PowerBar Performance: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar Review

April 12, 2008

I ate a chocolate peanut butter Powerbar today for the first time in probably two years. cue dramatic music

Me and PowerBars used to get along really well. There was a good 8 years or so (sometime in high school when I discovered them through my post-college years) that I ate them all the time. Then all of a sudden I got really tired of them. That same old texture got a bit boring. I’m not sure what triggered it exactly, but I bought a few bars, ate some and the rest just ended up sitting in my cabinets until they went bad. I ceased to buy any flavor Performance bar for a couple of years.

I have written a few reviews of various protein bars since starting The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery and have compared quite a few of them to the PowerBar Performance Bar. But really I hadn’t eaten one in so long that I was mostly comparing them to my memory of the bar which, though I loved them for a long time, was not a good memory.

Upon consuming this bar again for the first time in so long I immediately discovered both why I loved and disliked it. It’s got a nice flavor with a good mixture of chocolate and peanut butter. It’s got a hint of protein-ness, but it’s not overwhelming and I’m thankful for that because even just a little bit more might have been too much.

I don’t love it’s texture, which is something that I’ve complained about in comparing it to other bars. The bar is, as I tend to describe it “a hunk of protein mixture.” It’s chewy but actually a lot less chewy than I remember it being. Though, I think that’s mostly due to the fact that it’s slightly melted and giving way to my teeth easier than if it were at room temperature.

The ingredients list is surprisingly not that scary, given the processed look of the bar and the callout that it contains “C2 MAX HIGHER OCTANE CARB BLEND” (that was put in caps so you could hear the muscly gym guy in your head ENTHUSIASTICALLY YELLING IT AT YOU).

The bar is 2.29 oz (65 g) and is 240 calories, 25 from fat. It’s a filling bar, which I know from experience since I used to eat it for breakfast or lunch all the time. It didn’t seem overly sugary while eating it, but I’m surprised to find that it contains 23g of the stuff. High sugar is one of my big complaints with protein bars and I’m surprised not to have detected it with this one.

Now that it’s getting warmer out (finally!) I can also include the melt factor of certain bars in my posts. This bar does melt and gets considerably stickier when it does, so keep that in mind if you’re chomping it on-the-go on a warm day. It stays together for the most part at least, so if you are able to peel back the wrapper without touching it, your hands should stay clean.

Another positive about eating bars that are “blended hunks of protein” is that while you’re sitting at work or on the train eating your bar, little bits of it aren’t likely to break off and fall on your clothes. Now I’m not a sloppy eater, but I eat chocolate and peanut butter products extremely often, so this does happen to me from time to time. It’s rather unpleasant when you’re dressed nice and you get out of your chair only to discover that you’ve got a lovely chocolate or peanut butter smear on your clothes. This doesn’t just happen to me… right? You’re laughing at me, aren’t you? Jerk!

My conclusion here is that while The PowerBar Performance is not my favorite bar on the market, I might start buying it again. Yeah, the texture is a little boring but it’s got some good qualities to it, one of which is a nice chocolate peanut butter flavor, a major priority of mine.

Overall I have some nice and some not nice thoughts about this bar and am confused on how I feel about it, so let’s decide the verdict with a list:

Cons: The texture is a bit boring and odd

Pros: Chocolatey and peanut buttery It’s Filling Not overly sugary Pretty nice looking (natural) ingredients list No overwhelming protein flavor

And the verdict is… Congrats, old friend. I believe you have just cemented yourself a spot in my cabinet again. Welcome back!

Buy yourself some Chocolate Peanut Butter PowerBar Performance Bars. Say that three times fast!