Protein bar Reviews |

11/10

Good lord these are epic… Fit crunch chocolate chip cookie dough flavour protein bar.

Id have to say these are hands down the best tasting protein bar iv ever had, and this one is easily the best flavour.
Good enough to give some regular chocolate bars a run for their money.

They actually get better if their left in for the fridge for a little while.

Calories:380
Fat:16
Carbs:27
Protein:30

A little heavy macro-wise but oh so worth it.

10/10

Post workout…. Snack?

Still hungry so I decided to try the peanut butter flavour fit crunch bars.

These things are seriously good. In fact they’re better then a lot of regular chocolate bars in my opinion.
A proper thick chocolate coating multiple layers, plenty of real peanuts and the right combination of textures, crunchy and chewy.

Might be heavy on the macros for some people But definitely worth it.

Calories:380
Fat:16
Carbs:27 (fibre 2)
Protein:30

10/10

While out driving today I picked up a foritfx cookies & cream fitcrunch bar and these things are legit. Highly recommend.

Really nice, thick chocolate coating and a creamy/ crunchy centre

Calories:380
Fat:16
Carbs:27
Protein:30

10/10

Grenade carb killa White chocolate cookie flavour.

This brand is becoming increasingly popular and I can see why.

On opening their white chocolate appearance is a refreshing change from the regular milk chocolate covered protein bars.

They have a thick, creamy white chocolate coating with dark, crispy, cookie like prices on top.
Under that is a layer, the same texture as caramel but with a strong vanilla taste and finally a creamy nought like centre that has the right amount of chew without being dry.

The whole bar is creamy, has a strong vanilla flavour throughout and just the right amount of sweetness (If you ever had a Hershey’s cookies and cream bar, these will be pretty familiar)

So with all this awesome flavour comes poor macros right?

Wrong….

Calories:215
Fat:8
Carbs:15 (fibre 6)
Protein:22.

How they managed to keep the carbs so low, I have no idea.

If your “into fitness” and looking to pick up a healthy snack these are a great option, but if you’re counting macros and understand a bit about nutrition, you’ll appreciate just how good these really are.

In the world of high protein low carb bars these guys are currently the ones to beat.

10/10

Grenade carb killa
Dark chocolate mint flavour.

Appearance is similar to the other carb killa’s although the chocolate coating is noticeably darker and like the other carb killa’s, a little small at 60g.

Good thick dark chocolate coating, under that is a white mint flavoured layer similar to caramel in texture, under that are some crispy cookie like pieces and finally a sweet chewy, nought in the centre. Which again has the right amount of chew and isn’t overly tough.
Like the other carb killa’s these have a great blend of textures that work really well together.

Flavour wise the dark chocolate has a strong, rich flavour that’s a nice change from the many milk chocolate bars out there, the mint layer comes through well but isn’t overpowering.
Pairing that dark chocolate with that mint was a stroke of genius, similar to an after eight mint the combination works perfectly.

This flavour also has those trademark carb killa macros:
Calories:213
Fat:8
Carbs:13 (fibre 7)
Protein:22
Overall this is another great, unique product from a company at the top of they’re game at the minute.
Very little to find fault with here although I did notice if they’re left in the fridge the layers tend come apart and they fall to pieces when you bite into them. (But that’s just an observation, it’s not worth marking them down for).
Like a giant, crunchy macro friendly after eight. Someone at Grenade clearly knows what their doing.

10/10

Robert Irvine’s fit elite bar.
Cookie dough flavour
For those unaware Robert Irvine is the creator of fit crunch bars (the best tasting protein bar on the market in my opinion)
So I was incredibly happy to be sent these by @cardiffsportsnutrition for review and they didn’t disappoint.

Texture is quite similar to quest, but softer and almost fudgy, with big chocolate chunks throughout them. Taste and texture is very similar to actual cookie dough. Creamy, chewy and with a good amount of chocolate chunks.
Macros are also incredibly friendly:
Calories:180
Fat:5
Carbs:24
Protein:20

It’s safe to say these give quest a run for their money and I definitely see these becoming a staple in my house.

10/10

Always a firm favourite.

Quest s’mores flavour protein bar.

Great taste and texture, fantastic macros and very satisfying for 180kcal. One bar that I keep coming back to continuously.
Calories:180
Fat:8
Carbs:23
Protein:20

10/10

Here’s an old school bar most people are going to be somewhat familiar with.

Quest chocolate chip cookie dough (new formula corn fibre)

Appearance: 🔹 About regular size for a 60g bar. Loads of thick chocolate chunks throughout. Always a pleasing looking bar.

Texture🔹: Sticky and soft with the perfect amount of chew, the thick chocolate chunks add a nice crack to the overall texture when you hit one. This is one of the bars that didn’t seem to be affected much by the new formula.

Taste🔹: Excellent, sweet vanilla and cookie flavours and the chocolate chunks taste exactly as they should. Tastes a lot more luxurious than they look. They’re also very satisfying given their size and macros.

Macros📊
Calories:207
Fat:9
Carbs:7 (fibre14)
Sugar:0.9
Protein:21

For me this was the first protein bar that actually tasted amazing and I could eat everyday without either going over on my macros or getting bored of eventually.

This is (probably I’m not sure) quests biggest selling flavour and in my opinion they’re yet to improve on this one. (Apart from s’mores maybe)

I haven’t had one in ages and thought I might be a bit disappointed now I’ve tried quite a few different bars since but its familiar taste and texture brought the memories back right away.

Quest for me can be a bit hit and miss and I like to think of them as the marmite of the protein bar world, people seem to either love them or hate them. But I’m yet to find a person who dislikes this particular flavour. Its is a rare blend of excellent texture, flavour and macros and if I’m being honest I’m probably always going to have a soft spot for this one.

9.5/10

Fulfil peanut and caramel
Vitamin & protein bar.

So I had a couple of requests to review fulfil bars and eventually got the chance after Mrs the_beltsander managed to find one at a petrol station.

I immediately see why they’re so popular
Good thick chocolate coating, large chunks of peanut like a snickers bar not like the tiny fragments you would normally associate with a protein bar and a layer of proper chewy caramel.

Probably the best tasting caramel I’ve ever tried on a protein bar these things even beat grenades carb killa caramel bar, hands down in my opinion.

There was even a nice saltiness to the caramel,
And the macros:
Calories:205
Fat:8.8
Carbs:10.3
Protein:20

Pretty decent, a little high in fat but that’s understandable given the amount of peanuts floating about in them.

The only downside is that they’re quiet thin and small, weighing in at 55g
But overall these are a very special bar.

Had I not known, I would never have guessed I was eating a protein bar. Someone at @fulfil_nutrition clearly knows what they’re doing
Verdict:
If you can find them, these are most definitely worth trying.

9.5/10

My protein bar review game has been lagging lately so I thought I’d get back on it today from the belt cave.

Fulfil strawberry & vanilla protein bar.

Strong smell of strawberries on opening, the whole bar has a sticky nought like texture. Just the right amount of chew without being tough.
The whole bar has strawberry pieces throughout and the bottom half is dipped in a creamy vanilla coating.

I had the pleasure of trying these at @fulfil_nutrition headquarters and as the developers of the bar told me:
“We use real fruit prices in the bar, and based the flavour profile off a brunch icecream.” It really shows with end product (in fact I had strawberry seeds between my teeth)
This is another quality product from @fulfil_nutrition I’m not a big fruit flavour protein bar fan but these blew me away.

Side note Mrs_thebeltsander claims these are the best protein bars she has ever tasted.

And the macros aren’t shabby either:
Calories:188
Fat:5.2
Carbs:8.2(fibre 19.1)
Protein:19.7

Best fruit flavour protein bar yet

9.5/10

Kinetica Deluxe protein bar. Cookies and cream.

Appearance: 🔹 thick chocolate coating, loads of cookie pieces ontop of a caramel layer which surrounds a nougat centre.

Texture🔹: Superb, the chocolate coating cracks on biting, the tonnes of cookie pieces give a great crunch and there’s plenty of caramel which surrounds the core giving you Carmel in every bite rather than just in a top layer.

Taste🔹: Superb, the chocolate tastes as it should, the caramel is spot on, the cookie prices actually taste like cookie and the centre has a sweet vanilla flavour. there’s also a nice creaminess to the whole bar.

Macros📊
Calories:247
Fat:11
Carbs:23 (fibre:4)
Sugar:2.3
Protein:21

Also a really good macro split, a nice amount of fibre with a small amount of sugar. It’s also got some quality ingredients: Cocoa powder, caramel, cocoa butter etc.

This one surprised me. Although there’s a lot of different elements here, they’ve actually managed to nail them all really well. The combination of textures is excellent.

Kinetica is a pretty well established brand in Ireland, they’re absolutely everywhere but this was my first time trying one of their products. (I sort of wish I’d tried them sooner now) It reminds me of a giant twix bar with a bit of a chew. It’s a definite winner.

9.5/10

Protein dynamix dynabar.

Chocolate vanilla crunch.

Appearance🔹 Good sized bar for 64g, thick chocolate coating with plenty of crispy bits surrounding a nougat like centre with a caramel layer

Texture🔹: incredible, the outer layer has a great crunch every bite and they got the the centre perfect, not tough or chewy at all. The fact the crispy, chocolate coating completely surrounds the nougat centre makes the texture more like a regular chocolate bar.

Taste🔹 Fantastic, the chocolate coating is spot on, the caramel is sweet and sticky although there isn’t quite enough of it to make a proper statement and the centre is the right amount of sweet.

Macros📊
Calories:268
Fat:10
Carbs:25 (fibre: 10.3)
Sugar:15
Protein:20

They are a little fat heavy and the 15g sugar will probably upset some but these are definitely worth the sacrifice.

Dynamix send me a box of these to try last week for review and I’ve eaten at least one everyday since.
They’ve clearly spent a bit of time getting this product right and it’s easily one of the best bars on the market.

Unfortunately at the minute they only come in one flavour. These are very close to a perfect protein bar and there’s tonnes of potential here, I’m looking forward to seeing what else they will come up with.

Superb.

9.5/10

Long overdue review, this is the last flavour of the carb killa range.

Grenade carb killa Fudge brownie flavour. 🔹Appearance: A little on the small side at 60g. These have a chocolate coating with a layer krispies on top, under that is a thick fudge layer and finally the usual carb killa soft nougat centre. 🔹Texture: Great thick chocolate coating with a thick sticky fudge layer underneath (which is quite a bit thicker than the caramel) and a nought centre which has a nice, soft chew to it. 🔹Taste: similar to the others these are really good, The milk chocolate coating is spot on and the fudge layer definitely has that fudge taste.
The nougat is perfectly sweet but I’m not getting any brownie flavour.

These also come with some carb killa signature macros:
Calories:215
Fat:8
Carbs:13.6 (fibre: 6.8)
Sugar:1.5
Protein:22

Again these are very sweet for only 1.5g sugar and again I’m blown away by the fact they manage to make these with under 14g carbs.

This flavour is almost identical to the caramel chaos. To be honest I’d be hard pushed to tell the difference between the two.

Thats no bad thing because both flavours are superb but don’t expect any big fudge or brownie flavours

9.5/10

Oh yeah One. Lemon cake flavour.

I’ve seen these about quite a bit lately and they’ve been receiving a lot of acclaim, but I’ve always found oh yeah to be a bit hit and miss. 🔹Appearance: decent size bar (60g)
With a fairly thick, white coating.

🔹Texture: When initially bitten there’s a nice crack from the coating. the centre has crumbly texture with a bit of a chew and there’s crispy bits throughout for a blend of textures. Actually pretty cake like.

🔹Taste: Fresh lemon flavour without being bitter really nice balance of sweet and citrus.

Macros:
Calories:220
Fat:7
Carbs:23 (fibre:10)
Sugar:1
Protein:22

Macros are really good, they’ve chosen a more expensive whey isolate for the protein.
Only to 1g sugar and they haven’t ruined it by going overboard with the stevia to sweeten it (like they did with the victory bar range) .

Overall this is a really good bar and the lemon flavour is a nice change of pace from chocolate. A really solid choice and one that’ll fit into most people’s macros on the daily. It’s really hard to find fault with these, I can definitely see why they’re so popular.

9/10

Grenade, carb killer caramel chaos flavour protein bar.

Another strong contender by Grenade.

really nice, thick caramel layer on these
Crap name, good bar

Calories:214
Fat:8
Carbs:13
Protein:23

9/10

MP Arnold muscle bar
Frosted cinnamon bun flavour.

After trying the peanut butter flavour earlier on this week and being slightly disappointed I didn’t have high hopes for this one.

But this flavour is awesome. Creamy, doughy and the right amount cinnamon they actually did remind me of a Cinnabon bun.

Still pretty heavy on the macros but tasted great:

Calories:370
Fat:16g
Carbs:30g
Protein:30g
(I do find it s bit odd that all the flavours have identical macros)

9/10

Quest white chocolate raspberry flavour. (Old formula)

🔹Appearance: pretty decent size at 60g plenty of white chocolate chunks as well as red raspberry pieces

🔹Texture: actually quite good, crumbly with a nice amount of chew, the chunks are fairly sizeable so you know when you’ve hit one. There’s even a nice crunch from the raspberry seeds.

🔹Taste: Really good. Theres a strong bitter sweet raspberry flavour which pairs perfectly with the creamy white chocolate chunks.

Macros:
Calories:190
Fat:8
Carbs:23 (fibre: 17)
Sugar:1
Protein:20

I find quest to be a bit hit and miss but this is definitely one of quests best flavours, they hit the nail on the head with this one, if your not a chocolate fan you’ll probably be into this one.

9/10

Oh yeah Low carb bar.
Celebration cake.

This is probably the maddest looking protein bar I’ve ever tried.

Appearance🔹: about average sized bar (60g) these have plenty of multicoloured sprinkles on top of a creamy coating and a cake like centre.

Texture🔹: soft, crumbly with a slight crunch. They actually managed to make these very cake like. Really impressed.

Taste🔹: Really good, the cake centre is excellent, not overly sweet and the coating is creamy with a hint of vanilla.

Macros.🔹
Calories:220
Fat:7g
Carbs:24 (fibre 9g)
Sugar:1g
Protein:21

Really impressed with this one. It’s the right amount of sweet and that crumbly cake texture is spot on.
The protein comes from Oh yeahs own blend of whey isolate and milk isolate.
No E numbers and only 1g of sugar which is pretty good considering all those multicoloured sprinkles.

Really good all rounder that’ll fit your macros on the daily. The only fault I could find here is the fact some of the sprinkles fell off and melted into my car seat, but that’s hardly a reason to mark them down.

9/10

Pure protein peanut butter flavour
Picked these up at target for $12.19 for 12 and wasn’t expecting much.

Appearance wise these are very small. (50g) but they look great like a regular chocolate bar.

Texture was excellent proper nougat with a slight chew, thick chocolate coating that’s tastes like chocolate, these also had chunks of peanut and some crispy bits floating around in there.

Taste was incredible, chocolaty with a big peanut butter hit. I would go so far as to say these are some of, if not the best tasting peanut butter flavoured protein bars out there.

Macros:
Calories:200
Fat:6
Carbs:16 (fibre 1)
Protein:20
Sugar: 2g

They also manage to keep macros in check. I keep looking for the catch here but I’m unable to find one. Apart from they’re tiny size. Not sure why they found it necessary to use a blend of four proteins here but it works. Value for money isn’t something I normally account for but at just over $1 a bar it’s hard not to be impressed.

Those on a cut won’t like the size but if peanut butter is your thing and you have the macros to spare you’ll love these.

Some of the bigger companies could learn a thing or two from these folks.

9/10

Muscle Pharm combat crunch chocolate brownie flavour:

Nice thick chocolate coating with chocolate chunks and crispy bits that really add to the texture with a chewy layer in the centre that genuinely tasted brownie like.
Good sized bar although the packaging made it appear larger than it actually was.

They also come with a decent macro split:

Calories:210
Fat:7
Carbs:25 (fibre12)
Protein:20

Very little to complain about here, a good all rounder although they do seem to be a little on the expensive side (in Ireland at least)
Would repurchase.

9/10

Max’s protein bar. White chocolate and raspberry
Appearance: 🔹 The first and most noticeable thing is the colour, they’re bright pink (which I’m guessing is from the beetroot juice) I haven’t used a filter this is actually how they look.

It was so crumbly and full of dried raspberry pieces that it fell apart while unwrapping. Not that that’s a bad thing as it gives them that homemade feel.

Texture🔹: Very crumbly, almost flapjack like without being dry, the white chocolate chunks give a nice bite and the dried raspberries give it a nice sticky chew, a there’s even a crunch from the raspberry seeds. It also sort of melts away like a good cookie

Taste🔹: Really good, the raspberry is tart without being too harsh and balances nicely with the sweet white chocolate. The chunks of real raspberry really make all the difference.

Macros📊
Calories:204
Fat:10
Carbs:14 (fibre:1.4)
Sugar:11
Protein:17

They come with a pretty good macro split and the ingredients list is short but of good quality: honey, gluten free oats, beetroot juice powder. There’s also coconut oil and cocoa butter which explains that melt in the mouth feel.

Overall it’s another excellent product which again tastes more home baked than conveyer belt.

For me these are actually better than quests white chocolate raspberry but only just.

9/10

Oh yeah vanilla toffee fudge bar:

Creamy white chocolate coating and plenty of peanuts, a thick layer of toffee and a dense, fudgy centre. Quite a big bar, satisfying and reminded me of a snickers bar.
These are very good albeit a bit high in fats which I’m guessing is due to all the nuts
Calories:370
Fat:18
Carbs30
Protein:27

9/10

Musclepharm combat crunch chocolate cake flavour.

Appearance🔹Descent size bar at 63g. Dark chocolate coating with a dark chocolate striped pattern, many bumps from all the Krispies in the next layer and a fudgy chocolate centre, it also had quite a strong, pleasant dark cocoa smell.

Texture🔹Big Crunch on the first bite, good thick chocolate coating with plenty of crispy bits. Really impressive mix of textures although not cake like in any way. Good amount of chew without being a chore to chomp.

Taste🔹Good, dark cocoa flavour which I really liked but I could see it being under sweetened for some peoples tastes. Definitely one the dark chocolate lovers

Macros🔹
Calories:210
Fat:7
Carbs:25 (fibre: 12)
Sugar:5g
Protein:20g

Really good macro split and fairly low calorie given its size. It definitely didn’t seem sweet enough given the 5g of sugar and 12g fibre per bar might be a bit too much for some.
All in all it’s another great product from musclepharm. I’m yet to try a combat crunch I don’t like.
They are a little on the pricey side though (in Ireland at least)

Great effort

9/10

Square organics chocolate coated cherry flavour bar.
Appearance: 🔹 A pretty small bar at 48g true to is name they are square and they’re certainly not the prettiest thing I’ve ever unwrapped. Let’s be honest, it looks like someone’s reversed their car over it.
Texture🔹: superb, their initially crumbly but then become soft, fudgy and melt in the mouth. Hardly any chew apart from the flakes of dried cherries.

Taste🔹: Awesome. Proper rich chocolate flavour, their sweet and decadent like a real chocolate bar with the sour dried cherry taste in the background. It’s nice and subtle instead of being an “in your face” artificial cherry flavour.

Macros📊
Calories:210
Fat:9
Carbs:23 (fibre2)
Sugar:14
Protein:12

It would be really easy to point out the obvious here and say “the macros suck, they don’t have enough protein ” but let’s consider all the elements here:

These are designed to be a vegan protein bar, they’re working with brown rice protein so it’s not as simple as just dumping in some whey or casein in there to bring up the protein content.

As well as that the ingredient list is short with emphasis on quality over quantity. Organic oats, coconut oil, coconut nectar, I noticed the organic cocoa butter which explains that incredible meld in the mouth feel. And everything they’ve used is organic. They even have a USDA organic seal on the package, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen on a protein bar before.

Overall this is a well thought out, great quality product. Well done @squareorganics Look past the protein content and its mangled appearance because these things taste incredible.

8.5/10

Weider Yippee.
Cookies-double chocolate flavour protein bar

Multiple layers covered with a thin Chocolate coating,
Really satisfying crunch which gives way to a sweet, chewy nougat centre, the multiple layers give a nice mix of textures.

These are quite similar to @fitcrunchbarsbut not quite as good, smaller but more widely available (in Ireland at least) and more macro friendly
Calories:278
Fat:11.9
Carbs:24
Protein:26

Pretty good for a 70g bar

Weider has done an excellent job with these and I love the fact they’re so available, in fact I can walk into my local petrol station and pick one up.

I have previously said that I wasn’t a big fan of weider products, protein bars in particular, I found them to be chalky and lacking in any real quality.
But these yippee bars have converted me.

8.5/10

The other bar cranberry, orange marshmallow with Greek yogurt coating.

Ever heard of them?

