PowerBar Energy Bites Peanut Butter Crisp: Not All That Crisp But Tasty Nonetheless
Written: Mar 18 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great if you need a quick snack, whole oats, 8 grams of protein.
Cons: Bags aren’t resealable, taste absolutely horrible after the expiration date.
The Bottom Line: Not everyone is going to love these but if you are into the granola scene, these should do nicely to kill off cravings for sweets.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Power Bar Energy Bites Peanut Butter Crisp |
With so many different nutritional, sport, energy and meal replacement bars on the market, it was only a matter of time before someone ended up trying to make something new from them. PowerBar created the Energy Bite line to try and appeal to people who want something somewhat health to snack on without limiting themselves to the low carb or high protein groups. I’ve tried a number of the flavors and this one isn’t all that bad but you really do have to pay attention to the expiration date, get a bag that is even a few weeks past that date and they have a completely different taste to them, and trust me, that taste isn’t appealing in the least. Most bars that you get are 1.76 ounces, that’s the same amount in one of the bags of Energy Bites but you are sort of tricked into thinking that you are eating more because you have to keep reaching into the bag. That’s great if you are really hungry and a normal energy or low carbohydrate bar won’t cut it but you can’t sit there and suck down two or three bags without getting bloated from it.
PowerBar Energy Bites Peanut Butter Crisp
[soy crisps, glucose syrup, rice crisps, whole oats, peanuts, fructose, honey, sugar, whey powder, salt, pectin and peanut flour]
Most of the nuggets that come out of the bag are a uniformed shape but you can expect some of them to be broken up. It looks like all the ingredients were smashed together and then cut out with some sort of six sided die, you can pop a few of them in your mouth at a time but if you are trying to limit your carb intake you might want to half a third of the bag at a time. This is not a low carb food item so if you are doing a ketosis plan, this might snap you right out of it. They are slightly crunchy but when you hear the words ‘peanut butter crisp’ you sort of expect them to have a little more of a crunch factor to them. The brood really liked these and even went to far as to smash them up and put them on top of ice cream. Yeah, that sort of defeats the purpose but they are kids and they can burn off a lot more calories than I can. This wasn’t their favorite though, they liked the raisin oatmeal and chocolate peanut ones a little more.
As far as the overall taste, as I said, you have to get them when they have a good amount of shelf life left. That goes for all of the Energy Bites, not just this flavor. The downside is that once you open a bag, the clock is ticking. I tried popping these in the freezer to see if I could stretch out their life span but they tasted horrible. You can put them in a zipper style plastic bag but even then, the air has hit them and you may be able to keep them around for three to four days, after that the flavor of them changes dramatically. The energy that PowerBar claims that these will give you comes from sugar / fructose and honey so don’t expect to get more than a few hours of power from them. The whole oats, peanuts and soy and rice crisps are a positive in the energy factor but in the end, the amount of sugar in them is going to make you crash. This is not a meal replacement product and shouldn’t be used instead of having a well balanced meal.
The Stats
Calories: 210
Serving: 1 bag / 1.76 ounces
Fat: 5 grams
Protein: 8 grams
Carbohydrates: 32 grams
Sugar: 12 grams
Fiber 1 gram
Sodium: 250 mg
Price
Oddly enough, these cost a lot less in San Diego than they do here. I could get them at places like Sports Depot and SportMax for about .99 cents a bag. Here they cost about $1.49 but I haven’t seen them at the gym recently so I have no idea if PowerBar stopped making them or they are selling like crazy and can’t keep them in stock. If you try these and like them you can buy them by the box for a little less than individual prices but again, you have to know that the expiration date is going to be far enough away that you aren’t going to have to toss them. If you are purchasing them online make sure you ask them what the shelf life is, if they can’t answer you or give you some story about the warehouse being three miles away, go with a different vendor.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot worse things that you could grab to snack on than these. They provide you with 90% of the RDA of Calcium, Niacin, Thiamin and Vitamin B12 so they are packed with some great minerals for your body. If you are burned out on bars then this is a nice change of pace but I can’t guarantee that everyone is going to love the taste. PowerBar is one of the leading companies in sports nutrition products and they have a tremendous line of food items. You can find out more about what they make and sell at their website, www.powerbar.com or if you are having trouble finding PowerBar products in your area, call their customer service team to find a retailer in your area. [800] 58-POWER. While they don’t advertise it as much as they should, PowerBar does stand behind all their products, if you aren’t satisfied with them, contact them and they will replace them or offer you a refund.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
Other PowerBar product reviews ...
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Recommended:
Yes
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