Review: Balance Chocolate Balance Bites

Every now and then the Kroger Free Friday Download promotion will provide a free product that I legitimately get excited about.  Recently, one of those products popped up and I was eager to run to Kroger to grab a bag of these Balance Chocolate Balance Bites at my local store.  I've reviewed plenty of Balance products, but these Bites are something that I've not only never seen, but I've also never heard of before.  That's what got me excited, so I hurriedly grabbed this 1.48 ounce bag of "Bites."  The bag consists of one serving and that serving clocks in at 190 calories with thirteen grams of protein.  It's also gluten free energy, so hooray for that.

Review: Balance Bar Bare Mixed Berry Nut Bar

At the rate I'm going, I could almost solicit a sponsorship for this blog from Kroger as their Free Friday Download program continues to grow the number of reviews on this blog.  What I do like about that program (other than the free stuff, of course) is that it forces me to look in sections of the store that I've been away from for a while and looking in those sections allows me to find new products that I have never seen before, as is the case with today's review of this Balance Bar Bare Mixed Berry Nut Bar that I can add to the already expansive collection of Balance Bar reviews.  It's a 1.19 ounce bar and it has 160 calories and four grams of protein.  It's also dairy free, gluten free and soy free if that floats any of your boats.

Review: Balance Bar Bare Sweet & Spicy Nut Bar

Food manufacturing is like one big game of follow the leader.  Everyone copies everyone's ideas and it's just a vicious circle.  You make a non-coated bar, I make a non-coated bar.  You make a Greek yogurt bar, I make a Greek yogurt bar.  You make a savory bar, I make a savory bar.  Anyway,  you get the picture.  That's why it should come as no surprise that today's review subject is another bar in the line of another one of those trends...non-coated savory bars.  I've looked at varieties from other manufacturers previously, but today adds to the Balance Bar review catalog as I take a look at their version with this review of the Balance Bar Bare Sweet & Spicy Nut Bar that I was able to pick up at Meijer for $1.00.  Each bar is 1.19 ounces and has 160 calories and four grams of protein.  It's also gluten, soy and dairy free.

Review: Balance Bar Dark Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar

After an extended absence, the blog has started a slight run on Balance Bar reviews as today's review takes another look at one of their other product lines.  With that very brief introduction, I'll dive in and report that I was able to pick up this  Balance Bar Dark Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar at Meijer for $1.00 and it comes in at 1.58 ounces and has 180 calories and thirteen grams of protein.  It's also gluten free and kosher, so it's showing a lot of balance in terms of all the audiences it can reach.  Ha, ha...get it?  What a witty writer I am.  Okay, false egotism aside, I suppose I should actually get down to the business of the review.

Review: Balance Bar Bare Sea Salt Caramel Nut Bar

Balance Bar is a product that I hit a lot in the early days of the blog and then it went a year before I reviewed it again.  I was thinking that prior to today that it had been at least eighteen months since I looked at one, but much to my surprise, I did a couple of reviews earlier this year.  Either way, review of Balance Bars have been few and far between since 2012.  So, today they make a return to the blog (again) as I take a look at this Balance Bar Bare Sea Salt Caramel Nut Bar that I was able to pick up at Meijer for $1.00.  The bar itself is 1.19 ounces and has 160 calories and five grams of protein.  It's also gluten and soy free, if you are interested in that kind of thing.

Review: Balance Bar Dark Dark Chocolate Crunch Bar

This is adventure number two in my review of these new "Dark" line of bars from Balance Bar.  For anyone that reads this blog on a semi-regular basis, it is well documented that dark chocolate is not exactly high on my list of favorite things, so when my first foray into reviewing this line of products was a positive one, there was probably no one more surprised than me.  Today's second foray leads me into this review of the Balance Bar Dark Dark Chocolate Crunch Bar that I picked up at Kroger for $1.00.  Just like a typical Balance Bar, this one weighed in at 1.58 ounces with 180 calories and thirteen grams of protein.  It's also gluten free, so that'll help the celiacs of the world.

Review: Balance Bar Dark Dark Chocolate Peanut Bar

Eckhart Tolle once said "evolve or die" (yes, I had to look that up) and the subject of today's review certainly would sort of relate to that quote.  Balance Bar has been featured frequently on this blog, but today is my first look at another evolution of their product offerings with my first foray in to their "Dark" line of bars that feature dark chocolate.  This Balance Bar Dark Dark Chocolate Peanut Bar (how many times can the same word be duplicated in a product name) set me back a whole $1.00 at Kroger and it clocks in at 1.58 ounces with 180 calories and thirteen grams of protein.