These guys are pretty new to the protein bar world, they got in contact with me a while ago and were eager for me to try their new range of bars, claiming to have a breakthrough marshmallow texture that nobody else has. I was intrigued…. Appearance: first things first these are not your run of the mill protein bars, they come delivered in a insulated box with ice packs to control the temperature and they recommend storing them at 70°F or cooler. So these need to be kept ideally in a fridge to maintain their quality.

They are fairly small for a protein bar (40g) and they also note that these are hand cut so they vary in size, the best before date is also pretty short at just over a month.

Texture (and here’s the interesting part) very much like a giant flavoured marshmallow. There’s an initial crunch from the Greek yogurt coating and then a sticky, chewy texture that melts away like marshmallow. I’ve never had a protein bar quite like it.

Taste was excellent, they have a punchy citrus flavour that pairs really well with the creamy Greek yogurt coating and there’s several chunks of real dried cranberry throughout. The marshmallow centre is sweet and sticky.

Macros:
Calories:120
Fat:4
Carbs:11 (fibre:4)
Sugar:7
Protein:11

Very friendly indeed.

The fact they need to be refrigerated is a slight inconvenience but there’s so many positives here: they have a very special and unique texture, they manage this without bombarding you with fibre and they’ve done so for only 120kcal per bar.

Everything about these bars is unique and have a handmade feel about them, from the charming, loosely fitting wrapper to the way they’ve been dipped and cut.

I’m a big fan of small businesses anyway but I genuinely think that they’ve got a winner on their hands with this.
A really good quality product I’m glad I had the opportunity to try. If you love marshmallow but hate calories these are going to be a life saver

8.5/10
Trying out the new flavour grenade protein bar at work.

Carb killa cookies and cream.

Chocolate coating is thin but it does taste like real chocolate, inside is a chewy nought layer topped with a crispy cookie layer giving a nice contrast in texture.
These are very good, rich, chocolatey and oddly creamy. The only downside is that I could have instantly eaten another one. I still prefer the caramel flavour bar though.
And the macros….
Calories:217
Fat:8.2
Carbs:13.6 (fibre 6.6)
Protein:23.3

How they manage to keep the carbs so low without it tasting like cardboard, I’ll never know.

8.5/10
Weider, Yippee chocolate lava flavour protein bar. (70g)

Really good, dark chocolate coating plenty of crispy bits throughout and in the centre is a dark chocolate flavoured nougat that’s chewy and sticky (similar to a caramel texture)
I really enjoyed the flavour of these, They’re very rich and chocolaty, so if that’s your thing you’ll love these.

Reminded me of a smaller, more carb conscious fit crunch bar. (Which is high praise indeed)

Calories:280
Fat:12
Carbs:23
Protein:26

Pretty balanced but 12g might be a little high in fats for some people.

Yippie bars I feel are a good all rounder and this flavour is easily the best I’ve tried.

8.5/10

Oh yeah chocolate candy crunch
Randomly picked this one up this afternoon. I was very impressed.
Like a protein bar crossed with M & Ms, pretty macro heavy but a really good bar
Calories:350
Fat:17
Carbs:36
Protein:26g

8.5/10

Gladiator protein bar. Brownie flavour
Appearance🔹There’s a strong cocoa smell on opening. Good size bar at 60g. Dark chocolate coating , with a very thin caramel coating, a layer of krispies and a crumbly centre with cookie pieces throughout.
Very similar to carb killer.

Texture🔹Really unique. Very solid and crumbly not chewy at all. Could have benefited from more caramel but excellent overall.

Taste🔹 Really good dark chocolate flavour coating, the centre is crumbly and sweet. The caramel is good but they’re just isn’t enough and there’s no real brownie flavour at all.

Macros🔹
Calories:220
Fat:8.3
Carbs:16 (fibre: 8.8)
Sugar:1
Protein:21

Fantastic macro split, they’ve kept the carbs low without bombarding you with fibre and sugar.

I was really surprised how much I liked these, they’ve clearly mimicked the successful carb killa bar here, but that texture is excellent, very unique.

I’m a bit puzzled as to why they chose to call it brownie flavour given there’s no brownie feel to them at all and there’s cookie pieces in centre.
If your a carb killa fan these are defiantly worth a punt as an alternative, I’ll certainly be buying them again.

Solid choice

8.5/10

F1rst salty peanut butter flavour protein bar.

On unwrapping , they do feel quite small even for a 60g bar and appearance wise they’re not the most exciting, perfectly rectangular and a bit plain looking. A bit too manufactured and clinical for my tastes.

Texture is good, very fudgy with lots crispy bits dotted throughout as well as some chunks of peanuts which give these a nice blend of textures.

Generally I’m not a massive peanut flavoured protein bar fan as I find them to be a bit hit and miss, but I really enjoyed these.
They have a strong peanut flavour throughout, just the right amount of sweetness and slightly salty.

Also noticed they have a raw peanut aftertaste (like shelled un-roasted peanuts) which I’m guessing people will either love or hate, but I quite liked that about them.

While they may not be as flash or have as much going on as some other bars they got the basics right and they’ve really managed to nail the flavour with this one.

Calories:202
Fat:7.9
Carbs:20 (fibre 13)
Protein:21

8.5/10

Here’s another offering from Olimp nutrition: Gladiator, caramel flavoured bar with peanuts. (That’s the actual name)

Appearance🔹 Good sized bar for 64g, thick chocolate coating with some crispy bits underneath, a layer of caramel and nougat centre. For the life of me I couldn’t find any peanuts

Texture🔹: Fantastic, there’s a nice blend of crispy, sticky caramel and that awesome crumbly texture that the brownie flavour also possessed.

Taste🔹: Really good, proper chocolate coating, plenty of caramel with was sticky and gooey and the centre is sweet with a nice vanilla tone. But sadly no peanuts to be had.

Macros📊
Calories:224
Fat:8.3
Carbs:16 (fibre: 8)
Sugar:1.8
Protein:22

Superb macro split, taste, texture and low in sugar these bars tick almost all the boxes.

Unfortunately this flavour is too similar to the brownie flavour and I couldn’t detect and peanut. When I read over the ingredients peanuts are actually listed, but only at 0.7%. I guess that still counts, but they could have just labelled it “may contain traces of nuts”. Even if I had an intolerance I’d be hard pushed to notice them.

These bars get so many things right but just don’t deliver what the name would suggest.
The brownie flavour also suffered from this identity crisis.

Could have been amazing but they fail to deliver on what the name suggests. It seems they also hired the same guy Lenny and Larry did to do their labelling.

8/10

Fulfill coconut & chocolate
Thin milk chocolate coating around a coconut flavour nougat like centre with plenty of coconut flakes throughout.

The chocolate coating is pretty thin but very tasty, (it actually melts like proper chocolate because they’ve included cocoa butter in it) and the nought is sweet and has just the right amount of chew without being tough.

These may seem a little one dimensional and unexciting when compared to some other bars currently on the market but what they’ve done here is focus on getting the basics right.
They’ve absolutely nailed the flavour and texture and done so with some very balanced / friendly macros.

Calories:209
Fat:8
Carbs:22 (fibre11)
Protein:20

There’s also nothing worrying in the ingredients with only 2g sugar.

I’m not a major coconut fan but I really enjoyed these.
Overall these are a great all rounder, really good flavour and texture,
Easy to fit into your macros on a regular basis.

8/10
If coconut is your thing you’ll love these.

8/10

Quest apple pie flavour.
Appearance: 🔹 Pretty average sized bar at 60g. A perfect rectangle with specks of apple chunks throughout.
Texture🔹: Quite crumbly but still has a bit of a chew, this one is more of a pleasure than a chore, unlike some of the other quests. The chunks of apple throughout give a nice blend of textures

Taste🔹: Very good, they’re very sweet overall. The apple pieces taste like apple and the sets even a hint of cinnamon this is an example pf a flavour done properly.

Macros📊
Calories:202
Fat:7
Carbs:9 (fibre:14)
Sugar:3
Protein:20

Macros are pretty good, (note they have hidden some of the carbs in the fibre column) typical quest profile.

This one is a great flavour. The crumbly texture reminds of pastry. The apple works really well and the cinnamon ties in perfectly. It’s a simple flavour but it’s been done well.

Although it’s been a while since I’ve had on of these it didn’t disappoint. Overall it’s a solid effort. Definitely one of quests better flavours and worth picking up:

8/10

Bulk powders high protein bar:
Chocolate praline flavour
Nice dark chocolate coating, (which actually tastes like chocolate) a chewy nougat like centre and pieces of hazelnut dotted throughout.

These’s are really good bars, tasty and probably my favourite flavour Bulk powders bar.

Not as exciting as some other brands with their multiple layers and textures but these are definitely worth a try.

Fairly large bar and pretty satisfying for the macros:

Calories:278

Fat:9
Carbs:22
Protein:26

8/10

Max’s protein bar.
Apple, oat and cinnamon.

Appearance🔹Quite small but very dense and heavy at 60g. Thick bar with chunks of Apple and oats throughout.

Texture🔹Superb, soft and crumbly without being dry, the oats give a nice crunch and the chunks of apple give it a slight chew.

Taste🔹 Awesome, the use of real fruit give it a nice punchy citrus flavour and the cinnamon comes through really well at the end. Tastes like a home baked product rather than something from off a conveyer belt.

Macros🔹
Calories:216
Fat:8
Carbs:23 (fibre: 1.8)
Sugar:18
Protein:17

Really glad I got the opportunity to try these. Max’s protein bars are a small business and I’m a big fan of start ups.
I love the fact it took a little while for them to get the sample to me because “We we’re waiting for Max to make them”. So they don’t have an amazing macro split and won’t win any prizes for protein content but these are special in that here is a protein bar that actually tastes like something made in a blokes kitchen, (which I actually think they are)

8/10
Texture and flavour to match anything the big companies have to offer.

8/10

Musclepharm combat crunch birthday cake flavour

Really interesting multi coloured appearance
These have a sweet creamy coating with multi coloured strands throughout, flavour is sweet nicely balanced with vanilla tones.

Texture is really good, slight crunch upon biting and a nice chewy texture that isn’t dry or tough. It’s a pleasure to chew rather than a chore. Although the texture is not cake like in any way.

Macros:
Calories:210
Fat:7
Carbs:25 (fibre 12)
Protein:20
Sugar: 5g

Well balanced macros, not delivering too much fibre or sugar, no E numbers and 20g protein coming from a blend of whey isolate and milk protein isolate.
A really good all rounder overall, it pretty much ticks all the boxes, if you’re not a fan of bold flavours or chocolate your probably going to be impressed with these.
Although some might find this flavour slightly bland.

