With their line of Tasty Pastry Toaster Pastries, Nut Butters, and Nut Snacks, Legendary Foods is creating impossibly delicious foods you can feel good about eating.
In a world of snacks loaded with sugar, fat, carbs, sodium, and chemicals, they have decided to do things a little differently.
In this article, we will explore how Legendary Foods is changing the snack game. We’ll also take a detailed look at the products they offer including our unbiased review of several products we’ve tried.
How is Legendary Foods different than your typical snack food company?
“In the world of food companies, there are three core values that drive everything – taste, nutrition and cost.”
“Every company has to pick any two since you can’t do all three. Everyone else always chooses taste and cost. We chose taste and nutrition.”
–Ron Pena, Legendary Foods Co-Founder
So why should we listen to this Ron guy?
Well, for starters he helped start a little company you may have heard of called Quest Nutrition. Quest Nutrition was acquired by Simply Good Foods for $1 Billion in August of 2019.
Ron is now a co-founder of Legendary Foods. Michael Veni is the CEO and co-founder of the new company. Also on the Legendary Foods team is Super Taster and Product Development Guru, Shannan Penna. She created QuestBars in her kitchen back in 2006.
Shannan then went on to develop the first 14 flavors of QuestBars. One of her masterpieces is the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Quest Nutrition bar which is the most popular protein bar in US history!
Ok, so maybe these Legendary Foods people know a little bit about making delicious and healthy snacks.
The company tagline is “Impossibly delicious foods without the sugar.” And it’s true.
All of their products are made without sugar. They also don’t use sneaky sugar names like evaporated cane juice, agave syrup, coconut sugar or oat sugar.
But with a product lineup that includes sweet treats like dessert-themed nut butters and toaster pastries, it leads to the question …
What does Legendary Foods use instead of sugar?
The Legendary Foods team spent years of trial and error to find the perfect combination of great-tasting and good for you snacks. They landed on a few different ingredients that are sweet like sugar, but don’t have the undesirable side effects.
Erythritol
Many of the Legendary Foods products use erythritol, a sweetener found in nature. Erythritol tastes very similar to sugar and has no calories. It does not affect blood sugar and also doesn’t cause teeth decay.
Check out Erythritol options on Amazon.
Allulose
Another sweetener found in their pastry line is called allulose. It’s technically classified as a “rare sugar” because it’s found in small amounts of figs, raisins, molasses, and maple syrup.
Check out Allulose options on Amazon.
Stevia (steviol glycosides)
Found in Legendary Foods nut butter, Stevia is a natural sugar substitute. Stevia sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar and contribute sweetness to foods and beverages without adding calories.
Check out Stevia options on Amazon.
What snacks does Legendary Foods make?
The Legendary Foods product line currently consists of nut butters, nut snacks, and the newest addition, toaster pastries. Let’s take a look a closer look at each of these product areas.
Legendary Foods Tasty Pastry Toaster Pastries Overview
The Taste of your Childhood Without the Sugar
The toaster pastries many of us grew up with (and maybe still eat?!) are loaded with carbs, calories and sugar.
Sure, they may taste good while you’re eating them. But deep down, you know you didn’t do your body any favors by scarfing it down.
Legendary Foods knows the struggle is real.
So they set out to do something deceptively complicated: Make a healthier, sugar-free toaster pastry that has the taste and texture of your childhood snack. It only took them thousands of experiments, but they did it!
“Where once lay gobs of diabetes-inducing carbohydrate and sugar now stood a chiseled form made of protein, fat and fiber.”
– Legendary Foods on the successful development of the Tasty Pastry
Legendary Foods Tasty Pastry Toaster Pastries Review
We have tried all four Tasty Pastry flavors: Strawberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Hot Fudge Sundae, and Birthday Cake.
The newest Tasty Pastry flavor, introduced in December 2020 is a new cake style Birthday Cake. It is described is “bigger, thicker and creamier” than any pastry they’ve launched before.
Tasty Pastry vs. Pop-Tarts
In a blind taste test, could I tell the difference between a Tasty Pastry and a Pop-Tart? Yes, absolutely.
Is that a bad thing? Nope. Let me explain.
TEXTURE
The biggest difference is that Tasty Pastries have a slightly different texture. The crust is softer and chewier. This difference is even more prominent in the new Birthday Cake flavor with the cake-style.
