Review: Pure Protein Tropical Fruit Macadamia Nut Fruit & Nut Bar

I've spent a pretty fair amount of time looking at Pure Protein bars on this blog but it has been over eighteen months since I've taken on a review.  So when I was absentmindedly bumbling my way through Kroger, I was somewhat surprised to see another new flavor resting on the shelves of the nutrition bar section of the store.  Once I got over my mild surprise, I was sure to grab a couple of the new flavors and that leads me to today's review of this Pure Protein Tropical Fruit Macadamia Nut Fruit & Nut Bar that set me back a whole $1.00.  It's 1.86 ounces and has 200 calories that are PACKED with eighteen grams of protein (it is a high protein bar after all).  It's also gluten free if that is part of your diet.

As I've stated many times before like a broken record, clear packaging eliminates the mystery of what a bar will look like (or the mystery of comparing it to the artwork of the representation of the bar on the wrapper/box).  I would say that was 100% the case for this bar, but it actually wasn't.  When I took this one out of the wrapper, I was mildly surprised to find out that it had a yogurt base.  Didn't see that one coming. Also what I didn't see coming was that the interior of this bar was kind of a doughy, fibrous interior.  I was expecting something nutty/fruity.  As for the rest of the bar, there were no surprises.  The macadamia nuts were spread handsomely through the upper layer of the bar and there were dried chunks of pineapple, mango, papaya spread in with that.  As you can see, there were also shards of coconut spread in many areas too, so this bar was definitely tropically-based and also not shy about its ingredients.  What was mildly shocking was that this bar was extremely sticky and my hands kept getting sticky because of touching all the various syrups, etc.  From a smell perspective, I could definitely smell the coconut and the amalgamation of all the dried fruits.

So after that long description, it was finally time to try the bar and my first observation was that it was certainly chewier than I would have expected prior to seeing what the interior was.  Once I saw that, I knew it would not be nearly as crunchy as I foresaw prior to taking this out of the wrapper.  As for the rest of the components, the macadamia nuts brought some soft crunch (they are a softer nut) and nutty flavor and the coconut shards brought some sweetness and graininess to this.  The bar didn't need any additional sweetness though because the various tropical fruits (pineapple, mango, papaya) certainly brought plenty of sweet and tart to the entire package.  Since they were dried fruits, they brought some additional chewiness to this.  Their power of their flavor was strong, but it wasn't enough that it just knocked me on my rear end.  I would say that it was just right (I'm reminded of the three bears).  As for the yogurt bottom, it really didn't have a lot of flavor, but it did provide a nice melting coating to the chewy components of this bar.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I'm planning on going vacation to the tropics (well, Florida) within the next month, so this is kind of a stop-gap for me until I get there.  It's definitely not authentically tropical for obvious reasons, but it does a pretty decent job emulating the tropical flavor profile for a pre-packaged product.  For that reason and also for the reason that I found it to be enjoyable to eat, I give this a BUY IT rating.  It's certainly not fresh or overly tropical, but it is a reasonable approximation.

BUY IT!!