Solid choice.

8/10

Weider Yippee protein bar, brownie-vanilla flavour

This is second flavour of yippee that iv tried and I’m yet again impressed.

Nice chocolate flavour coating, with a creamy, vanilla flavour centre and plenty of crispy bits on top.

Nice mix of chewy and crispy textures, pretty similar to fit crunch bars but not quite as good.
That said, they do come in quite a bit lower in calories with a decent macro split:

Calories:278
Fat:12
Carbs:25
Protein:25

Overall I think Yippee bars are a strong contender and Weider has definitely come a long way since the chalky crap they use to put out back in the day.

8/10

Max’s protein bar, dark chocolate and cranberry
Appearance🔹 Like the previous flavour I reviews this bar looks small but feels quite hefty at 60g. Dark brown bar with oats and cranberry pieces visible throughout
Texture🔹: Nice crumbly texture and the cranberry add a chewy, stickiness. A bit on the dry side but good overall.
Taste🔹: Great bitter dark cocoa flavour which pairs really well with the bittersweet cranberry pieces throughout. I wasn’t sure how well cranberry and chocolate would work but it’s actually very good. Not everyone is going to be a fan of rich, bitter flavours so these won’t be for everyone but I certainly enjoyed it.

Macros📊
Calories:223
Fat:8
Carbs:13
Sugar:17
Protein:17

Like the apple cinnamon flavour these look and taste like a homemade product, instead of adding a tonne of flavours and sweetness they’ve opted to naturally sweeten these with apple juice and dates with the 17g protein coming from a whey concentrate.

This is reflected in the ingredients with was only 9 items long and in my opinion match any of the big brands in terms of flavour
8/10
You won’t be blown away by their macro split but If your after a unique, homemade bar these are a great choice.

8/10

Muscle Pharm combat crunch cinnamon twist.

Very sweet but not overly so, good cinnamon flavour, creamy coating with a chewy, doughy texture.
They are also some biscuit like pieces on tip giving it a satisfying crunch.
They carry a good but not amazing macro split:

Calories:210
Fat:7g
Carbs:25g (12g fibre)
Protein:20g

I really liked this flavour. Easily up there with the best of them. Would definitely repurchase, similar in flavour to the Arnold cinnamon bun muscle bar (which are outstanding)

8/10

Mars protein bar.

Appearance: 🔹 looks similar to the real McCoy but it’s been scaled down some. It does come in the familiar black Mars wrapper, is coated in chocolate although it’s a very thin coating, it’s got a caramel layer (again very thin) and a nougat centre. All the elements are present but they have been scaled back.

Texture🔹: not bad, the chocolate cracks, the caramel is sticky and overall it’s pretty similar to a regular Mars but the centre is quite a bit chewier and it’s a bit on the dry side.

Taste🔹: Not bad, the chocolate coating tastes like chocolate although there’s not enough of it, the caramel tastes pretty good but again it’s pretty scarce. The nought centre is sweet but a little bland. Overall it does have an authentic Mars flavour.

Macros📊
Calories:200
Fat:4.6
Carbs:22
Sugar:13
Protein:19

To its credit, that is a pretty good split. Fats are really low (probably one of the lowest I’ve seen in a bar) the 19g protein combines form a blend (soya, milk isolate and whey concentrate)

I definitely prefer this one to the snickers bar. Mostly because it tastes more like the real thing. All the elements are there, they’re just scaled back to keep it macro friendly.

Credit to Mars for designing a bar from the ground up. These things are insanely popular and they probably could have achieved the same result by releasing a Mars bar with a little whey thrown into the blend.

As far as protein bars go it’s not a bad but they are a little overhyped. So don’t expect it to be to similar to a real mars or you might be disappointed.

8/10

ISS Oh Yeah peanut and strawberry bar.

Thick peanut butter flavour coating on a layer of real peanuts.

Inside is a sweet sticky strawberry jam/jelly type layer wrapped around a nought centre.

Texture on biting is very good with a very satisfying crunch provided by the peanuts, and the strawberry jam layer is superb.
But the nought in the centre is chewy and tough and really sticks around long after the peanuts and jam are gone.

Flavour wise they’ve clearly gone after a peanut butter, jelly combo and they’ve pretty much hit the mark.

Although being very satisfying this is a big bar with big macros:

Calories:370
Fat:16
Carbs:32
Protein:27

There’s also quite a bit of sugar (9g) and they’ve felt the need to include corn syrup which is sure to upset some people.

I find oh yeah bars to be a bit hit and miss but this is definitely one of the better ones.

Shame about the tough texture of the nougat.

Honest opinion: if I’m going to spend 370kcal and 16g of fat on a protein bar it’d probably be a @fitcrunchbars.

8/10

Another lunch break protein bar review:

@bulkpowders_uk chocolate orange flavour high protein snack bar

Rich dark coating was good but a little thin, centre had a really good fudgy texture without being chalky like some other bars.

Nice strong orange flavour due to having real orange pieces throughout.

Decent macros:
Calories:262
Fat:6.4
Carbs:25 (fibre:15)
Protein:27

Genuinely impressed, texture reminds me of the old school protein bars.
Definitely worth a try it you’re already placing an order.

8/10

Nutramino chunky peanut and caramel.

Tried the vanilla, caramel flavour last week and while I wasn’t blown away. I could see the potential, so I thought I’d give nutramino another shot.

This one has been clearly modelled after the good old snickers bar, the rapper again has been closely mimicked, the most notable difference is the size, these are much smaller than a standard snickers bar.
Same good chocolate coating which again cracked upon biting as a chocolate coating should.

Inside was a really good tasting caramel, sweet but not overly so and large chunks of peanut. We’re talking proper peanut chunks and not the tiny fragments that frequent some lesser protein bars.

But there it was again, on the bottom layer, the incredibly chewy nought.

It’s worth mentioning that this bar didn’t have as hard and chewy a texture as their caramel flavour but I’m guessing that’s due to the fact this one just has less of a nougat layer.

Calories:265
Fat:11
Carbs:21
Protein:21

Fats are quite high but with so many sizeable peanut chunks i guess it’s explainable.
It’s worth mentioning these are a very small bar for 265kcal and 60g

Better than the vanilla, caramel flavour.
Could have been incredible but it’s hard to see past that hard, chewy nougat centre.

8/10

Vyomax banana toffee flavour high protein bar:

Found this guy hanging around the discount section in Lidl this morning for €1.99.
A brand I’v never heard of from a Lidl? I wasn’t hopeful.

Texture was really good, not dry or chalky like I was expecting, The chocolate layer tasted like chocolate although it was very thin. Banana flavouring tasted like bananas and not chemicals and there were some unexpected, pleasing crunchy bits hidden inside.

Although small, they come with some decent macros. Pleasantly surprised by this one, would definitely purchase again.

Per 55g bar:
Calories:189
Fat:6.2
Carbs:18 (2.4 fibre)
Protein:20

Strong 8/10
Hidden gem.

8/10

Macros📊
Calories:223
Fat:8
Carbs:13
Sugar:17
Protein:17

8/10

Cliff builders mint chocolate protein bar.

Picked up a box of these after they were recommended to me earlier this week.

Relatively big bar at 68g. Nice, thick chocolate covering with a crumbly mint chocolate layer topping a chocolate rice layer.

Very satisfying, good chocolate flavour and just the right amount of mint. These were very good. And at $7.99 for a box of 6 (from target) they’re also excellent value with pretty decent macros
Calories:270
Fat:9
Carbs:29 (fibre:2)
Protein:20

7.5/10

MP Arnold protein bar.
Chocolate peanut butter flavour

These are big bars (90g) with big macros to match:

Calories:370
Fat:16g
Carbs:30g (2g fibre)
Protein:30g

This flavour was pretty good but nothing amazing, I couldn’t really taste much of the peanut butter, but it did have a nice texture and felt pretty heavy and satisfying.
Honestly, as far as MP protein bars go, I would much rather the combat crunch bars, but I guess their worth a shot if you’re looking for something convenient to hit your macros. I’ll try the other flavours out and stick up a review of anyone’s interested?

7.5/10

Oatein cookies and cream flapjack.
I’ve seen these doing the rounds on Instagram and spotted one yesterday so here’s my review:

Appearance wise these are pretty appealing, they’ve got a homemade look about them.
I also noticed they all seem to be shaped differently which I actually prefer, they look more like food and less like something manufactured in a plant.

These bars are quite short but thick and feel heavier than the packaging would suggest (75g)

They have thick, sweet, creamy layer which half coats the bottom, and there’s plenty of white chocolate chunks and cookie pieces throughout along with a few oats scattered across the top.

Flavour wise they’re very sweet, stodgy and satisfying to eat. They also have that essential crumbly texture a flapjack should have.
A little on the dry side but then again most flapjacks are.

To me everything about this bar feels more like a homemade, baked product and less like something which came out of a factory.

Macros:
Calories:306
Fat:8
Carbs:36 (fibre2.4)
Protein:19

Compared to some other bars 19g protein for 306kcal is a little low and the 8.6g sugar might be a little worrying for some.

Overall these are a pretty solid product. I’m not a big flapjack fan but I’m pretty sold on these, I’ll definitely be on the look out for the other flavours.

7.5/10

Weider Yippie dark chocolate coconut

Appearance wise these are quite a large bar at (70g) coated in dark chocolate with a white stripe similar to a combat crunch bar (@musclepharm)
The thick dark chocolate coating is sweet and melts in the mouth like chocolate should, with a layer of crispy bits that adds crunch to every bite. Underneath that is a thick, soft, creamy coconut flavour layer.
Finally in the centre is a sweet nought, the texture is spot on with the right amount of chew.
Like with the other yippies there’s a nice blend of textures going on here.

Flavour wise I did notice this flavour was softer and more creamy then some of the other Yippie flavours. The chocolate is dark and rich but the coconut flavour is very subtle, so subtle you might struggle to notice it.

Macros are pretty balanced:
Calories:273
Fat:11.3
Carbs:26
Protein:24

Nothing worrying about the ingredients and they’ve managed to make them plenty sweet for only 1.4g sugar.
Overall this is another great Weider product.
Great flavour overall and it’ll fit most people’s macros pretty easily.
This is a protein bar the manages to tick all the boxes. If you pick one of these up you won’t disappointed, unless you were hoping for a big coconut flavour.
Similar to the other yippies this is a great all rounder.

7.5/10

Clif, builders protein bar.

Peanut butter flavour.

