Review: Quest Cinnamon Roll Natural Protein Bar

I get suggestions from readers semi-frequently that I need to review Quest protein bars.  While I don't necessarily disagree with that, finding Quest bars is kind of a pain in the rear since I either need to either purchase them online or make a special trip to a nutrition store like GNC to get them.  Since those types of stores aren't typically in my wheelhouse, I don't do many Quest reviews.  But, I recently found a coupon for a free Quest bar from GNC online, so I printed it out and that leads to today's review of this Quest Cinnamon Roll Natural Protein Bar.  The bar itself is 2.12 ounces, 170 calories and has twenty grams of protein.

As you can see from the picture above, there's not a whole lot to look at here.  It's just a block of sticky, tan-colored nutrition bar.  In the bar itself, you can clearly see specks of cinnamon spice within the sticky mix.  Outside of that, I couldn't really see anything else, but upon perusing the ingredient list, I saw that there were also almonds in this bar, so clearly their surprising inclusion was buried within the bar and not visible from the external appearance.  In terms of smell, it definitely had a smell of cinnamon mixed with something else that didn't quite smell like a cinnamon roll, but smelled of something odd that I can't quite place.

Since I've eaten Quest bars before, I knew in advance the best way to eat them is to heat them in the microwave prior to diving in (the clerk at GNC also made sure to remind me of this when I was in the store), so after zapping it in the microwave, the solid and sticky bar turned into something warm, soft and gooey, which definitely reminded me of the namesake cinnamon roll.  The warmness also did a good job of amping the cinnamon roll smell, so that made it appealing in terms of the smell.  Based on the fact that heating this up made this so soft, it became more of a product that you eat with a fork as opposed to eating with you hands and ultimately, that was fine.  So, I dove in with my fork and my first bite was something that while not quite a cinnamon roll (obviously), it was enough of something that reminded me of a cinnamon roll.  The softness of the warm bar reminded me of the texture of a cinnamon roll straight out of the oven and that soft chewiness made this quite fun to work my way though.  Those hidden almonds also added an occasional pop of crunch to each bite that included them and that was fun as well.  In terms of actual flavor and not experience, this one was a reasonable approximation of its namesake.  The cinnamon, while noticeable, was not overpowering and was more of an accent flavor with minimal spice.  The bar itself had a baked kind of taste that enriched the experience, so when that was mixed with the cinnamon flavor, this little package made quite an experience that reminded me somewhat of a cinnamon roll type of cookie dough and really, who doesn't like cookie dough?.

Buy It or Fly By It?  What I described as quite an experience was a positive experience and I thoroughly enjoyed this bar.  While certainly not the best thing I've ever eaten, it was another fine tasting Quest product and I've got to give it a BUY IT rating.  I wish Quest was available in more "normal" stores like grocery stores because it seems like every time I eat one of their products, I have an enjoyable experience.  If you are at a nutrition store like GNC or want to make an online purchase, this is definitely a Quest product that I'd recommend.

BUY IT!!