I personally like the Tasty Pastry texture better. Other leading toaster pastry brands (yes, I’m talking about you Pop Tarts!) are often pretty dry and crumble if you break them in half.
FILLING
The filling isn’t super thick, but it’s packed with flavor. Strawberry tastes like strawberry. Cinnamon brown sugar tastes like cinnamon brown sugar. Hot Fudge Sundae flavor tastes like chocolatey fudge. The new Birthday Cake flavor doesn’t exactly taste like birthday cake to me, but it does have a vanilla vibe to it.
TASTE
The sweetness factor is spot on. My sweet tooth was definitely satisfied after eating one pastry.
I did detect the slightest aftertaste which I assume comes from the alternative sweeteners. Definitely not concerning enough to prevent me from eating the rest of the boxes.
APPEARANCE
One area where all toaster pastries, including Legendary Foods, need some improvement is in the visual department.
The icing always seems an uneven mess. But unless you’re going to be serving these on a platter at a party, I don’t think the presentation is a deal-breaker.
PACKAGING
Tasty Pastries are also individually wrapped and have one pastry per package which is different from Pop-Tarts that have 2 per package. The package is pretty sturdy and there is no ‘easy-tear notch’, so it can be a little tricky to open.
WHERE TO BUY
All four flavors are available for purchase on the Legendary Foods website, on Amazon and at select retails.
SHOP LEGENDARY FOODS TASTY PASTRY ON AMAZON
Legendary Foods Nut Butters Overview
Legendary Foods nut butters are made using peanuts, cashews, pecans and/or almonds.
All flavors have no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners, and use only natural flavors. They are also vegan, gluten-free, are a natural source of protein and have low net carbs.
The five decadent flavors include:
- Apple Pie Flavored Almond & Cashew Butter – a creamy blend of cashew and almond butter with pieces of real apple and a swirl of cinnamon
- Chocolate Banana Flavored Peanut Spread – creamy peanut butter, pieces of ripened banana and chocolate
- Peanut Butter Cup Peanut Butter – creamy all-natural peanut butter with real cocoa
- Blueberry Cinnamon Bun Flavored Almond Butter – almond butter base with real blueberries and a dash of cinnamon
- Pecan Pie Flavored Almond Butter – creamy almond butter, chunks of decadent pecans and natural praline flavors
Legendary Foods Nut Butter Review
We tried the Peanut Butter Cup Peanut Butter flavor courtesy of a sample sent by the company.
This flavor has a peanut butter base, so that obviously takes care of the peanut butter flavor. It also has unsweetened cocoa which completes the other half of the flavor profile.
I was surprised by how sweet this flavor is. I didn’t dislike it, but also didn’t find it completely necessary. I’d be curious to see how it would taste without the erythritol and Stevia.
The texture is pleasant, smooth, and creamy. I typically prefer smooth peanut butter, but I adore peanut butter cups.
I was secretly hoping for some peanut butter cup chunks. The added texture would have really reinforced the overall peanut butter cup vibe. Here’s hoping they will develop a “chunky’ version in the future!
SHOP LEGENDARY FOODS NUT BUTTER ON AMAZON
Legendary Foods Nut Snacks Overview
Legendary Foods almonds are designed to taste like some of your favorite junk foods. They help you get your snack fix while still eating healthy.
The savory, mouth-watering almond flavors include:
- Cheddar Bacon Seasoned Almonds
- Wasabi Soy Sauce
Legendary Foods Nut Snacks Review
We tasted the Pizza flavored almonds courtesy of a sample sent by the company. We are big pizza fans, so expectations were high for this flavor.
After peeking inside the package, the first thing we noticed is the ample seasoning on the almonds. However, the smell from the bag didn’t scream “PIZZA!” Off to a mixed start.
Now on to the true test: Do they taste like pizza?
Upon the first bite, I got a flavor, but it wasn’t pizza. I chewed a bit more and all of a sudden, I tasted delicious pizza!
The flavor kind of creeps up on you, but it’s worth the wait. I found these to be an enjoyable, savory snack.
Where to buy Legendary Foods Nut Butters, Nut Snacks and Pastries
Products can currently be purchased on the Legendary Foods website, on Amazon and in select retailers.
Have you tried any of the Legendary Foods Snacks? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
