Photo by Peggy Grodinsky

In an attempt to double my tester pool from one (me), I gave my partner a taste of my Kelp Krunch bars – original and ginger flavors – and sought his input.

“So this is candy with a miniscule bit of kelp mixed in?” he said as he eyed the bars I’d just handed him. Visually, they mostly register sesame seeds. “They should sell it with a magnifying glass.” He went on to riff possible headlines: “Hate kelp? Have no fear.”

Joe’s snarky comments aside, I love Kelp Krunch and buy it whenever I run into it – lately at Harbor Fish Market, Monte’s and the Portland Food Co-op. The bars live in my cookie jar, where they provide a salty-sweet snack that is much healthier than the cookies that would otherwise fill it.

Photo by Peggy Grodinsky

I think of Kelp Krunch, which is manufactured by Hancock-based Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, as a Maine take on the Middle Eastern sesame candies of my childhood. The original flavor has just four ingredients, all organic: sesame seeds, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, kelp. (OK, Joe, admittedly the kelp is last in line.)

But if push came to shove, the ginger flavor is my favorite. It pads the bars enticingly with ginger, cayenne and vanilla extract. The ginger-sesame Kelp Krunch has got a little more going on than the original and a nice slight kick at the backend. Neither bar is too sweet, yet both bars are sweet enough. Insider tip: don’t eat these at the library. They are not kidding about the “krunch.”

The bars are vegan and organic. They have no gluten and no cholesterol. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables markets them as “seaweed nutrition bars.” Whatever the sales pitch, though, eating them is pleasure, not deprivation – with a sneaky little plus that you feel virtuous.

Ever more so now that I’ve read the label, which says, “because we find joy in the company of kelp and Whales, part of the proceeds from this bar are donated to Allied Whale,” a whale conservation group. Count me in. And how had I never noticed the drawing on the label? A whale breaches the waves with a long trail of feathery kelp in its jaw.

Kelp Krunch, $2.79 each for 1 ounce bars, available online at Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, and in stores at Brown Trading Market, Harbor Fish Market, Heritage Seaweed, Monte’s Fine Foods,  Portland Food Co-op, Waterlily and elsewhere.