Alright folks, I busted out the video camera for this one, so you KNOW it must be business time.
For those of you who frequent my site, you know I like to throw down a serious amount of food, which more often than not leads to both inner shame and public embarrassment. I’m a big fan of sweets – pies, cakes, and more specifically MAN’S GREATEST INVENTION (formally known as the Cinnabon), so when I found out that there was a protein bar on the market that supposedly tasted like apple pie, I had to check it out.
This bar is a big ‘ol bucket full of win for several reasons.
1) Taste & Quality Ingredients
It’s pretty safe to say that if you look on the back label of most protein bars you’re going to be hit with a bunch of words that you can’t pronounce and don’t know the meaning of. For all we know know, they could be talking about our moms, and that just ain’t right!
As an example, here is the ingredient list of another apple pie flavored protein bar on the market:
Soy Crisps (Soy Protein Isolate, Tapioca Starch, Salt), Apple Layer (Apple Puree Concentrate, Deionized Apple Juice Concentrate), Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Glycerol, Vegetable Fat, Cornstarch, Wheat Fiber, Malic Acid, Calcium Lactate, Natural Flavor, Sunflower Lecithin), Yogurt Coating (Sugar, Palm Kernel Oil, Nonfat Dry Milk Solids, Yogurt Powder (Cultured Whey Protein In Concentrate, Cultured Skim Milk, Yogurt Culture), Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural Flavor),, Corn Syrup, Crystalline Fructose, METAMYOSYN® VXP Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Dried Egg White, L-Glutamine), Maltitol Syrup, Dried Apples, Palm Oil, Glycerin, Water, Canola Oil, Ground Cinnamon, Natural Flavor, Fructooligosaccharides, Vitamin And Mineral Blend (Ascorbic Acid, Tri-Calcium Phosphate, D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Zinc Oxide, Copper Gluconate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Cyanocobalamin), Xanthan Gum, Di-Potassium Phosphate, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Wheat Germ, Peanut Flour, Almond Meal.
Compare this to the Quest apple pie bar ingredient list:
Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate), Isomalto-Oligosaccharide* (100% Natural Prebiotic Fiber), Almonds, Water, Apples, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt, Cinnamon, Lo Han Guo, Sucralose
* Isomalto-Oligosaccharides are 100% Natural Prebiotic Fibers derived from plant sources.
See the difference? High quality ingredients, no crappy fillers (such as soy lecithin), and no sugar alcohols, which commonly give people the farts – not a good thing if you want to eat these in the company of those you care about.
The addition of all these additives and such usually give the bar a fake, chemical taste. Quest bars, though? No such taste, and if you look at the ingredients you can see why. They’re also gluten-free to boot.
2) Caloric Intake
There are certainly a lot of protein bars on the market to choose from, but a majority of them are just glorified candy bars: tons of fat and sugar pumped into the bar to make it taste palatable while containing inferior protein sources. If you get any fiber, it’s usually a measly 1-2 grams, which is nothing to write home about. All of these additions usually increase the calorie count to at least 350-400 calories per bar.
Quest bars on the other hand contain between 170 & 210 calories (depending on the flavor) and all of them contain at least 17 grams of fiber, and at most 24 grams of carbohydrate. Do you know how incredibly dope that is? Let me break it down for you:
24g carbs – 17g fiber = 7 grams of actual carbohydrates = AWESOME!
At 20 grams of protein bar, they pretty much fit into any scenario that you can imagine without breaking your caloric budget. They’re also great to have in a pinch if you need something quick on the go or need to take the edge off before you end up going on a wild food binge and blow all of the progress that you’ve made.
So, if you don’t want to watch the video review or look at my pretty mug, here is the verdict: DELICIOUS! If someone created a gun that used these bars as ammo instead of bullets, I would willingly put my face in harms way just to try and get a bite of them as they whizzed by.
If you’ve been burned by crappy protein bars in the past, you owe it to yourself to give these bars a try. You can find them at Quest Protein Bar in a wide variety of flavors (I’ve had 3 so far myself, all delicious), and you can even try a free sample before you commit to purchasing a larger order.
If you want to go that route, I suggest buying a single bar and paying for the shipping because it may take awhile for them to ship out the free sample due to popular demand. Also if you type SHIPFREE in the coupon section of your order, you’ll get free shipping on your first order – don’t say Rog Law never gave you anything!
Just in case you were wondering, I have no affiliation with this company at all. I don’t get any sort of kickback from this review or if you end up purchasing anything – I just want to share some incredibly tasty bars with you all.
Thanks for the tip! I am going to see if they sell them here! Good video, too!
~Victor
Thanks, Vic!
They aren’t sold in retail stores yet as far as I know, which definitely helps keep down on the cost of such a high quality product. Ordering online is the only way to go.
I’ve always been impressed with Cliff bars-ingredients and taste. Carrot Cake is espeically tastey.
Haven’t seen Quest bars before. Will be on the look out if they hit retail.
I definately stay away from the sugar alcohols. I worked at a weight loss camp one summer and the syrup they served with the pancakes was sweetend with sugar alcohols. Needless to say, I didn’t eat pancakes all summer. Unfortunately I the kids did.
I’ve had a Cliff Bar before and in my opinion these bars drop kick them in the face as far as taste and ingredients go. If nothing else, go ahead and order a free sample to try them out!
P.S. – Womp womp to the sugar alcohols!
Unicorn blood, Roger?? OMG! thank you for the laugh..But, it definately sounds good…
Please give one of these a try – you won’t regret it. If not for you, do it for your high maintenance kitty!
LMAO!! You really need to take your ‘show’ on the road. You crack me up.. 🙂
Rog – you are nuts. Do you suggest eating this as a snack or meal replacement since the whole 24-17 its only 7g of protein…
First comment ever – woohoo!
You could honestly use it as a snack, a small meal, or as part of a meal. The 7g is actually for the carbs though, since all the bars from Quest have 20g of protein per bar.
These are, by far, the best bars EVER. I love the vanilla almond ones. They taste like raw cookie dough, which is what EVERYTHING should taste like.
Have you tried putting them in the microwave for about 15 sec? I have to play this every time that I eat one of these bars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnWf1sQkjY&ob=av3e