An ingredient is not a nutrition claim
A date-containing bar is not automatically low in sugar, and dates do not make a product sugar-free. The final amount depends on the entire recipe and the portion. Look at the sugars figure rather than inferring it from the ingredient name.
The same principle applies to other fruit ingredients. A familiar food can play a useful role in a recipe without determining every characteristic of the finished product.
Read the sweetness in context
A cocoa bar balances several flavours. Sweetness is only one of them. When tasting, notice whether the cocoa, nut flavour and sweetness work together for you, rather than looking for the strongest or weakest sweetness in isolation.
Two recipes that both contain dates can taste very different. Their proportions and other ingredients may differ, so an experience with one bar does not predict the next.
Check quantity on the nutrition panel
The ingredients tell you what is present. The nutrition panel gives the total sugars for the serving. For a comparison between different-sized bars, look at per 100g as well as per bar.
Henry currently lists 2g sugars in a 50g bar on its website. That is the finished-product figure supplied by the brand, not the amount of dates in the recipe. We do not publish a date percentage here.
Choose on taste and fit
If you enjoy date sweetness, it can be a reason to try a recipe. If you prefer another flavour profile, that preference is equally useful. You do not need to turn an ingredient preference into a rule for everyone.
For Henry, dates sit alongside almond butter, egg-white powder, cocoa and sea salt. Read the full list, check allergens and then judge the bar as a whole. One ingredient is part of the explanation, not the entire story.