Review: Balance Bar Bare Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Bar

I can't tell you how happy I am to right this review.  Why am I happy?  Well, this is the last review out of the gigantic box of sample bars that Balance Bar sent me to try out.  There have been some good ones and bad ones in the reviews, but it certainly has been an interesting journey.  I thought I'd never run out of these, but I finally reached the end point and that leads me to this review of the Balance Bar Bare Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Bar.  This one has all the standard measurements of a Balance Bar in that it comes in at 1.76 ounces with 200 calories.  The only difference is that it has fifteen grams of protein instead of fourteen grams and as I've been able to discern from all these reviews, the one gram difference is because of the peanut butter.  Other than that, it's all the same.

Review: Balance Bar Bare Sweet & Salty Chocolate Almond Bar

Since I got a free shipment of these from Balance Bar, I've obviously covered a lot of flavors here on the blog in prior reviews.  The good news is that I've only got a few more flavors from that free shipment to review after this one, so I'm eventually going to run out.  Actually, that's not true because I'm guessing that Balance Bar will keep introducing new flavors as time goes on.  Anyway, this specific bar from that shipment is the Balance Bar Bare Sweet & Salty Chocolate Almond bar from their Bar line of bars.  It's the standard 1.76 ounces and it has 200 calories.  It also packs fifteen grams of protein and comes in a revealing clear wrapper.  Fancy.

Review: Balance Bar Peanut Butter Bar

So I'm steadily reviewing my way through the box of sample bars that Balance Bar sent me to try out.  Some of them have interested me and I've been excited to try them, some of them I have dreaded reviewing and others are just there and I really have no feelings on them whatsoever because they are just boring.  That's the case with this Balance Bar Peanut Butter Bar bar.  Now, I love Peanut Butter as much as anyone in the world, but a bar that is just peanut butter is a pretty boring thing.  What made this one almost a dread for me to review was the fact that I reviewed Balance's Nimble Peanut Butter bar and it was awful, so having this bar from their normal line of bars with the same name did not exactly fill me with a great sense of anticipation.  That said, I made it my goal to review every single one of the samples they sent me, so it's time to review this 1.76 ounce bar that had 200 calories and fifteen grams of protein.

Review: Balance Bar Gold Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar

Chocolate and peanut butter is a good, but basic flavor combination and it not one to often get excited about.  But, when I see that Balance Bar has a "Gold" version of this classic flavor combination, I do tend to get somewhat excited because it makes me curious as to how they can make that flavor combination better. So, that leads me to another Balance Bar review with a review of this product from their Gold line of bars with the Chocolate Peanut Butter bar.  This one came along with the shipment of free demo bars that Balance provided me and is the standard 1.76 ounces with 200 calories and fourteen grams of protein.

Review: Balance Bar Gold Lemon Meringue Crunch Bar

It's no secret that I eat a lot of protein/health bars for this blog.  In fact, reviewing protein/health bars was the primary reason I started this blog because I decided I was going to start eating them as a way to add weight/bulk to my frame.  Now that I've been doing this for many months, I've eaten a ton of these things and I'm starting to get used to them (I don't want to say tired of them).  Anyway, when a manufacturer like Balance Bar sends me a box of bars to try out, I feel obligated to do a review of every flavor, so here we go with this Lemon Meringue Crunch bar from their Gold line of bars.  This one is the Balance Bar standard of 1.76 ounces and has 200 calories.  It also has fourteen grams of protein and what makes it a "Gold" bar is that it is based on the premise of "Three Indulgent Layers".  Let's see how indulgent this one really is...

Review: Balance Bar Gold Chocolate Mint Cookie Crunch Bar

For someone who originally did not like the chocolate and mint combination, I've sure spent a lot of time "punishing" myself by doing reviews of bars with that flavor combination here on the blog.  Next up in the punishment line is another Balance Bar review and specifically, another review of the bars that I received complimentary of Balance bar themselves.  This Chocolate Mint Cookie Crunch bar is part of their Gold line of bars, which if you read the packaging, you'll see that the Gold line of bars are made of "Three Indulgent Layers."  As per a typical Balance Bar, this one is 1.76 ounces and has 200 calories.  It also has fourteen grams of protein.

