Quest Bar – Protein Bar Review

I was asked by a representative of OOsupplies to complete a review on three different flavours of Quest Bars.

As an expat in Hong Kong, it can be difficult to make a nutritious lunch for work (who actually has that kind of time on their hands?!), let alone make healthy choices in general. Protein bars offer an additional boost to your daily nutrition intake and are a good choice if you’re looking for a quick healthy snack to get you through the rest of your work day, a long hike, or pre/post workout.

Coconut Cashew

This was the first Quest Bar I tried and, unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed. Cashews are my favourite nut, so I was hoping that this bar would be filled with them, however there was only a few cashews dispersed throughout. The initial flavour was decent – you could taste the coconut, but I would have enjoyed more of a bold flavour. I suppose that when it comes to health bars, flavour is usually always sacrificed.

If I was looking for a protein “filler” and didn’t care too much about taste and texture, I would purchase this bar.

 

Cookies & Cream

This was the second bar I tried, so my flavour expectations weren’t as high despite the delicious-sounding “Cookies & Cream” title. When I took my first bite, the flavour was disappointingly bland. That is until I came across a piece with a bit of white cream heaven (if only the whole bar was covered in it!).

Based solely on flavour, I would rather purchase the Coconut Cashew than the Cookies & Cream. Unless of course the company decides to douse the bar in their cream flavouring (hint, hint!).

 

Double Chocolate Chunk

Apparently I had saved the best for last, as the Double Chocolate Chunk was my favourite of the three Quest Bars. There were delicious chocolate chunks throughout the bar (unlike the scarce cashews in the Coconut Cashew bar) that made it taste more like I was eating a chocolate bar than a protein bar. I almost wish I was given three of these bars!

 

The texture of all three bars were the same – quite dry and a bit tough to chew. I have had LARABARS in the past, and their main “binding” ingredient was dates, so the texture was moist and sticky, unlike these Quest Bars. I found you had to chew the Quest Bars for quite a while before you were able to swallow them and as you were chewing them, it was as if they were dissolving in your mouth and turning into a paste-like texture.

When looking at the Quest Bars’ nutritional value, I was surprised to see that the bars were so low in calories, since many of the other nutrition bars on the market have roughly 200-250 calories per bar. The bars pack a lot of fiber into them (almost 70% of your daily intake!), which is another bonus. I was also surprised (unfortunately, not in a good way this time) to see how much sodium and saturated fat was in each bar.

As for the ingredients, they each start off with a “protein blend” – clearly why the nutritional value of protein is so high. There were also a number of ingredients with long complex names (probably what added to the high levels of sodium and fat). Even though some other nutrition/protein bars might have higher calories, they use far fewer and more simple ingredients like dates, various nuts, shaved coconut, ginger, dried fruit, etc.

Overall, I think if you’re someone who is not bothered by the higher levels of sodium and fat, and are just looking for a standard protein bar, Quest Bars would be a good choice. However, if you are looking for a more “well-rounded” bar because you don’t pump iron five times a week, you might want to do research on different  nutritional bars to find the one that best suits your needs.

Check out OOsupplies website to order a variety of nutrition bars, beauty and household products, and much more!

 

*Side note: I randomly stumbled upon a little shop in the depths of one of Hong Kong’s sketchy malls that was selling peanut butter cup, banana nut muffin, and chocolate raspberry Quest Bars … Umm, those all sound beyond delicious and am wishing I got those three sent to me instead! Quest Bars website offers quite a few other flavours as well.