Your Protein Opinion

Protein Review - BPI Sports S'mores Protein Bar

I was offered a sample of a BPI sports S'mores protein bar and was curious as to how it would taste as I was told that it is very similar to the popular Quest bar however, I was curious as to where the extra calories came from.

Taste - 6/10

Overall, the taste for this protein bar is almost identical to the cookies and cream Quest bar as the main part of the bar just tasted of the typical slightly sweetened protein 'block', studded with bits of brown and white chunks supposed to resemble chocolate and marshmallows respectively. Whilst the cookies and cream Quest bar was revolutionary at their inception, there are now many more protein bars that have overtaken it in terms of both taste and complexity which is why I have not rated this that highly, however, it definitely doesn't taste bad, just not outstanding like some other bars.

Macros - 6/10

The macros for this bar are perhaps a little worse than other bars as it has a fair few calories more than the aforementioned quest bar, and the caloric content is more in line with other chocolate coated bars like the musclepharm combat crunch bars This bar specifically has 240 calories with 20 grams of protein giving you 12 calories per gram of protein. In addition, this bar packs a decent 15 g of fibre content per bar using the now commonplace oligosaccharides. However, it does have 5 grams of sugar alcohols which can cause stomach issues for people who are sensitive to them. 

Texture - 7/10

The texture is where this bar is better than the cookies and cream quest bar as it has also incorporated crunchy graham cookie-esque pieces which add a nice extra dimension to the soft bar, harder chocolate pieces and now crunchy biscuit pieces. Everything else is fairly standard with nothing too good or bad. The bar is decently soft and other than that, there isn't much more to say.

Cost - 6/10

Boxes of 12 of these are around £20.63 so each bar worked out to be around £1.72 (~€1.96) which is a fairly standard price for a box of protein bars in the UK so it was neither cheap nor expensive. However, if you want to pick a box up for yourself, have a look around online as there are frequently deals going on like buy one get one half price which makes it a much more reasonable price.

Bonus - 1 Point

Other than the nice crunch afforded by the cookie pieces, there is nothing else particularly of note. It is pleasing tasting and has a decent texture.

Total Score - 26 Points

Overall, this bar is now a fairly standard product in the protein bar industry with most of the macros, taste and price being in line with similar products. Compared with quest (and other similar non-coated protein bars), it has more less protein per calorie due to the extra biscuit pieces so I guess whether you want to pick these up depends on if you want better macros or a slightly better taste and texture. To be honest, for 240 calories, I would probably go for the chocolate coated protein bars such as the Phd smart bars or combat crunch bars.