice crunch, so they're good covered in jam or nut butters, dipped in guacamole, or eaten straight from the bag. One bag of Kim's Magic Pops makes for a very light, but filling, late night movie snack for when you just feel like some mindless TV munching but you're not actually hungry/in need of food.

I would have liked to have seen a whole grain as the first ingredient, however, since they're marketed as a whole grain snacks. All of them, including the Whole Wheat flavor, have unbleached wheat flour as the first ingredient and some of them (like the strawberry flavor for which the ingredients are shown below) had no who grains at all. If they could work on making these a little more whole grain, even at the expense of some of the lightness, I think that would be great.

I also wasn't too pleased about the sucralose. Give me real sugar over chemicals, please! Or a natural sweetener like Stevia/xylitol, but not something as chemical as sucralose (and there's food coloring - boo). Because of that, I'd call these a healthier snack, not a healthy snack.

Though a PB&J on whole wheat bread has a lot more calories than these, they're healthy calories (and calories are necessary for survival, they're not a bad thing!).  On the other hand, these are healthier than some of the alternatives, which can be loaded with hydrogenated oils, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, etc. So it's like a thing for now and then, but not necessarily a 'gotta have it daily' staple.

The Kim's Deli Pops are pretty much the same nutritionally as the Kim's Magic Pops, only they're a little denser (they're still really light, just not as light).



I liked that the sweet potato flavor here is sweetened with Stevia instead of sucralose,  but I'd still like to see whole grains up higher on the ingredients list since these are marketed as a whole grain snack.

Kim's Magic Pop products are good for overeaters, as you essentially can't overeat these (you kind of need to eat a whole bag and it's pretty hard to do) as a bag is essentially a fine serving. Even two bags would be just fine, even for dieters. And more than two bags? I think you'd be really hard-pressed to fit that in, especially if you're eating them with toppings.

You can follow Kim's Magic Pop USA on Twitter or like them on Facebook to stay up-to-date with new products and promotions.

Have you tried Kim's Magic Pops?

Do you like rice cakes? If so, what's your favorite way to eat them?

What's one thing you want to get done today?