What Happened To Kudos Granola Bars?

It was like a candy bar for breakfast. Hugely popular in the 1990s, the bars were made by Mars, Incorporated — the same brand that manufacturers Twix, Milky Way, and Snickers, so yeah, they know candy. Kudos were chocolate-covered granola bars that you could find in the grocery aisle next to Nutrigrain and Nature's Valley. The catchy "Kudos, I'm Yours!" TV commercial portrayed Kudos as the perfect food to power up a tennis match or fuel a Little League grand slam.

Originally available in fudge, peanut butter, and chocolate chip, Kudos went through a reinvention in May 2011 with new flavors that mixed in popular Mars candy bars, including Dove and Snickers. The new-and-improved Kudos bars had some health upgrades as well, including added calcium and 20 percent more peanuts.

But then, all of the sudden, Kudos vanished. Kudos lovers everywhere were distraught. In an open letter to Mars begging the food company to bring back this popular lunch box drop-in, Radio station 97 ZOK wistfully recalled "the perfect combo of granola bar, rice krispie treat, and candy bar that we children of the 90s were blessed with."

So what happened?

People speculated that the trend of "healthy" snacks that were not, in fact, candy, was the death knell for Kudos. However, Mars never produced a formal statement explaining why they took Kudos off the market. On Facebook in 2017, though, the brand did reply to one consumer in Kudos withdrawal with a reality that wasn't sugar-coated: "Hi Alexander, thanks for reaching out and for your passion for the Kudos Bar! The product has unfortunately been discontinued — our apologies for any inconvenience!"

"Inconvenience" certainly feels like an understatement to die-hard Kudos lovers. "These were my breakfast from 7th grade to senior year of high school," posted Reddit user Swim2014. Waxing nostalgic, Reddit user Thats_Coolio wondered, "Did anybody else intentionally let the peanut butter ones melt over your fingers so you could lick that [stuff] off?" Sadly, Kudos is now just another beloved grocery store item you don't see anymore.

If you're really jonesing for a Kudos, it's not that difficult to whip up your own batch of tasty granola bars. Try this easy granola bar recipe with chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and peanut butter or this delectable salted dark chocolate granola bar recipe that uses dark chocolate chips, honey, and peanut butter (or any nut butter you'd like).