While I was less than impressed, but not repulsed, by my first Body Fortress protein bar review, I figure that another review is in order since I picked up two of these in the meathead section of my local Kroger and I hate to waste money/food by just throwing things out without giving them a chance. So, I picked up this Body Fortress Energy Chocolate Cookie Crisp Protein Bar for $1.25 and the bar itself is 1.52 ounces with 170 calories and eight grams of protein. Like the last bar, there is no indication as to what this bar is going to be like on the wrapper other than the name of the flavor, so any sort of pre-conceived notions that I may have about this truly are guesses. But hey, verifying or disproving those guesses is why I do reviews!
When I took this out of the wrapper, this one was not at all what I would have expected and I mean that in a positive way. I was expecting an industrial looking protein bar made of rice/soy crisps and something that would not look appetizing at all. What I got instead was something that looked like a warped Oreo cookie with a chocolate cookie base and a marshmallow topping that was mixed with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Maybe I was just ridiculously hungry and my judgement was clouded, but the appearance of this looked delicious. The chocolate base, while having a faint smell of chocolate (although somewhat of an "off" smell), was airy and light and that was not at all what I expected. The marshmallow top layer was soft and pliable and again, I was expecting something rock hard and not truly marshmallow-like, so this was a more than pleasant surprise. The bar itself broke apart very easily and was almost what I would describe as soft, so the hits (surprises) just kept on coming.
When I bit into this, I was taken somewhere that I never thought I would visit when I grabbed this bar...to paraphrase sometimes dorky Guy Fieri, I was on a trip to Flavortown. The chocolate part of the bar was soft, chewy and had nice, although not overpowering, chocolate flavor. The marshmallow portion of the bar, while really lacking in any sort of discernible flavor, provided an almost creamy textural difference to the airy cookie portion of the bar. While I was slightly disappointed that the marshmallow portion lacked any discernible flavor, the fact that it added some density to the airy cookie portion of the bar was more than enough to satisfy my tastes. The chips, while not wholly sweet like I would have liked, did add a hint of sweetness to the bar. One surprising aspect of these chips was that they melted in your mouth like a normal chocolate chip and weren't rock hard and crunchy like a lot of chocolate chips in these protein bars.
Buy It or Fly By It? After my trip to Flavortown, I was left wanting more of this bar, so that means it gets a BUY IT rating. While it may not be the greatest thing I've ever eaten, it was quite good and exactly hit the hunger spot as I was working my way through it. This is an outstanding representation of the cookies and cream flavor combination and it's an energy/protein bar to boot! It's not often that something succeeds on both of those characteristics, but this bar does just that. All I know is that I'm certainly glad that I tried this one out instead of just wasting it by throwing it in the trash because it was definitely worth my time.
BUY IT!! |
Great review :) I am actually eating one right now. I can agree with with you said.
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