Costco's Best Kirkland Brand Snack Features A Chocolate Drizzle

It's always important to have a pantry well stocked with snacks. You never know when you need something to grab on your way to work, to sneak into a movie theater, or to take on a hike. Many shoppers like to buy snacks at Costco for the big boxes and good value. Costco's private-label brand, Kirkland, is a great place to start for classics like nuts, dried fruit, bars, and cookies. Kirkland products range from bad to good, though, so Mashed decided to test out the munch-ability of its snack offerings so you don't have to. We found that Kirkland's nut bars with cocoa drizzle are a reliable snack that checks both the sweet and savory boxes.

In this ranking of 12 Kirkland brand snacks, Mashed compiled its list according to factors that define a good snack. It should be mess-free, be easy to take on the go, be tasty, and involve not an ounce of preparation on the consumer's end. This lineup of a dozen snacks consisted of chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, a sweet heat mix of nuts, sesame sticks, freeze-dried corn, and more. Seven of the items came from Kirkland's variety snack box, since it offers a good mix. Ultimately, we found that — for what they are — the nut bars are the most filling, they taste great, and they have a satisfying mix of ingredients.

Kirkland's nut bars contain almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, pecans, and crisp rice. This base is bonded together by a honey and rice syrup mixture that's chewy and goes easy on the teeth. Dark chocolate coats the base of the bar and is drizzled on top. With a touch of sea salt, these bars have the perfect sweet-salty-nutty balance. The bars are also kosher and gluten-free, have no artificial flavors, and deliver 5 grams of protein. Another pro to these bars (and a factor in our ranking) is that adults will enjoy them. Most kids aren't going to reach for nutty snacks that aren't too sweet, but their parents will.

On the Costco website, the nut bars received 4.8 out of 5 stars from over 1,100 reviews. One shopper described a bar as "filling but doesn't weigh me down like a candy bar does." Another reported the bars were a "very popular choice for our office team." Kirkland nut bars are also a great value. They can be found in the Kirkland variety snack box, which contains 10 nut bars among the 51 snacks, but they are also sold in a separate box of 30 for $17.99. This puts each bar at roughly 60 cents.

The bronze and silver runner-ups were chocolate chip cookies and milk chocolate-covered raisins, respectively. Both are on the sweet side and are great post-lunch pick-me-ups. With many solid snacks to choose from, it's no surprise that Kirkland is Mashed's favorite store brand.