8 Quaker Oats Chewy Granola Bars Flavors, Ranked Worst To Best

There's a good reason it seems like Quaker's granola bars have been around for a while. These bars have been on shelves and finding their way into school lunch boxes since 1981. That means this lunchtime staple is over 40 years old, and millennials like this author have never known a time without Quaker's granola bars.

Today, the lineup includes chocolate chip, peanut butter and chocolate chips, s'mores, dark chocolate chunk, strawberry or blueberry yogurt, and two dipped flavors in chocolate chip or peanut butter. My family has long stuck with the chocolate chip variety, but I've always wondered if there's a better flavor out there. After sampling each available option, I can say with absolute certainty that Quaker's chewy granola bar line has some real delights, and it doesn't stop at chocolate chips. In my overall ranking, I give high marks to bars that have a balanced flavor and texture that is chewy but not overly so.

In my days working as a barista, I enjoyed plenty of Starbucks pastries, including blueberry muffins and scones. They were, more or less, my default breakfast. So, blueberry treats will always have a special place in my heart.

The best part of any blueberry breakfast pastry is that the little berries pop in your mouth. It never occurred to me that even if something has blueberries in it, and they are freeze-dried, this simple blueberry pop will feel like a substantially missing aspect of a blueberry treat. Turns out, when that little burst is missing with a blueberry, so is my love for the treat. Although the flavor of the blueberry yogurt granola bars is pretty good, and the blueberry-type taste is present, the important texture element really sets this one back for me. The freeze-dried fruit just isn't working here.

Quaker also offers a strawberry yogurt granola bar, and though marginally better, it's still far from my favorite. The bar has a coating on the bottom of what is supposed to be yogurt, and the granola is mixed with freeze-dried strawberries.

The yogurt element on the bottom offers a little bit more texture and security to the granola bar than anything else. Like the blueberries, these strawberries are freeze-dried. For this reason, the flavor of the granola bar reminds me of the Special K strawberry cereal my mom ate when I was a kid. Freeze-dried strawberries have a stale feel to them, and that comes through with the strawberry bar, too. While I enjoy freeze-dried fruits in items like Starbucks' Refreshers, they aren't as tasty in food. Honestly, it's this flavor that makes the bar less desirable for me, even if I prefer strawberry over blueberry.

As a kid, I went on plenty of camping trips with my family, so I am well-versed with s'mores. How to prepare them, the best brand to choose for each ingredient, and even upgrading s'mores were frequent conversations around a warm campfire under a star-flecked sky throughout my childhood.

This history is why I take s'more-flavored items so seriously. Unfortunately, more often than not, I find that so-called s'more-type treats are trying to be s'more flavored rather than actually succeeding at it. Quality s'more goods need to have a balance of marshmallow, chocolate, and graham crackers in order to be successful. This chewy granola bar isn't it, and it's this swing and miss that leads to such a low rating. The graham cracker is something like a stale graham cracker that's been in camp storage for too long. The marshmallow bits and the chocolate pieces just aren't abundant enough to give this bar a real s'more taste.

The dark chocolate chunk granola bars are similar to Quaker's chocolate chip granola bars. However, rather than chocolate chips, these bars, as the name suggests, have chunks of dark chocolate. Considering the two flavors, I didn't expect them to be as different as they are. I mean. I've used chocolate chunks in place of chocolate chips in many cookie batches.

Though I've had great luck using them in place of each other, Quaker isn't quite as lucky. The chunk difference has no impact on the texture of the granola bar. However, the number of chunks definitely affects the flavor. The dark chocolate chips don't add a whole lot of flavor to the overall granola bar, and there just aren't enough of them. The composition of the granola bar reminds me of a poorly made chocolate chunk cookie batch that is missing a whole lot of its key ingredients. As a result, they hang out toward the bottom of my preferences.

Granola bars have a near-permanent spot in my family pantry. Both my husband and son are absolutely obsessed with Quaker's Chewy chocolate chip granola bars. In fact, after the Quaker Oats recall in late 2023, it was always the first item I looked for at the grocery store, just to see if they had returned. When they returned, there was no love lost, and they fell right back into the rhythm of being required shopping each week.

The chocolate chip version of the Chewy granola bar has a lot of chocolate chips in it. Just from a visual inspection, you can see that there are many more chips in the chocolate chip than the dark chocolate chunk bar. If you're looking for a chocolate chip granola bar, this one is a solid basic option. Its texture is a little more crumbly than I like, and the chocolate chips are a little on the forgettable side, but it's agreeable enough. I wish the chips were a little sweeter to add extra flavor, and it's the lower level of sweetness that takes this flavor from the top of the pack.

Peanut butter has this sneaky way of making chocolate items better. This remains true for the Quaker peanut butter and chocolate chip bar. As the name suggests, this bar contained a mixture of chocolate chips and plenty of peanut butter chips.

You might imagine chocolate chips to be the reigning chip superstar, but I was impressed by how many peanut butter chips are within the granola bar. In fact, just by looking at it, it seems like there is more peanut butter than chocolate chips in the granola bar. The extra chips add a sturdier texture that I quite liked. The chewiness is nice, but a more solid bar makes for an easier eating process. Granola bars deserve the ability to be eaten on the run and since this one has more of a solid form, it's an easy on the go option. Between the enjoyable texture and great flavor, this granola bar gets closer to top billing.

The very first thing I noticed about the dipped chocolate chip bars is that they're noticeably smaller than a regular chocolate chip granola bar. Of course, that's not the only thing that is wildly different. It is also — as the name suggests — fully dipped in chocolate.

Expectedly, this bar has a much richer taste than a typical chocolate chip granola bar, and, as a result, I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than I did the regular chocolate chip. I found that the dipped chocolate adds a nice texture to the outside of the bar, which I also found very pleasing. It was reminiscent of the smooth feel you get from a dipped pretzel. Since the chocolate exterior coats the entirety of the bar, it holds it together really nicely. The coating also means you need to watch for chocolate to melt on your fingers. Between the flavor of the bar and the solid texture, this bar is easily one of my favorites.

Growing up, Reese's was one of my favorite chocolate candies, and not much changed into adulthood. It still ranks up there as one of the absolute best candies. So, when the box prominently displayed a layer of peanut butter directly underneath the top of the dipped chocolate, I was immediately intrigued.

Breaking into a cross-section, the layer of peanut butter is pretty visible. Taking a bite, I am very impressed by just how much this bar tastes like the Girl Scouts' Tagalongs, a peanut butter patty cookie. The smooth bite into the top of the chocolate and peanut butter layer even mimics the bite into a tasty Tagalong. Inside, there's not much going on in terms of chocolate chips, but you get more than enough chocolate flavor from the outside. The combination of flavors is really well-balanced, and this was a surprise win for me. I have often glazed over the peanut butter dipped in the past, but I certainly won't be doing that in the future. Between the resemblance to a Tagalong and texture, choosing this as my favorite of the granola bars was an easy choice.

When I sampled the assembled flavors, I prioritized taste above all else, along with their texture and authenticity. The flavor should have that touch of sweetness on top of the basic granola feel. The texture should be solid enough to enjoy on the go. It'll ideally be chewy but not crumbly. When I say general feel, I'm referring to just how real the actual granola bar is and whether it feels a little on the fake side. In general, I found that the granola bars with an enjoyable texture and a balanced flavor ranked some of my favorites on the list.