By Sasha Semanision
For people who want to live a healthy lifestyle, finding snacks that are healthy, tasty and convenient is important. Protein bars are a popular option, and there are many to choose from.
As a regular consumer of Quest protein bars, I decided to see how one of their new flavors, dipped chocolate peanut butter, compares with other Quest bars flavors and peanut butter flavored bars from other brands.
Before I could try the bar, I had to acquire one. Unfortunately, stores in the area did not carry them or ran out of stock, which may be because they’re so new. With time, the bars may become more available, but for now they aren’t as accessible as they should be. Fortunately, I was able to order a box of these bars from Amazon and they arrived within a day. Other peanut butter flavored protein bars and Quest bars were available in stores, which is much better for consumers than these.
The bar itself was good. It has a chocolate coating and a peanut butter flavored filling with peanuts and chocolate chips. The texture is a little bit tougher and denser than other Quest bars, and slightly more crumbly. I feel kind of neutral about the texture since I don’t like it quite as much as other flavors of Quest bars that I’ve had. The taste is good, a little bit sweeter than other Quest bars because of the chocolate coating. I compared this bar to another chocolate and peanut butter flavored bar from a different brand. The Pure Protein brand bar had a denser, more chewy texture than the Quest bar and the chocolate coating didn’t taste as good. I prefer the Quest bar because it’s like a protein dessert, whereas the other bar is just ok, kind of boring.
Another very important thing about protein bars is, of course, the protein content. These chocolate covered peanut butter protein bars have 18 grams of protein in a 170 calorie bar. This is less than some other Quest bars. For example, the chocolate brownie bar has 20 grams of protein for 170 calories. But I don’t like the flavor or texture of that bar as much. Depending on the situation, it would be worth having less protein for a better flavor.
The other peanut butter protein bar I compared the new Quest bar to has 20 grams of protein for 200 calories, so just a slightly lower protein ratio than the Quest bar. The dipped chocolate peanut butter Quest bar has a better protein concentration than other protein bars without sacrificing the taste.
The final influencer of value is price. Unfortunately, many protein bars are expensive, especially Quest bars. These bars are usually about $30, pre tax, for a box of 12 on Amazon, which comes out to $2.50 per bar. To order from the Quest website directly, they are $33 for a box of 12. The original Quest bar flavor (chocolate chip) is also $33 for a box of 12 on the Quest website and around $30 on Amazon. The other bar I compared this to, Pure Protein peanut butter, was on sale for $16 for 12 bars on Amazon, only $1.33 per bar. On the Pure Protein website these bars are $20 for 12, $1.67 per bar. Because of the price difference I would recommend the Pure Protein peanut butter bar over the Quest chocolate dipped peanut butter bar to people who want to eat protein bars regularly.
These bars are really good as far as taste and protein content, but because of the cost and limited availability, they will not be my go to protein bar. These are not affordable enough for many consumers to eat regularly, but would be a great occasional splurge.