Review: Balance Bar Nimble Yogurt Orange Swirl Bar

Here in 2012, Balance Bar has introduced a new product line called Nimble.  It's a product angled toward women that is suppose to improve your body, skin and of course your overall health.  Being that Balance sent me a box of all varieties of their bars, I'm making my way though everything, including those bars for women.  I've already reviewed the Nimble Peanut Butter bar and was less than impressed, so I didn't exactly have high hopes coming into this review of the Nimble Yogurt Orange Swirl bar.  This one comes in at 1.16 ounces and is 120 calories with ten grams of protein.  It's sweetened with Truvia as opposed to normal sugar, so that's how they are able to cut out some of the calories that you'd ordinarily find in one of these bars.

Review: Balance Bar Mocha Chip Bar

I would place Balance Bar in the same category as CLIF and Zone Perfect in the respect that they have a seemingly endless amount of products out on the market.  They have various product lines, various flavors, etc. When I look at companies like those, it just seems like I'll never reach the end of their product lines and while that is not bad, it certainly is daunting when I really think about it.  Knowing that I'll never review all of Balance's products, I'm still willing to plod on and do another Balance Bar review with this review of the Mocha Chip bar.  This bar is one of their basic bars and clocks in at a standard 1.76 ounces with 200 calories and fifteen grams of protein.  I picked it up at Meijer at its regular price of $1.09, by the way.

Review: Balance Bar Chocolate Craze Bar

When I walk through the "healthy" aisle at the store, it always amazes me how many products CLIF Bar puts out there.  I think the only company that may compete with them in terms of flavor varieties (at least in my stores) is Balance Bar.  They have a seemingly endless amount of flavors and lines and in my half-hearted quest to add to my Balance Bar review collection, I'm going to review the Chocolate Craze bar in today's review.  This came via my free sample shipment from Balance Bar and it weighs in at the standard Balance Bar weight of 1.76 ounces.  Packed into those 1.76 ounces are 200 calories and fourteen grams of fun...I mean protein.

Review: Balance Bar Cafe Chocolate Almond Biscotti Bar

It has gotten to the point where reviewing these nutrition bars has gotten to be boring to me.  It's almost the mindset of "oh well, another day, another bar" but occasionally, I'll have one come through that I'm legitimately excited to try out because just the name and/or description of it gets my interest piqued.  As I've mentioned before Balance Bar sent me a box of bars to try out and as I've made my way though the box with other reviews, I've always held one of these bars out as a way to "reward" myself for trying the flavors that didn't excite me much.  So, it finally got to be time to "reward" myself and that led me to this Chocolate Almond Biscotti bar from their Cafe line of bars.  Just the description alone on this bar got me curious and I've had prior success with their other Cafe bar, so I was anxious to give it a go.  For nutritional purposes, this one comes in at the standard 1.76 ounces with 200 calories and fourteen grams of protein.  Like I said, it's from the Cafe line of bars, so it's Cafe inspired as if it would be something that you'd eat while drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper, I guess.

Review: Balance Bar Almond Brownie Bar

As you can tell from the many reviews that I've done on this blog, Balance Bar has a lot of products and this plethora of products leads me to another review of a Balance Bar product, the Almond Brownie bar.  I picked this bar up at Meijer for $1.09 and it comes it at 1.76 ounces, 200 calories and fourteen grams of protein.  Based on the name of this one alone, I was highly anticipating trying it out because anytime you can take a brownie and try to make it "healthy", you've got me drawn in for a test by hook, line and sinker.

Review: Balance Bar Nimble Peanut Butter Bar

I've done a lot of Balance Bar reviews here on the blog and I've tried some of their various different product lines as well.  That said, I had recently read about their new Nimble Bars online but had not had a chance to try them or pick them up at the store.  Much to my surprise one day when I got home from work, there was a box sitting on my porch that had been delivered that I had no clue what it was, but once I opened it up, it was filled with a plethora of the various varieties of Balance bars and some of those included some from their new Nimble Bar line.  So, armed with these free bars, I was ready to dive into a review of this Peanut Butter Nimble Bar.  It's 1.16 ounces, 120 calories and has ten grams of protein.  It's sweetened using Truvia, so it's not as sugary as a lot of the bars (I'm guessing that is why it is relatively low calorie).

Review: Balance Bar Gold Caramel Nut Blast Bar

This is certainly not my first Balance Bar review, nor will it be my last.  That said, one aspect of Balance Bars that I haven't really spent a lot of time on is their Gold line of bars.  Basically, they describe their Gold line of bars as your typical Balance Bar with an extra layer of decadence.  Um, okay.  Anyway, this leads me to the Caramel Nut Blast bar with its "three indulgent layers".  I picked this up for $1.09 at Meijer and it packs 200 calories and fourteen grams of protein into a 1.76 ounce bar.