Flavors Tried: Hot Chocolate, Summer Strawberry, Sticky Cinnamon
Price: $30 for 12 Flings ($2.50 each)
Nutrition: 150 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 33g Carbs (15g Fiber & 12g Sugar Alcohol), 10g Protein
Targeted marketing strikes again. I was hit with an ad for these Flings Toaster Pastries on Instagram, and I immediately knew I needed to try them.
I’ve been duped by packaging plenty of times, but Flings plays right into the heart of my inner 90’s child, so I really had no choice.
I recently reviewed Legendary Food’s Tasty Pastry, which is the big name in the very small protein Pop Tart space. I actually enjoyed them quite a bit, but they are very cakey compared to Pop Tarts.
If Flings can deliver on being more of a Pop Tart consistency, we’re going to have a winner on our hands.
It’s going to be very tough for anyone to surpass the Tasty Pastry in the macros department, with their pastries containing 180 calories and an impressive 20 grams of protein.
But Flings does a very respectable job in their own right. While they contain half the amount of protein as the Tasty Pastry, 150 calories & 10 grams of protein still make for a very solid protein snack.
The high amount of fiber doesn’t get me too excited, since I eat so many high-protein foods that are already packed with fiber, but I can’t argue with the appeal of high-fiber snacks.
The sugar alcohol content is pretty high, which some people may not love, but it doesn’t bother me. As long as the sugar alcohol flavor isn’t overpowering, I can live with it.
Flings currently has three flavors: Summer Strawberry, Sticky Cinnamon, and Hot Chocolate. I was able to get them all, so let’s get into it.
Flings Summer Strawberry Review
When you open up the package, it becomes immediately clear that these toaster pastries actually resemble Pop-Tarts. The Tasty Pastry is a square made to look like a Pop-tart, but Flings truly embody a real-deal toaster pastry.
The pastry feels heavier and much denser than a Pop-Tart, but considering it’s made with heavier ingredients like almond flour and chickpea flour, I fully expected that.
I was very excited to see that the icing on top is hard the same way it is on a real Pop-Tart. In my opinion, that crisp break you get from the icing is one of the best parts of a Pop-Tart.
Once you bite into this toaster pastry and get into the filling, it immediately takes you back to childhood.
You can clearly tell from the photo that it’s a bit denser than a regular Pop-Tart, but man oh man does it taste like a Pop-Tart.
The strawberry filling is exactly what I was hoping for, and the icing on top really brings it home.
If I’m being totally honest, I can taste the erythritol in the aftertaste, but it’s not at all overpowering like with other protein snacks I’ve tried. If you’re sensitive to that flavor, you may notice is a bit more than I do, but it’s not nearly enough to negatively affect the experience for me.
This is a strawberry protein Pop-Tart.
Hot Chocolate Flings Review
I wasn’t sure if this toaster pastry was going to resemble the Hot Fudge Sundae Pop-Tarts, but it became immediately clear that this was going to be much closer to the Chocolate Fudge flavor.
When I broke it open, I was greeted with a chocolate filling very similar to what I expected to find.
PS: No, that’s not mold in the photo. You’re seeing sea salt and a dusting of flour, don’t worry.
In terms of flavor, I love this one. If you enjoy chocolate, there’s really no reason you wouldn’t love this toaster pastry.
It’s definitely denser and chewier than a Pop-Tart, but after trying the first flavor, I knew that’s what I was getting into.
I definitely notice the sugar alcohol in the aftertaste a bit more than the other flavors, but that’s likely a combination of the sugar alcohol combined with the bitterness of the cocoa powder.
While I won’t go as far as saying this is as good as a Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tart, this is a damn good chocolate toaster pastry.
Sticky Cinnamon Flings Review
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts are easily my favorite Pop-Tart flavor. Considering these don’t call out brown sugar at all, I adjusted my expectations so I wouldn’t be disappointed.
When you open this one up, you’re immediately hit with a strong (almost spicy) scent of cinnamon, which is quite different from the Pop-Tart experience. So, I knew to go into this one not expecting my beloved childhood favorite.
To my surprise, the filling resembles a Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tart quite a lot.
In fact, if I just compared the fillings side by side, I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference.
The true difference in this flavor specifically is that the pastry portion has a more distinct flavor than I noticed with the other flavors. Biting into it, I tasted the almond flour much more than the other pastries, which is surprising to me considering the filling seems quite generous.
Still, the filling is absolutely perfect and it has an awesome chew to it just like a Pop-Tart. This one’s a winner.
The Toaster Test
What’s a toaster pastry if you can’t actually toast it? This is one area where the Tasty Pastry falls incredibly short- you can’t toast them!
When you heat these up, the experience goes from great to incredible.
All you have to do is pop these into the toaster for 45 seconds (you can also microwave them) and the filling becomes warm & gooey while the icing remains hard and crispy.
When I tried to heat up the Tasty Pastry, it melted all over and became a real mess.
When I heated up Flings, they tasted just like Pop-Tarts right out of the toaster. If you enjoy your toaster pastries warmed up, you’ll lose your mind over these.
The Freeze Test
Call me crazy, but I really enjoy Pop-Tarts straight out of the freezer. Don’t know it till you try it!
But since Flings are a low-carb, high-protein version, I was expecting them to freeze rock hard.
To my surprise, these are absolutely incredible frozen. I was able to bite right into these after removing them from the freezer, which is equal parts surprising and pleasing.
There’s a chewiness to them when frozen (I’d almost describe it as tacky), but there’s something about it that I really love.
Plus, when they’re frozen, any aftertaste I previously tasted from the sugar alcohol is completely eliminated.
I froze half of the pastries I received and I enjoyed them as late-night snacks throughout the week. I can confidently say that this was my favorite way to enjoy these pastries.
Conclusion: Finally A True Protein Pop-Tart
Flings was able to replicate a Pop-Tart and turn it into a high-protein, low-carb treat, and I am amazed.
While these may not perfectly mimic the original Pop-Tarts, they come close. It’s important to remember that there are some trade-offs when dealing with high-protein snacks.
These are a little denser and chewier than Pop-Tarts, but other than that, the experience is truly like eating a Pop-Tart.
The filling is delicious, there’s a nice hard icing on the outside, and they can be eaten toasted OR frozen.
In hindsight, it seems incredibly silly that there are protein “toaster pastries” out there that you can’t actually toast.
Flings is changing that, and I am here for it.
While they may not be as impressive from a macro standpoint as the Tasty Pastry, these blow them out of the water in terms of resembling an actual Pop-Tart.
Buy them and give them a try. You won’t regret it.