Good thick chocolate coating around a crispy, crunchy centre which ends with a bit of a chew, giving a nice blend of textures.
If you’ve had a cliff bar before the texture of these will be pretty familiar.

This flavour has large peanut pieces throughout that gives a strong peanut flavour to the whole bar.
These are a pretty big and satisfying bar for the macros:

Calories:280
Fat:10
Carbs:30 (fibre:2)
Protein:20

Flavour wise, these are a good all rounder and there’s very little to pick fault with here.
The only issue I can see with these bars will be the sugar (23g) which is sure to upset some people.

The first time I tried these I bought a box from a Target store in Florida, they cost only $6.00 for 6 bars, so if you live in the U.S these are definitely a solid choice in terms of value. (They’re not such good value in Europe though)

7.5/10

Snickers protein.

When I first saw these a few months ago I was convinced it was a joke.
But no, somebody in Mars actually went ahead and made these and it took me a while to get my hands on some because damn do these things sell out fast. 🔹Appearance: it’s a very small bar (51g) thin chocolate coating with a very small amount of peanuts visible on top. 🔹Texture: the centre is a little tougher than a regular snickers, nice sticky caramel layer and a good crunch from the peanuts although there aren’t that many of them. 🔹Taste: Pretty decent. The coating has a proper chocolate taste the caramel is spot on, the peanuts pair very nicely and the centre is sweet, chewy and nought like without being too tough. While it does have the familiar snickers taste, it’s not quite like the really thing. 🔹Macros.
Calories:199
Fat:7.1g
Carbs:18g
Sugar:9.5
Protein:18.4

Macros aren’t amazing for such a small bar but they’re not terrible either. The protein coming from a blend of milk isolate and whey concentrate.
The size, coating, peanuts and caramel have all been scaled back considerably, presumably to keep it macro friendly and being a snickers there had to be at least one E number floating around in there.

Initially I thought these would just be a regular snickers bar with some form of protein supplement thrown in, but credit where it’s due Mars have redesigned the bar from the ground up with some decent macros.

It’s clearly working for them because these things are ridiculously popular and that’s largely down to the snickers name.

Pretty good overall but they are over priced and there are much better options available.
The real genius here is whoever came up with the idea and pitched it to Mars.
That guy is probably driving a Ferrari by now.

7/10

Weider yippee high protein bar,
Peanut caramel flavour.
Traditionally I’v been fairly disappointed with weider products but this was pretty good.

Really nice, thick chocolate layer. Very crunchy with a soft nougat like texture. Couldn’t detect any peanut butter flavour but a really good tasting option overall.
Pretty good macros and very satisfying for a 70g bar.

Hidden gem…

Calories:283
Fat:13
Carbs:24

Protein:20

7/10

Weider first bar, strawberry cheesecake flavour.

Appearance🔹looking pretty short and blocky at 60g these have crispy bits scattered throughout and dried strawberry pieces

Texture🔹: Soft and slightly tacky with a nice amount of chew, there’s crispy bits throughout which give a nice blend of textures.

Taste🔹: Initially there’s a strong vanilla flavour and then the strawberry comes through really well but it’s not overpowering, they use freeze dried strawberry pieces as opposed to artificially flavouring them.

Macros📊
Calories:207
Fat:8
Carbs:7.4 (fibre5.9)
Sugar:0.8
Protein:22

Similar to other flavours, these bars won’t win any prizes for being exciting or dynamic but they do manage to nail the basics.
Good taste, good texture and excellent macros.
7/10

If you like you’re protein bars fruit flavoured, these are a solid choice.

7/10

Trek peanut power bar.

Appearance: 🔹 Thick, stodgy looking bar comes in a pleasing a block like formation. There’s plenty of peanut pieces visible throughout.
It’s states on the packet: “cold pressed, never baked” which I guess means they compress the ingredients into this shape.

Texture🔹: Dense and stodgy with a nice crispiness to it from the soy protein crispies. Crumbly and just a little on the dry side like a flapjack.

Taste🔹: Perfectly sweetened with a strong raw peanut taste throughout. Tastes homemade with no unpleasant artificial flavours.

Macros📊
Calories:203
Fat:6
Carbs:25.7 (fibre3.0)
Sugar:21.1
Protein:10.2

These are designed to be a “whole food energy bar” and so maybe it’s not fair to compare these to dedicated protein bars but they can definitely hold they’re own.

Being a vegan friendly bar the 10g protein comes from soy and soy krispies and the ingredients list is short, they’re sweetened with dates, raisins and fruit juice (which explains the sugar content)

These honestly surprised me, they won’t win any favours for being only 10g protein per bar but flavour and texture wise these are pretty good.

7/10

MP Arnold muscle bar.
Chocolate brownie flavour which got partially melted in my glovebox.

Much better then the the peanut butter flavour but it’s no cinnamon buns.

Calories:370

Fat:16
Carbs:30
Protein:30

7/10

Lenny and Larry’s birthday cake flavour cookie.

Appearance is pretty good. Looks like a properly baked cookie with multi coloured sugar sprinkles. Texture is perfect, dense and crumbly with a proper cookie chew. The sugar strands add a nice crunch.

Flavour is sweet and gets sweeter every time you hit a sprinkle, good flavour but a bit one dimensional which some might find to be a bit bland.

Macros:
Fat:4
Carbs:27 (fibre 4)
Protein:8
Sugar: 15g

It is quite low in protein at 8g but you also have to consider that these are suitable for vegans which is pretty rare for protein bar/cookies. It’ll mean nothing to a lot of people but the world to others. It’s still a great tasting product pretty much anyone will enjoy and that makes them pretty special in my eyes.

That said, I haven’t shown much love for Lenny and Larry’s in the past due to the way they choose to label their product.
They proudly proclaim 20g of protein on the front but on the back the nutritional information is per serving, 1 cookie = 2 servings.
Unless you read it in detail you can easily overlook it, I found it to be deliberately misleading.

But credit where it’s due they have addressed the issue by now offering a single serving size cookie. In my opinion they should have initially done it this way from the start.
Why take the moral high ground by making it vegan and then throw it away with misleading nutritional labelling is beyond me.

It’s not their best flavour (they do have much better ones) but at least they labelled it honestly.

7/10

Nutramino Carmel and vanilla protein bar.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about nutramino bars so I decided to give this one a shot.

Appearance wise its pretty obvious they’ve modelled this flavour after the famous nestle mars bar.

Even the packaging closely mimics Mars.

Good, thick chocolate coating that actually cracks on biting, with a thick nougat centre and caramel layer on top.

The caramel is spot on and taste wise the nougat is sweet with a strong vanilla flavour.

The downside, the texture:
These are chewy, very very chewy.
In fact you might make some face gains because you’re jaw is going to get a workout with this one.

It’s a real shame because taste wise they’ve really nailed it.

Macros:
Calories:270
Fat:11
Carbs:26 (fibre:0.3)
Protein:20

While they are nicely balance they are very small for a 270kcal bar (65g)

So close….
Not bad but has the potential to be so much better.

7/10

Muscle Pharm combat crunch chocolate brownie flavour:

They also come with a decent macro split:

Calories:210
Fat:7
Carbs:25 (fibre12)
Protein:20

Very little to complain about here, a good all rounder although they do seem to be a little on the expensive side (in Ireland at least)
9/10
Would repurchase.

7/10

Weider 20% protein coconut bar:

This one has been obviously modelled after the good old bounty bar. Even the wrapper closely resembles the blue and white of a bounty wrapper.

Roughly the same size as a small bounty, maybe slightly bigger but still pretty small for a protein bar.

Very thin chocolate coating, the centre was more like a chewy nougat with coconut flakes throughout rather then the traditional full on coconut centre of a bounty bar.

Macro wise they resemble a light snack:
Calories:158
Fat:7.3
Carbs:11.8
Protein:7

Although the coating could have been thicker, these are a refreshing break from the norm.
It’s another decent product from a company that continues to surprise me.

If bounties happen to be one of your weakness, these could be a solid substitute.

7/10

Cliff bar, peanut toffee buzz flavour.

Normally I’m not a fan of cliff bars, I find them to be a bit dry and lacking in flavour, but this was as close to a protein bar as I could find yesterday. (These things seem to be everywhere in the U.S)
Surprisingly this flavour was actually really good.

Dense, fudgy and moist just the right amount of peanut butter with a creamy frosting, definitely worth considering flapjacks are your thing.

I guess it’s unfair to refer to cliff bars protein bars, they’re really more like a energy bar and the macros reflect that:

Calories:250
Fat:6
Carbs:42
Protein:10

7/10

Oh yeah low carb bar.
Cookies and cream flavour.

These have a thin creamy coating with a chewy, crumbly centre, (similar to quest) with crunchy bits throughout that give a nice texture, taste was creamy with the right amount of sweetness.

Really enjoyed this one,
a much better choice then oh yeahs victory range.

Nicely balanced macros:
Calories:220
Fat:7
Carbs:23 (fibre 10g)
Protein:22

7/10

The protein ball co
Cherry and almond flavour

I’m always impressed When a company responds to negative feedback and defends their product and after being disappointed with their previous flavour the protein ball company got in touch and informed me that I had in fact picked up their old formula. They asked me try out the new one and give some feedback.

Appearance: 🔹 much like the first, you get 6 little balls on a pack, light brown in colour these have red cherry specs throughout and are studded with almond pieces.

Texture🔹: Much improved, still chewy but not rubbery anymore, the coating of almond around the outside give them a crunch and the dried cherry adds a nice chew to the overall texture.
Taste🔹: Actually very good, there perfectly sweetened the cherry comes through really well and the almonds have been toasted which gives them a stronger flavour. Both these flavours combined gives these a great cherry bakewell vibe. Really impressed
Macros📊
Calories:173
Fat:6.5
Carbs:21.3 (fibre3.2)
Sugar:16.7
Protein:9

Let’s first address the obvious here and state that 9g of protein (coming from egg white powder) is less than ideal, but you need to consider all the elements here.
These are designed to be dairy free and carry a very short ingredients list many made up of fruit and nuts. They’re also free from artificial flavours, preservatives and so on.

The flavour and texture is a huge improvement over the batch I bought a couple of weeks ago, I would honestly repurchase this particular flavour but one annoying factor here is the pricing.
I’ve seen these priced between €3.60 and €2.10 per bag which is pretty extortionate for a tiny 45g product.

If you have a dairy intolerance you’ll probably love them but if you do decide pick some up make sure to shop around and hope you get the newer formula.

6.5/10

Weider 40% protein bar

Very thin chocolate coating around a chewy nougat like centre.
If you’ve ever had a cadburys chomp bar, this is pretty close to the it.

