Monday, November 19, 2012

Overpriced And Low On Taste, PowerBar ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars Leave Me Unimpressed!


The Good: Very healthy, Filling
The Bad: Very expensive , Taste quickly turns pretty bad.
The Basics: PowerBar ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars make a fast transition from delightful chocolate to reprocessed cardboard that leaves the healthy consumer unimpressed.


As my wife starts a new, low-carb diet, I find myself on a sympathy diet to help her meet her goals. That means, some of my new reviews will be of healthy foods, regardless of whether they are low carb or not. To eat less around her (to help her avoid temptation), I decided to try a bar that is supposed to take the place of a meal. To the credit of the PowerBar Chocolate Brownie ProteinPlus Bars, they do fill one up adequately.

Unfortunately, they are gross.

I picked the PowerBar ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie bar up on clearance for a little over a dollar and knowing that they are usually at least twice that each makes it impossible for me to recommend these, except to the taste-impaired.

Basics

PowerBar is the company that merchandises its specialized diet plan for those who are trying to lose weight or put on muscle or just stop eating full meals, I suppose. The PowerBar ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars are part of their standard line marketed towards dieters, outdoors enthusiasts and fitness-minded individuals, none of whom are supposed to use their tastebuds (based on how these taste under their chocolate shell!).

The ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars come in a 90 gram, 3.17 oz. chocolate bar that is foil-wrapped. Each bar represents a single serving and PowerBars are 1 3/4" wide by 4 5/8” long 5/8” high chocolate-coated bars that are smooth. One bar is one portion, so this is very easy to get into on the portion front! These snack bars come individually wrapped, though some places sell them by the box.

Ease Of Preparation

Eating PowerBar ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars is not a real challenge. After removing the wrapper, simply pull out the bar and stick it in your mouth. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating this chocolate bar. This is an entirely ready-to-eat food!

Taste

The Chocolate Brownie bar smells like rich, dark chocolate. This smells like a solid, dark chocolate bar and it is very inviting to those who love chocolate.

On the tongue, the Chocolate Brownie PowerBar is initially chocolate. The flavor is that of a sufficiently dark chocolate bar to instantly satisfy. It melts away in the mouth to reveal the “brownie” center. The “brownie” is actually a super-dense, chewy meal that does not taste at all like chocolate or brownies. In fact, separated from the outer coating, this bar tastes moist and bland, with an oddly dry flavor. In fact, the center tastes like ground cardboard that has been compressed. It is bland, but heavy and ultimately far less satisfying than the coating and initial scent would have one believe.

The Chocolate Brownie has a strongly chocolate aftertaste, but it also leaves the mouth feeling exceptionally dry. The Chocolate Brownie PowerBar is also seriously dense, so it does leave the consumer feeling full. This is actually quite annoying in that the mouth is left so dry that one wants to drink a lot to get the aftertaste out of the mouth, but they feel too full to want to put anything else into their body!

Nutrition

PowerBars Chocolate Brownie ProteinPlus Bars are intended as meal replacement. These 3.17 oz. bars represent a single serving and are surprisingly filling. Made primarily of PowerBar Trisource Protein Blen, evaporated cane juice syrup, and glucose syrup, the ingredient list is, rather surprisingly, not weighed down by unintelligible ingredients. This is not an all-natural food product and these snack bars were produced on equipment that forces them to add a disclaimer about milk, soy, wheat, almonds, and peanuts.

PowerBar's ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars have a whopping 360 calories, 100 of which are from fat. A bar represents 23% of one's RDA of saturated fat, though they have only 5 mg cholesterol. As well, they are comparatively low in sodium, having only 240 mg (10% RDA) per serving. They also have 30 grams of protein, which represents 60% of the RDA.

Storage/Cleanup

PowerBar ProteinPlus Chocolate Brownie Bars are amazingly bland regardless of when they are eaten or how they are stored. Unopened, they have a decent shelf life around eight months. We purchased ours in mid-November (2012) and they had an expiration date of July 27, 2013. If they melt, they will stain, so consult your fabric guide if that happens. Otherwise, cleanup is simply throwing the foil wrapper away when you are done with the chocolate bar.

Overall

PowerBar Chocolate Brownie ProteinPlus Bars are deceptively inviting with their aroma, but quickly turn into a depressingly dry, mealy food that is not satisfying to consume.

For other reviews of healthy snacks, please check out:
Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares
Peeled Organic Apricot-a-lot
Quaker Chocolate Crunch Rice Cakes

3/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page on the subject! That is available by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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