Price: $10.99 for box of 5 ($2.20 per bar)
Nutrition: 190 Calories, 11g Fat, 15g Carbs (3g Fiber & 4g Sugar), 15g Protein
PB2 is widely recognizable in the health & fitness space for its powdered peanut butter, which most everyone has heard of at this point.
If you are somehow unfamiliar with PB2, it’s peanut butter that has been dehydrated to remove most of the fat, leaving you with a low-calorie peanut powder. When mixed with water, it creates something that is peanut butter-like.
Personally, I don’t enjoy the taste of it (because fat is flavor, after all) but it works really well in recipes and smoothies to provide peanut flavor.
On its own, it definitely is nowhere near as good as regular peanut butter, but many people love it as a diet-friendly peanut butter alternative.
So, when I saw they had protein bars, I was assuming they would use their powder to make lower-calorie peanut butter bars.
But when you look at the ingredients, “defatted peanut butter” (which I assume is what they are calling PB2) is one of the last ingredients listed. This means there isn’t much actual PB2 in these bars at all, which seems very strange.
While I don’t love PB2 on its own, if they had created a bar around it, it could be a game-changer in the protein bar space. I mean, who doesn’t want some delicious low-calorie peanut butter?
Well, let’s get into it…
Don’t mind the hideous photo above- I suppose I left my bars in the car a little bit too long and they melted a bit. I won’t hold that against them.
As soon as you open the wrapper of these bars, you’re met with that all-too-familiar scent of artificial peanut butter. It instantly reminded me of Pure Protein bars – your typical, run-of-the-mill protein bars.
The smell is nothing like the intoxicating aroma of a jar of peanut butter, or even PB2 itself. It’s the standard synthetic peanut butter protein bar aroma we’ve all encountered at one point or another.
The taste and texture of the bar are a letdown too.
It’s incredibly dense, and you’re hit with a dry, earthy taste courtesy of the pea protein they use. It fails to taste like PB2, let alone authentic peanut butter, and instead gives off a fake peanut butter flavor.
To add insult to injury, it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste thanks to the plant-based protein that led to me not even finishing this bar.
With the harsh, dry texture, overpowering pea protein flavor, and less than impressive peanut butter taste, there’s not much to celebrate about PB2’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars.
The only silver lining was that my local store had a 50% discount on them.
I usually have a hard time warming up to plant-based protein bars, so I wasn’t expecting to be completely blown away, but I’ve come across quite a few at this point that I have thoroughly enjoyed.
However, these PB2 bars are unfortunately not among them. Given PB2’s reputation, you would expect much more.
Hopefully they release a v2 at some point in the future and improve upon the texture and flavor of these bars, or maybe even try a dairy-based version that has far superior flavor.