Texture is pretty good, chewy without being tough and they’re sweet but not overly so, with small crunchy bits throughout.

Theses bars, although tasty are very small (32g) and a bit unexciting when compared to some of the bigger brand bars on the market, with their multiple layers and varying textures but then we come to the macros:

Calories:99
Fat:2.8
Carbs:10
Protein:10

They are very small and represent a light snack at best.

But the fact they’ve managed to produce a protein bar for under 100kcal and still make it 40% protein, that will for into anyone’s macros for 100kcal that doesn’t taste like a shoe, is in itself an achievement.

Joe would be proud.

6.5/10

Weider yippee strawberry and almond bar

Good, thick chocolate coating with crispy almond bits on top, a thick nought layer and finally a sweet strawberry centre which has a bit of a chew without being tough.

The crispy coating and the chewy centre give a nice blend of textures as with all the yippee bars.
The chocolate almond coating tastes really good but that strawberry flavour centre is very strong it kind of overpowers the bar as a whole and the almonds get a bit lost.

Something about the pairing of the chocolate with the sweet strawberry flavour doesn’t seem to quite work for me.

Very balanced macro split:
Calories: 286
Fat:13
Carbs:24
Protein:25

While no element of this bar is bad, I’m not not sure if the flavour combination they were going for really works.

6.5/10
Go with the cookie dough or peanut butter yippee instead.

6.5/10

Oatein chocolate and peanut butter flapjack.

Appearance wise these look great, like the cookies flavour they’ve got that homemade look about them.
And like the other flavours are all uniquely shaped (as opposed to some uniform, made in a factory looking bars I could mention)

Quite short, but thick and hefty for a 75g bar.

This flavour have a thick, sweet, milk chocolate coating which half coats the bottom, and quite a few chocolate chunks across the top with a scattering of oats although significantly less chunks then the cookie flavour.

Flavour wise they’re very sweet, stodgy and as satisfying as the cookies flavour they’ve also got that essential crumbly flapjack texture.
The milk chocolate pairs really nicely with the oats. A very satisfying bar.

The downside to this flavour is the lack of any real peanut flavour. It’s very very subtle and had I not read the wrapper i would never have known it was suppose to be peanut butter flavoured.

Macros are similar to cookie flavour:
Calories:310
Fat:8
Carbs:37 (fibre3.2)
Protein:18

And like with the other flavour they also pack 8.5g sugar which is still pretty high.

Overall this is a good product. But it’s a shame they failed to deliver on the peanut butter flavour. I wouldn’t have minded sacrificing another few grams of fat for a scattering of peanut pieces.

Doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin….

6.5/10

QNT So good choco caramel flavour.

Picked this one up at the petrol station post workout. 🔹Appearance: very very small doesn’t look anything like a 60g bar.
Fairly thick milk chocolate coating with a layer of caramel, plenty of peanuts visible through the chocolate on top and a nought like centre. (Pretty snickers like) 🔹Texture: extremely good, soft with a small amount of chew, the peanuts add a nice crunch 🔹Taste: Really good. Proper milk chocolate flavour, plenty of peanuts and the caramel (although there wasn’t very much of it) was sticky and sweet
Macros:
Calories:257
Fat:10
Carbs:23
Sugar:16
Protein:18

Macros are pretty poor given they’re tiny size. There’s a couple of E numbers lurking in there plus the 10g of fat and 16g of sugar is quite a lot for a snack.
I see these being pretty hard for most people to fit into they’re macros on a daily.

Taste and texture were excellent but it’s let down by the poor macro split and tiny size. Worth a try but not too often

6/10

Square bar, chocolate coated crunch.

Appearance: 🔹 much like the first square bar I reviewed, this one also looks like someone’s backed over it in their car. But it’s imperfect form sort of adds to its charm.

Texture🔹: initially the texture is great, there’s a crack from the chocolate coating, it’s crumbly and also melts away but this flavour has rice crisps throughout (hence the name) and while some of them do crunch, some of the crisps have a soggy rice Krispy vibe to them, and that sort of lets the bar down in terms of overall texture.

Taste🔹: Again very good, their sweet, very, very chocolaty and taste far more decadent than the macros would suggest.

Macros📊
Calories:210
Fat:9
Carbs:23 (fibre2)
Sugar:13
Protein:12

Again these aren’t ground breaking macros but you also have to consider these are 100% organic, gluten free and vegan and still taste awesome which in itself is an achievement.

I’ve tried quite a few flavours from the square bar range but I found this one to be my least favourite, it’s let down by its soggy Rice Krispie texture which is a shame because it’s an otherwise outstanding product.

6/10

Quest pumpkin pie flavour:

Picked up the new flavour quest bar today and I was slightly let down:

Unlike other questies this one has a thick pumpkin flavour coating and a gram cracker crumb topping.

These bars are very sweet, and while the gram crack crumbs give a nice texture, the traditional, quest chewy layer seems overly tough, much tougher then other quest bars ( apparently they’ve changed the ingredients lately which seems to have altered the texture). The pumpkin flavour is very subtle and was sort of drowned out by the overall sweetness.

Calories:220
Fat:12
Carbs:19
Protein:21

Not a bad bar overall but, being a fan of pumpkin was I expecting much more.

6/10

Weider f1rst Chocolate brownie flavour:

Appearance: These are a very dark chocolate colour and noticeably sticky when unwrapping them (which is no bad thing)

The texture is really good, chewy and sticky without being too dry, sort of like a giant toffee. There’s also a surprising amount of crispy bits throughout to give a nice blend of textures.

Taste wise it’s lacking a little in terms of any real chocolate or brownie flavour.
While they are sweet and the right amount of sweet, the chocolate flavour is very mild and there’s not really much going on to be honest.

Macros are pretty good:
Macros:198
Fat:7
Carbs:7.2 (fibre:13)
Protein:21

There’s nothing too worrying in the ingredients either with only 0.4g sugar per bar.
(These are primarily sweetened with stevia)

To me it feels like the f1rst bars range is being aimed at the quest bar market as they’re pretty comparable in terms of macros and texture.

To compare them to quest’s brownie flavour f1rst are easily the better bar, lacking a little in flavour but the texture far superior.

6/10

BSN syntha 6 edge bar. Vanilla chocolate fudge flavour.

Appearance: 🔹 Slightly above average sized at 66g. Thick chocolate coating with cookie chunks and a chocolate caramel above a fudge like centre.

Texture🔹: Very soft, dense and fudgy. The cookie pieces add a bit of variation but the centre takes quite a bit of chewing to get through and it turns slightly grainy at the end.

Taste🔹: initially it’s very good, the chocolate coating is top notch (chocolate bar quality) the centre is very sweet and does have a nice vanilla flavour but there’s definitely an odd aftertaste. If you’ve ever eaten the old school protein bars from back in the day these will be immediately familiar.

Macros📊
Calories:222
Fat:7.6
Carbs:21 (fibre7.4)
Sugar:3.6
Protein:20

The macros are pretty good, you get 20g of protein (blend of whey concentrate, milk concentrate and casein) and a decent hit of fibre while keeping the sugar in check.

Overall it’s not a bad offering, they really nail the chocolate coating and the fudge texture.
There’s some good quality ingredients in there but for me that odd aftertaste just lets the whole product down.

6/10

Oh yeah.
Peanut butter and caramel bar

These are large bar (85g), thick peanut flavour coating with loads of full sized peanuts on the top of the bar and in the centre is a sweet nought.

Flavour wise these a very good, the peanut butter coating is creamy and sweet and the many peanuts that cover the bar give a very satisfying crunch with ever bite and the nought is pretty good, although a bit tough to chew.
Not sure why they put “caramel” on the label though, I couldn’t detect any caramel in flavour or texture (and I was really looking for it)

But overall these are a very tasty and satisfying bar.

And now here comes the kicker:

Calories:380
Fat:19
Carbs:30 (fibre 4g)
Protein:27

At 380kcal these are in meal replacement territory already, but 19g fat for one bar is pretty ridiculous.
That’s far more fat than the standard snickers bar. (13.4g)

I can understand given the amount of peanuts they’ve got floating around in there but did the fat really need to be that high for 23g protein?

Flavour and texture wise these are very good but at 380ckal and 19g fat for a snack I can’t see many people picking these up, let alone fitting them into they’re macros, not on a regular basis anyway.

5/10

Lenny and Larry’s cookies and cream muscle brownies.
Taste is excellent, not too sweet, dense and fudgy like a brownie should be with a creme topping. This flavour also had small crunchy bits which add to the texture
Like the rest of the range this one had pretty poor macros for such a small bar which they’ve tried to disguise by labelling each bar as 2 servings per container. I also found it pretty annoying that they proudly proclaim 20g protein in large writing on the front yet label all the nutritional information as 1/2 a brownie on the back.

Calories:340
Fat:10
Carbs:40
Protein:20

Verdict:
ok for the occasional treat.
Spend thy macros elsewhere.

5/10

Protein bonk breaker peanut butter and jelly.

Bit of an unusual one here. “Bonking” (a cycling term as I’m told) is a term used to describe hypoglycaemia or more commonly “hitting the wall”

🔹Appearance: short thick block (62g) with visible peanut chunks throughout with a thin strip of strawberry jelly in the middle. 🔹Texture: Dense and stodgy, pretty moist and crumbly, almost flapjack like with the occasional bits of crispy rice thrown in for a blend of textures. Overall good and pretty satisfying.

🔹Taste: Very sweet, strong peanut flavour throughout with a hit of strawberry jelly and a slight raw peanut flavour from the peanut chunks.

Calories:240
Fat:9
Carbs:30g fibre:5)
Protein:13

Quite high in calories but then again that’s entirely the point. These really are marketed at
towards distance runners, endurance athletes and cyclists if so you fear the dreaded bonk, these will certainly refill your depleted glycogen levels and protect those gains, the 13g of protein is really just a bonus.
Also noticed a baffling amount of ingredients, Apple, pineapple, peach and pear juice, tapioca, honey, red cabbage extract, you name it, it’s in here.

Consider my bonk well and truly broken.
Not a bad product, nice idea but they’re aimed at quite a specific market and there’s no real shortage of glycogen sources out there.
Obviously not one for the carb dodgers.

5/10

Post workout;

Lenny and Larry’s complete cookie.
Snickerdoodle flavour.

Taste fantastic, these things are big, dense and really satisfying.
Strong cinnamon flavour with a crunchy sugar like coating. Sort on the inside and crumbly like a really cookie should be. Not a huge amount of protein but pretty low in fat.

