Review - Detour Smart Bars

Brand:  Detour Smart

Flavor:  Whole Grain Oatmeal

Where to get it: here @ Bodybuilding.com

                I bought this bar for the package. I cannot tell a lie. I love the packaging so much. But then, only 130 calories per bar? Okay! I have been legitimized and it feels so good! Smallish bars, good for a snack, and the calories are right on the money for a casual snack that you’re not going to agonize over if you’re trying to be strict with your diet. They also have 10g of protein, which legitimizes me even more. LEGITIMACY, RAIN DOWN UPON ME! They taste good, fruity, oaty, nice and safe in your mouth. You don’t always have to get crazy to be special.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Fruit and oats, oh yeah-oats!

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free

What’s in it:

Positive Energy Rocks My Socks!

Brand:  Positive Energy

Flavor:  Various

Where to get it:  here @ Positive Energy

                Um, how cool is Positive Energy? They saw my review of their orange juice, and just couldn’t bear the thought of me not being able to try their other flavors, so they sent me a box of them! They also sent some stickers (which my person promptly stole and put on his snowboard), a magnetized + orange, and a page-long HANDWRITTEN LETTER. Color me impressed, I looked at all the words on the page and calculated that, in this day of banging on keyboards all day long, writing that much with A PEN would have seen me take about 17 breaks for hand cramps.  

                Apple juice is my favorite juice, so I went for that first. It was just as good as the orange juice. I put vodka in the cranberry juice as well as the strawberry lemonade. SO GOOD! The rest I drank sans alcohol, like a good girl. I love this line, and I love this company. They really care about their product and the press they get, and they clearly take the time to pay attention to social media – which I’m pretty sure is crucial to being successful in the 21^st century, no shock there. So thank you, THANK YOU, Positive Energy, for the treats, the care, and just for being generally awesome folks!

               

Tastes like:   Juice with a sizzle

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Kosher, Non-GMO

What’s in it: (Orange Juice)

Review - Journey Bar Savory Nutrition Bars

Brand:  Journey Bar

Flavor:  Various

Where to get it: here @ Abe's Market

               

                Never have I had a bar where the flavor choice was so important. I really liked the Coconut Curry flavor, strong on the curry, a little snappy-but-soft in texture, it was a really unique and decent snack. The Sesame Ginger version however, oof. It tasted a lot like I would imagine insulation might taste. Or wet cardboard.  I tasted neither sesame nor ginger, two flavors I am quite fond of. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. At 200 calories per bar, I think I can do better than these guys, but it was an interesting tasting experience, that’s for certain.

                                 

               

Tastes like:  Spices and sawdust, but not always in a bad way

Taste rating:  7/10 for the coconut curry, 1/10 for the sesame ginger

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Non-GMO, Vegan, Vegetarian, Made in the USA

What’s in it:

Review - Wai Lana Cassava Pops

Brand:  Wai Lana

Flavor:  Cassava Pops

Where to get it: here @ WaiLana.com

                I love Wai Lana’s regular cassava chips (they are SO much better than regular potato chips, you don’t even know.) So I was pretty excited to receive this 100-calorie bag of Cassava Pops. The taste is close to potato, the salt is right, and the calories are low! The bag is a great snack-sized amount, and I found these to be a lot less Styrofoam-y than some of the other “popped” chips on the market. My love for the Wai Lana brand burns on!

               

Tastes like:  Salty potato chips with a great crunch

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Non-GMO, Kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan, all-natural, Made in the USA

What’s in it:

Review - Balance Bar, Lemon Meringue Crunch

Brand:  Balance

Flavor:  Lemon Meringue Crunch

Where to get it: here @ Bodybuilding.com

                Lemon is my very favorite “sweet thing” flavor. I found this bar to be rock solid on the lemon, but there really wasn’t much crunch to it. It wasn’t a bad bar, but it did have that sort of chalky protein feel to it, and a little bit of an aftertaste as well. It’s also a 200-calorie bar, and to me it isn’t good enough knowing what other snacks I could wheedle into my face for that amount – an apple sauce, a light string cheese, and a 100-calorie pack of Nilla wafers! All in all it wasn’t bad, but there are better bars out there for the calories, in my opinion. And look at all those ingredients. Yikes.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Lemon-y protein powder

Taste rating:  6.5/10

What’s in it:

Review - Yum Earth Organics Fruit Snacks

Brand:  Yum Earth Organics

Flavor:  Fruit Snacks

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                I was intrigued by these little guys because they weren’t conventionally flavored. Raspberry, mango and pineapple – yes please! Sadly, this bag contained exactly one mango and one pineapple gummy with the rest being raspberry. Not sadly, the raspberry was my 2^nd favorite flavor, behind the pineapple. The fruit flavors are true to form, and the texture was actually more like Dots than your standard gummy bear product. This lead to quite a bit of I CAN’T GET THEM OUT OF MY TEETH, but they were tasty, nonetheless.

               

Tastes like:  Fruit gummies, go figure

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:  Organic, Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Vegan, all-natural

What’s in it:

Review - Simply 7 Pomegranate Chips

Brand:  Simply 7

Flavor:  Pomegranate Chips

Where to get it: here @ Simply 7

                Ohhhhhh salty! Yes. I like it. Disclaimer, these are not chips made of pomegranates, nor are they pomegranates that have been chipped. They are potato chips that have pomegranate powder added to them. You can taste it, a little bit. If you want a delicious salty snack , buy these. If you want a fruit snack, or a snack made of fruit, these are not the chips you seek. But they sure are pretty! Personally, I’ll be sticking with Simply 7’s quinoa chips when I need a fix – less calories, and a decent amount of protein. But these were fun to try!

               

Tastes like:  Salty potato chips with a little extra

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Kosher, Gluten free, all natural, Made in the USA, Non-GMO, vegetarian, vegan

What’s in it: