Review: Premier Protein Dark Chocolate Mint Bar

Today's review is of a product that I've had in my stock for quite some time.  I've been avoiding it for several reasons.  First, I've reviewed Premier Protein products before and while some of them have been okay, they've mostly been just blah.  Second, as the blog has aged, I've been steering away from hardcore protein bars because I've just lost interest.  Third (and last), I generally keep my distance from dark chocolate, as any reader that has been here more than once will know.  But, on a recent evening, the perfect storm hit and I knocked down all those barriers and decided to take a look at this Premier Protein Dark Chocolate Mint Bar that I received via an online signup for a free sample and then was delivered to me through our good, old United States Postal Service.  It was a new bar at the time and it clocks in at 2.5 ounces and is heavily packed in with 280 calories and thirty grams of protein.  It's also gluten free.

Protein bars are seemingly all the same to me.  A soy (or rice) crisp base that is then mixed or coated with some necessary ingredients.  For the most part, this bar followed that that recipe in that it was a soy crisp base that was then covered in dark chocolate.  What surprised me were the flecks of green mint throughout the bar, although they are nearly as visible in the picture above due to my terrible photography skills.  You'll just have to trust me on this one and believe that they are more visible to the naked eye.  Anyway, those flecks of mint did bring some minty smell to this, which was nice.  As for the rest of the bar...it was dense and tough...just like any other typical hardcore protein bar.

Biting into this was quite a chore, but once I was able to bite off a piece and forcibly start chewing, I was surprised by the fact that this was appealing.  I expected it to be disgusting.  Instead, the dark chocolate flavor was very tame and the mint did a good job of punctuating that with some "fresh" flavor.  It worked well together and this taste could have had me fooled that it was any type of regular chocolate and not dark chocolate.  As an avowed non-fan of dark chocolate, I very much appreciated that.

Buy It or Fly By It?  Going into this, I wanted to dislike this bar quite a bit and that's why I avoided it for so long.  After tasting it, I've got to say that it appealed to me and I'll give it a BUY IT rating.  I certainly wouldn't say this was delicious, but it was appealing and if you are the type of person that is looking for a hardcore protein product to consume, I think this would be an acceptable option.

BUY IT!!