Why 5/10? Because of the way in which they chose to label the the nutritional facts.
The servings per container are 2, despite the fact it’s an individually wrapped cookie. 1 cookie = 2 servings. Quite misleading in my honest opinion and a real shame given its an otherwise excellent product.
1 cookie aka 2 servings:
Calories:370
Fat:8
Carbs:56
Protein:16

5/10

Trying something a bit different today as a post workout snack:

Strong & kind hickory smoked almond bar.

Almonds, pumpkin and hemp seeds covered in a sticky honey coating, really good subtle smoky flavour that pairs nicely with the sweetness of the honey and nuts.

Macros aren’t very good. A bit fat heavy and quite low in protein for 230kcal (due to all the nuts)

Fat:16
Carbs:15 (fibre3)
Protein:10

Nice for a change but they would never be a staple

4/10

Bodybuilding warehouse chocolate chunk flapjacks.

Appearance wise these aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing,
There quite a large bar (75g), chocolate flavour flapjack style bar with oats flakes and chocolate chunks throughout.

Flavour wise initially they’re pretty good, good chocolate flavour throughout and the chocolate chunks are quite large and plentiful.
But then the bitterness hits you, these are sweetened with stevia and they’ve really gone overboard with it.

The bar tends to be leave a bitter aftertaste (if you’ve ever made the mistake of adding too much stevia to something you’ll know exactly what I mean). It doesn’t ruin the bar but it’s definitely noticeable.

Texture wise there quite crumbly and very dry, a bit too dry. The chocolate chunks are good and work really well but not enough to combat the initial dryness.

Calories:248
Fat:4
Carbs:33
Protein:20

Macro wise they’re very impressive for a large bar, 4g fat is outstanding for a bar this size.

Certain elements of this bar are excellent but others aren’t, which is a shame because there’s plenty of potential here,
Bottom line: They’re sweetened and the texture is far to dry for me.

4/10

Trek original pay protein flapjack.

Appearance: 🔹 decent size at 50g, they’re not too exciting to look at but there’s plenty of oats viable throughout.

Texture🔹: Really good, crumbly and crunchy from all the oats. Dry but not overly. Perfect flapjack texture.

Taste🔹: Not too sweet. You can really taste the oats but beyond that they’re isn’t really much going on. It really would have helped to throw another flavour in there, as if comes off a bit bland and dull without.

Macros📊
Calories:217
Fat:9.8
Carbs:21 (fibre2)
Sugar:12
Protein:10

The macros aren’t outstanding but then again flapjacks seldom are. And to its credit they are vegan friendly but they are very very bland and one dimensional. Now I know some people prefer basic, simple flavours but these are too simple in my opinion.

I can’t help thinking that adding an additional flavour here would have made all the difference. it just feels a bit incomplete like your waiting for that other element that never appears.

4/10
Skip the original and go for a flavoured trek instead.

4/10

Optimum nutrition complete protein bar
Caramel crunch

Appearance: 🔹 A pretty small 50g bar. Thin chocolate coating around a caramel type centre. Pretty straightforward.

Texture🔹: Good sticky toffee texture with a nice soft chew. Absolutely no crunch whatsoever which was a bit disappointing given the name.

Taste🔹: The caramel centre was good, sweet with a toffee flavour but the chocolate coating isn’t. Initially it tastes fine but it has a very mild sour aftertaste you usually get with cheaper brands of chocolate (Hershey bars in my opinion suffer from the same issue)

Macros📊
Calories:170
Fat:4.2
Carbs:13 (fibre5.8)
Sugar:5.9
Protein:20

Thats a really good macro split and being an Optimum Nutrition product it’s got some quality ingredients, they’ve used they’re hydrolysed whey isolate , milk protein concentrate and even miceller casein. (Don’t remember ever seeing a bar with casein in it before)

For me they’ve spent way too much time working on their ingredient list and completely forgotten about the taste, blindly labelling “crunch” hasn’t helped either.

4/10

Max sport
Legalized hemp raw protein bar.

Crumbly, chewy texture. Soft with small seeds throughout.

Taste actually wasn’t too bad, initially sweet like dried fruit with a bitter but not unpleasant after taste
These things are absolutely tiny at 42g and the macros are nothing special:

Calories:166
Fat:7
Carbs:13
Protein:7

The packaging really emphasises the fact it’s made with hemp seeds it’s almost as if they’re trying to appeal the cannabis fans.
Who I’m guessing won’t be too worried about their protein intake…. Or anything at all for that matter.

Still it was a nice idea that I guess will appeal to the vegan and raw food crowd but at only 7g of protein it’s hard to argue that this is in fact a protein bar and not another dried fruit snack bar.

It’s only ingredients are:
Shelled hemp seeds
Hemp flour
Dried dates,
Prunes
Raisins
Cocoa powder.

So nothing sinister at all in there at least.

It wasn’t a bad idea but it’s never going to be in the same league as the big boys of the protein bar world.

3.5/10

The protein ball Co. Peanut butter flavour.

I know these aren’t a bar strictly speaking but bear with me on this:

Appearance🔹A bit odd, you get 6 bits sized balls in a 45g pack, light brown coloured and studded with peanut pieces and salt.

Texture🔹: soft and chewy, there’s a slight crunch from the peanuts, nor bad overall

Taste🔹: There’s a raw peanut taste from the coating and the saltiness comes through but outside of that there’s not a lot happening here. I can see what they were going for: salty, sweet. But the flavours aren’t strong enough and I was left a bit disappointed.

Macros📊
Calories:187
Fat:8.4
Carbs:20 (fibre:2)
Sugar:16
Protein:10

Credit where it’s due though they have managed to make them with an ingredients list literally only 6 ingredients long. Strangely they opted to use dried egg white powder for the 10g protein.
Overall, It’s not a bad idea it was just poorly executed.
Price isn’t something I normally factor in but I found €3 for 45g bag pretty ridiculous.

3/10

Quest chocolate brownie flavour
(Old formula)

First Quest bar review in quite a while.

I was once a massive Quest fan but I stopped buying them after they changed the formula from IMO (isomaltooligosaccharide) to soluble corn fibre. (Which isn’t nearly as good in flavour or macro split)

I found this one in a petrol stations and was happy to see it was the still the old formula quest so decided to get reacquainted.

I hadn’t noticed before but these are small, very small (where they always this small?) and a bit manufactured looking.

Texture was very tough, and very chewy. It actually requires a lot of effort to break them up. So expect to make some jaw gains.
Now I know quest purists out there will tell me “they’re much better if you bake or microwave them” but that’s besides the point.
I feel you should be able to pick up a snack bar, unwrap it and eat it without needing to add any further steps.

Flavour wise they are still pretty good, strong, sweet chocolate flavour and they do manage to have a pretty authentic brownie taste.

And at least the macros are still good:
Calories:170
Fat:7
Carbs:22 (fibre16)
Protein:20

There’s also nothing worrying in the ingredients and they manage to make them sweet enough with only 0.5g sugar.

But that alone won’t save them from that brutal texture. The difference in terms of texture between this flavour and the s’mores flavour is night and day.

Overall these I feel are no longer a good choice and for the macros they’re are far better options available now a days.
Quest badly need to update they’re product range if they’re to stay competitive in the future.

If you have to pick a quest bar pick the cookie dough or s’mores instead, they’re so much better.

3/10

Gatorade Recover chocolate chip protein bar.

Appearance is really good, pretty big with a thick chocolate coating.
Good sized, large bar at 80g.

Texture is good, crispy and crunchy pretty similar to a toffee crisp bar although these are a bit dryer and missing that essential chew.
Plenty of crispy bits and chocolate chips really good milk chocolate coating that’s tastes like proper chocolate.

Quite high in calories but given that they’re marketed as “recover” bars (which I’m guessing is post workout) I can understand where they were going with this, although the macros are sailing close to meal replacement territory

Calories:360
Fat:13
Carbs:42 (fibre:2)
Protein:20

Not too bad for a post workout right ?

Wrong.

These bars pack 29g of sugar which is pretty crazy for a protein bar, given that the guideline daily amount is about 30g for adults (which they seem to have completely ignored). They’re not bad as an occasional treat, but then again so is a toffee crisp (which has only 23g sugar)

Much like my American rental car, this bar looks awesome but fails to get the basics right.

3/10

Fulfil cookies and cream flavour protein bar.

Picked this up while out driving this weekend.

After being blown away by how good the fulfil caramel peanut flavour bar was, I had high hopes for this one.

Strange appearance, it’s dry and brittle on top and just the bottom half is chocolate coated, with a thin creamy layer in the centre.

On first bite these are crumbly and dry, very dry. The texture is pretty bad, brick like, sticky and very chewy. There’s not much going on in terms of flavour.
While the creamy layer is pretty tasty there isn’t enough of it to combat the dryness of the top layer.
I’m not even sure what they were going for here but it simply hasn’t worked.

Calories:195
Fat:6.2
Carbs:11.5
Protein:19.9

Decent macros, but won’t make up for that texture.

Fulfil is a fairly small Irish company that I’m a big fan of, and I really wanted these to be good but they just aren’t.

Give this a miss, buy the caramel peanut instead.

3/10

The dreaded reflex R bar:
Chocolate peanut caramel.

Iv seen quite a few negative reviews on these and I can see why.

First off they are not very appealing appearance wise,
Light brown in colour with little orange blotches (i have no idea what they are)

The texture is very odd, soft and crumbly, not chewy at all. Defiantly have a plastic feel to them like a Lego brick.

Taste is sweet but lacking in any real flavour, very subtle chocolate taste and I can’t detect any caramel flavour at all.
They do have some extremely smalls bits of nut throughout them, but they’re so scarce that it’s hard to even notice them.

Calories:205
Fat:9
Carbs:10 (fibre9g)
Protein:20

Macros are fairly well balanced but that’s the only real positive here.

Verdict:
I want my macros back…

3/10

Multipower cookies and cream 50% protein bar.

Appearance: 🔹 Pretty flat, chocolate covered bar at 50g with a chewy nought centre and cookie pieces throughout.

Texture🔹: this ones very chewy and it turns quite tacky after a few seconds. I also didn’t notice the cookie prices, they add nothing texture wise.

Taste🔹: the milk chocolate coating is quite good but after that things go downhill. The centre is sweet but pretty flavourless, the cookie pieces again fail to add anything and there’s definitely an odd aftertaste. Altogether bland And not really pleasant.

