Flavors Tried: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Lemon Cashew
Price: $32.99 for box of 12 ($2.75 per bar)
Nutrition: 240 Calories, 12g Fat, 24g Carbs (10g Fiber & 5g Sugar), 14g Protein
Hailing from Colorado, not the sunny beaches of Hawaii as I assumed based on the name, Aloha bars popped up on my radar during a trip to Trader Joe’s.
With two flavors in stock at the time – peanut butter chocolate chip and chocolate fudge brownie – I had to give them a try.
Update: As I try more flavors, they will be added to this review.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t often love plant-based protein bars. For example, Barebells vegan option pales in comparison to their regular bars.
But then again, Lenny & Larry’s surprised me with their plant-based protein bars, so I suppose these could go either way.
Let’s dive right into the reviews for each flavor, and then I’ll tackle the nutrition at the end of this review.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip ALOHA Bar
First off, let’s tackle the peanut butter chocolate chip Aloha bar.
I’ll be honest, my initial interaction with this bar was a disappointment. It felt hard and a little bit greasy, making me assume it was going to be really dense and chewy.
However, this bar took me by surprise, proving to be much softer than expected. It had a very cookie dough-like consistency, which is something I will never tire of.
As for the flavor, it was surprisingly good. The peanut butter flavor was really pleasant, and there were a ton of peanut & chocolate chunks throughout the entire bar.
There is a slight taste of plant-based protein, but it isn’t nearly as egregious as some other plant-based protein bars I’ve tried. This is thanks to Aloha’s choice to use brown rice protein and pumpkin seed protein instead of the typical pea protein that most bars use.
That’s a big win in my book.
If you’ve never had a plant-based protein bar, the flavor might seem a little bit off to you, but it’s not enough to make this bar unpleasant.
As someone who loves peanut butter, this bar delivers a true peanut butter flavor, and I think anyone would enjoy this, not just those who eat plant-based.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ALOHA Bar
The chocolate chip cookie dough flavor might look like it would be dense and chewy, but don’t let the looks fool you.
When I pulled this one from the wrapper and felt the glossy, thick bar, it reminded me of Power Bar from back in the day, which admittedly was not an impressive protein bar.
And while this protein bar may be slightly dense, it has the perfect amount of chew to it for my liking.
But I will happily look past a less-than-perfect texture if the flavor is there, and I absolutely love this protein bar.
This truly tastes like a bar of raw cookie dough.
The chewiness lends itself quite well to a cookie dough consistency, and there is a slight graininess to it that you typically get from raw cookie dough.
The chocolate chips are plentiful, and the plant-based protein flavor is not nearly as prominent as it is with the peanut butter flavor. In all honesty, I don’t think you’d ever be able to tell that this is a plant-based protein bar.
This one is my favorite of the bunch by a long shot.
Lemon Cashew ALOHA Bar
The other flavors use sunflower seed butter as part of the base, so I was curious how a cashew butter-based bar would compare.
Much like the other flavors, the lemon cashew bar has a very cookie dough-like consistency. It’s slightly chewier than cookie dough, but it has that same general feel, especially with the subtle grittiness it contains.
The flavor of this bar isn’t quite as strong as I would like, but you can taste plenty of lemon. When it comes to citrus, I don’t mind the flavor being more heavy-handed than others, but this one leans toward the subtle side.
I was worried that since this is a plant-based bar, the lemon flavor wouldn’t be enough to mask the “earthy” taste. But since this is made with cashew butter (which is naturally mild and sweet), there is no strong earthy flavor here.
Overall, this bar has a great balance of flavors and textures (with brown rice crisps included in this bar as well). This flavor doesn’t blow me away like the cookie dough flavor does, but it’s worth a try if you’re a lemon fan.
Chocolate Fudge Brownie ALOHA Bar
Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the chocolate fudge brownie flavor (since I originally tried this bar before planning a review) so we need to roll with the product photo from ALOHA’s website.
The chocolate fudge brownie bar was decent, but it fell a tad short when stacked up against the other flavors.
This bar maintained a similar texture to the others – chewy and slightly dense without venturing into dry territory like many other plant-based protein bars.
The chocolate flavor was nice and rich, but thankfully, it didn’t go over the top into being too sweet or artificial tasting.
However, it didn’t quite hit the mark of the brownie flavor that I was expecting. While it tasted pretty good for a chocolate protein bar, it didn’t quite capture the brownie essence and was more of a standard chocolate bar.
I couldn’t taste the plant-based protein in this one, which is always a huge win for me. I’ve had better chocolate protein bars before, but this is still a solid option.
Final Thoughts: Aloha Plant-Based Bars
Where do these protein bars stand amongst other plant-based options? Honestly, they’re one of the better plant-based protein bars I’ve tried.
Nutritionally, they are a bit lower in protein. The 14 grams of protein per bar puts that right around what Barebells vegan protein bars offer, which is on the lower end compared to other bars like Misfits or No Cow.
Despite the lower protein content, the taste of these bars is very impressive for a plant-based protein bar, and I recommend trying them.
If you’re plant-based, these are a no-brainer and can certainly become part of your protein bar rotation. Especially if you want an organic protein bar, because those are tough to come by.
If you’re not plant-based, I can see these bars being the perfect introduction to plant-based protein bars. The protein flavor of these bars is extremely subtle, so it’s a great way to get your feet wet in the world of vegan protein bars.
If I could only recommend one flavor, it would be the cookie dough protein bar, because that one truly impressed me.
ALOHA bars turned out to be a pleasant surprise. They may not replace your favorite candy bar, but they’re certainly worth trying as one of the better vegan protein bars out there.
