Review: MET-Rx Big 100 Colossal Peanut Butter Caramel Crunch Bar

I've reviewed several MET-Rx bars on the blog and I've always viewed them as a bar for meatheads and weight lifting freaks.  Since I am definitely not either of those things, the fact that I've reviewed these bars several times and have another review is amusing to me.  Perhaps it is only amusing to me, but it is amusing nonetheless.  Anyway, I picked up this MET-Rx Big 100 Colossal Peanut Butter Caramel Crunch Bar on sale with a coupon at CVS for $1.50.  It's a monster bar (note the Meal Replacement Bar tagline on the wrapper) at 3.52 ounces and clocks in with 410 calories and 31 grams of protein.  Basically, you are eating a small steak if you eat this.  It's also naturally flavored, which I find particularly amusing since I'm this bar was almost entirely created in a science lab.

As you can see from the top of the bar, you certainly don't get shorted on peanuts here and seeing that as the first impression when I took this out of the wrapper was a good first impression.  Beneath that was a thick layer of caramel and beneath that was the standard protein/rice/soy crisp that you find in nearly all of these bars.  That mix was bound together by peanut butter.  The bar then had a base of thick chocolate.  Obviously since this bar was 3.52 ounces, it felt heavy in my hands and smell-wise, it permeated of peanut butter.  If you are a regular reader of the blog, you know how I feel about peanut butter (I love it for all non-regular readers), so we'll move on.

As I bit into this, there was a definite crunch to it, so from a naming perspective, they nailed this one right on.  It wasn't so hard/crunchy that it is going to break your teeth and actually, it was a very palatable crunch.  The majority of the crunch came from the rice crisp mix, but occasionally you'd come across one of the small peanut bits and that added a slightly different crunch texture to the chew and that was nice.  Where this bar really did not succeed though was in the chocolate and caramel flavor.  They were both thick, but the flavor of neither was particularly discernible.  It was neither sweet or salty...it just existed.  Disappointing for sure since this bar could have used a hint of sweetness because the peanut butter in the protein mix was very hearty and dense.  A sweet overtone to complement that would have been nice.  One thing about the peanut butter though is that it didn't really kick in until you had chewed through this for a bit, so for the first two-thirds of each bite, I was essentially dealing with something that was crunchy and flavorless and that made the bar pretty pointless.  Once the peanut butter kicked in though, it became crunchy and hearty.  As you'd expect though, this bar was a total mouthful due to it size and it's hard work making it through something this big.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I'll give it a BUY IT rating for the peanut butter and peanut bits alone.  The other ingredients were kind of a let down, but those two standouts saved this bar from being something that I'd never want to eat again.  I don't know if I ever will eat it again since I'm not a meathead, but if you are in the store and given the option of MET-Rx bars to pick out, this one would be a decent one to choose.

BUY IT!!