Macros📊
Calories:173
Fat:4.2
Carbs:12.5 (fibre1.5)
Sugar:0.9
Protein:25

Credit where it’s due, that is an impressive macro split and it is indeed a 50% protein bar.
But outside of that this bar fails on pretty much every other level.
They also have mind boggling amount of ingredients.
Reminds me of the old school protein bars, bland and instantly forgettable.

3/10

Muscletech mission 1 “clean” protein bar.
Chocolate brownie flavour.

Appearance is pretty good, although being a bit flat looking they do have plenty of chocolate chips across the top.

Texture wise these are very chewy, even rubbery and not altogether that pleasant.
Also after biting into it I realise that those weren’t chocolate chips on top at all, not sure what they are but I suspect they’re just chips of the original bar, remoulded and placed back on top.

Strong cocoa flavour thats sweet rather than bitter and they did manage to nail that essential brownie flavour.
No strange after tastes despite using stevia.

Macros:
Fat:6
Carbs:24 (fibre 20…. Yup 20)
Protein:20
Sugar: 1g

Credit where it’s due these are made with a more expensive whey isolate rather than a concentrate and they did manage to get the flavour right, but what we have here is a rubbery bar of fibre that’s been disguised with a half decent brownie flavour.

They seem to have jumped on the soluble corn fibre bandwagon with quest and it hasn’t really worked for them.
Its appearance makes them look a lot better then they actually are.
Also I find that writing “clean” on the label of a protein bar to be a bit condescending in this day and age.

Sort your texture out.

2/10

B up sugar cookie flavour protein bar,

Very soft very chewy texture, almost mushy like a marshmallow.
Not much I can say on the flavour front. Quite sweet but very very bland.
Had I not read the outside of the packet there’s no way I’d have ever guessed what flavour it was meant to be. They do have 2 different layers but besides the colour, I can’t distinguish between them… These bars seem to be pretty popular but their not for me.

Reasonable macros but without any flavour what’s the point?? Calories:180
Fat:6
Carbs:27(fibre:20… Yup20)
Protein:20

2/10

PhD diet whey
Strawberry cheesecake flavour.

Appearance🔹 Very small bar at 50g with a painfully thin chocolate coating that you can actually see through.

Texture🔹the bad: very tough and chewy, it’s a bit of a chore to get through.
The good: if I ever die in a plane crashed you’ll be able to identify me using a PhD bar via my dental records.

Taste🔹 There’s a strawberry flavour but it’s very synthetic, outside of that, there’s not a lot going on here. The chocolate coating is so thin it’s hard to tell what it even tastes like.
Why they decided to call it strawberry cheesecake is completely beyond me.

Macros📊
Calories:178
Fat:4.5
Carbs:14
Sugar:0.8
Protein:25

They’ve gone with a blend of whey concentrate, isolate and soy for protein and they’ve flavoured it with freeze dried strawberry powder. The front label also states they’ve included CLA powder and L-Carnitine presumably to make it look like a “fat burning” supplement and on the back they’ve actually added the directions for use…. “Consume 1-2 diet whey bars between meals”

Which was a big help because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with it.

It’s clear by the name “diet whey” (whatever the hell that is) that they’ve gone after the naive “eat this and loose weight” market with this product.
To be fair they do have a decent macro split and their quite low in calories but the bars are so small that’s it’s not really a fair trade off.

It’s ironic they’re named PhD given the amount of bro science that’s going on here.
If your planning on spending 178kcal on a protein bar, splurge and spend the extra 40kcal or so to get a decent one.

2/10

Sci Mx strawberry and white chocolate chip pro 2 go cookie
Appearance🔹 Large sized cookie at 75g with white chocolate chips and a few specks of strawberry pieces.
Texture🔹Their initially quite chewy but end up being very dry and gritty. Cookies should be somewhat moist and these are far from it.

Taste🔹 Not great, overly sweet and there’s a strong synthetic strawberry flavour that completely over powers everything, I also noticed a strange aftertaste that was almost bitter.

Macros📊
Calories:302
Fat:8.7
Carbs:32 (fibre: 1.8)
Sugar:4.8
Protein:23

Eyeing the ingredients the 23g of protein comes from a mixture of “milk” and soy protein and its been flavoured with concentrated strawberry purée that someone has clearly been too trigger happy with.

It’s not bad macro wise considering its massive size but it’s let down by its poor, dry texture and awful over the top strawberry flavour.

I doubt either Lenny or Larry are going to be too worried about this one.
Disappointing.

2/10

Maxsport kex Cocoa flavour protein wafer

Appearance wise these aren’t too pretty, they looked a bit thrown together with an uneven thin chocolate coating (so thin you can see through it)
Inside there’s a crumbly chocolate centre sandwiched between two wafers.

These have really nice chocolate kick to them but texture wise they’re incredibly dry, so dry they’re actually a bit of a challenge to get down.

Macros aren’t too special either:
Calories:210
Fat:13
Carbs:10
Protein:12

I also found them to be pretty unsatisfying at only 35g.

For 210kcal I was pretty unsatiated
They have managed to keep the carbs quite low but so is the protein and while the flavour isn’t bad, there are definitely better options available.
Poor quality and far too dry.

2/10

Maxi muscle protein bar summer fruit flavour.

Found this guy in a discount store over the weekend. 🔹Appearance: really tiny bar (45g) painfully thin yogurt type coating (you can actually see through) underneath is a red fruit flavoured layer and under that, a crispy cereal like centre 🔹Texture: crispy and a little dry but not bad overall. Very similar to Kellogg’s cereal bar. 🔹Taste: Very sweet, too sweet. There’s a strong synthetic strawberry flavour that’s overpowering everything else. Not pleasant
Macros
🔹Calories:167
Fat:3.3
Carbs:25g (fibre:1)
Sugar:7.8g
Protein:13

2/10

Overall this looks and feels like a cheap product. 7.8g of sugar for a 45g bar is s also pretty ridiculous (it’s 17% sugar). While there’s no E numbers hiding in here the list of ingredients is simply mind boggling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many on a protein bar. The whopping 10g protein comes from a cheap soya blend.

Then there’s the packaging…. This is the only bar I have ever seen that carries directions. (I shit you not) “When and how to use: take 1-2 per day as a protein rich snack at any time of the day”

What? Why? Even if I do manage to eat 2 bars a day that’s still only 20g protein. I would love someone from to @maxinutritionuk explain they’re logic to me? I get the impression someone at maxi muscle doesn’t know what they’re actually doing.

Texture is okay but pretty much everything else is a let down.
This bar, similar to they’re bizarre slogan: “Do more. Protein goodness.” makes absolutely no sense.

N.R.G fuel
O.M.G protein flapjack (That is actually what its called, I’m not making it up)
Bakewell flavour

Found this guy randomly lurking in a discount store over the weekend. Pretty cheap at €1.50 per bar.

Appearance wise it’s a very appealing, bulky bar. Similar appearance to a mr Kipling cake.

Quite heavy at 80g

Texture is excellent, moist, crumbly like a flapjack should be the coating is creamy and sweet with a thin fruity, cherry layer underneath followed by the moist, stodgy oats.

What’s not to like?? The macros, that’s what:

Calores:338
Fat:11.9
Carbs:47
Protein:10.5

For 338kcal you’ll be rewarded with 10.5g of protein and a whopping 23.7g of sugar.
O.M.G indeed.

There’s another couple of things which bother me about these, like the packaging. It’s pretty crap and for some reason the coating covers the top and just one side, (not both sides, just one)

I’m not sure why this is as they decided to do that but they clearly weren’t worried about the macros.

Credit where it’s due the the flavour is spot on but the whole thing feels like a poor quality product and that macro split is just brutal.

By comparison 2 mr Kipling Bakewell slices would run you:

Calories:288
Fat:12
Carbs:41.2 (sugar: 24.8)
Protein:2.8

O.M.G? W.T.F?

1/10

Nutramino lean cookie dough protein bar:

I’ve seen these around on Insta a lot lately and after being quite impressed with the other nutramino bars I immediately grabbed one when I seen it today.

First bite these are very soft with a bit of a chew, but they do turn quite dry and chalky.
There are chocolate chips throughout but there very sparse (I counted 2 in the whole bar)

Then the flavour:
These are sweet, very very sweet. But that initial sweetness gives way to a very unpleasant bitter aftertaste.

If you’ve ever accidentally added too much stevia or artificial sweetener to something you’ll know what I mean.

On the label it proudly states that they’re sweetened with stevia. Which is great but they’ve gone overboard with it and killed the taste as a result. It’s not even subtle, its very noticeably bitter.

Calories:208
Fat:4.1
Carbs:8
Protein:20

I’m not even sure how this make it past the tasting panel?

The macros are pretty good, but the texture wasn’t and no amount of advertising is going to save it from that awful taste.

1/10

Oh yeah Victory bar, oatmeal chocolate chip.

I bought 2 boxes of these recently, as they were on offer at buy one get one free. Now I see why. Texture is chewy, crumbly with white oaty flecks and Chocolate chips,
First taste their sweet but not overly so and quite pleasant but then comes the after taste.
There’s defiantly an odd, bitter chemical aftertaste.
It’s hard to describe but if you’ve ever put too much stevia or artificial flavouring in something, you’ll know what I mean.
Initially I thought it was just my taste buds but Mrs thebeltsander also confirmed it. I even tried a bar from the other box to see if it was just a bad batch but alas, the chemical aftertaste was also present.

Oh yeah are usually quite good but somethings gone terribly wrong with these.

I really couldn’t recommend these no matter how good the offer is.

Calories:200
Fat:6
Carbs:28
Protein:21

3 comments

Ravi says:

April 8, 2016 at 8:12 pm

Awesome balanced reviews! I have looked back at my own bar reviews where I have tried the same bar and we have a similar opinion which is good! Great website too!

1. The Beltsander says:
  
  May 10, 2016 at 10:04 am
  
  Thanks for the support
  
  Belt
  
Grá says:

January 18, 2017 at 12:52 pm

Loved reading these! I have different opinions on some because of my crazy sweet tooth (e.g. Combat Crunch cinnamon and Quest pumpkin) but I’m with you on most. Particularly disappointed by Fulfil cookies and cream! Must try some more though – in the UK so not as easy to stumble across them and want to try white choc cookie dough. Peanut caramel very good.
Grenade are impressing me too – Banana Armour was a huge surprise so looking forward to trying Peanut Nutter.
In the Oh Yeah One bars I’m partial to pumpkin pie and peanut butter.
Prosupps MyBar salted caramel peanut crunch was OMG delicious.
Definitely going to try more of your recommendations. It’s not like I don’t have around 200 bars stashed at home…

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