Flavors Tried: BBQ, Ranch
Price: $25.99 for 12 ($2.17 per bag)
Nutrition: 110 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 3g Carbs, 15g Protein
Protein Poppits are Power Crunch’s answer to protein puffs, which seem to be popping up (pun intended) left and right.
Protein puffs are exactly what they sound like: they take some whey protein and bake it to create a crunchy puff, then coat them in a specific flavor.
Since there is not much to them, most protein puffs end up being extremely similar products. Still, since it’s essentially just whey protein, it makes for impressive macros:
With just over 100 calories per bag, getting 15 grams of protein is extremely impressive. In terms of a calories-to-protein ratio, these puffs end up being more impressive than most protein bars.
Of course, those impressive macros are all for nothing if they don’t taste halfway decent. I was able to find both flavors, BBQ and Ranch, at my local Walmart, so I was able to test them both out.
First up: BBQ Protein Poppits.
When you open up this bag, the smell of BBQ sauce punches you right in the face. It is a very strong smell, which I find to be very rare with protein snacks. Many snacks go very light on the flavor (especially when it comes to savory snacks) so this was a pleasant surprise.
The puffs themselves are really tiny, so they’re not really much of a “puff” to me. If I were naming them, I’d call them protein crunchies instead of protein puffs.
Luckily, these aren’t insanely crunchy like some other protein puffs out there, and when you bite into these, they break down and dissolve in your mouth very similarly to a Cheeto.
To me, this flavor leans much more toward the smoky side of the scale than the sweet side, which I don’t love. If you’re a fan of smoky BBQ sauce, then I think you’d really enjoy this flavor. Since I enjoy a sweet BBQ sauce without any smoke, these were only okay for me.
Still, you can absolutely identify the flavor they are going for, so if smoky BBQ is what you’re after, you won’t be disappointed.
The ranch flavor, on the other hand, was… bad.
If you’re expecting ranch flavored chips, you’re going to be extremely disappointed by these protein puffs.
While the texture is fine, the flavor tastes like they severely over-seasoned with garlic and onion and not much else.
While ranch does have both flavors of onion and garlic, they need to be balanced. In this case, they most certainly are not, and it just tastes like you’re eating handfuls of garlic and onion.
Overall, I think these are fine as far as protein puffs go. If I had to buy them again, I’d definitely only get the BBQ and steer clear of the ranch flavor, but I’m not itching to try them again.
If you find yourself at the store and in need of a high-protein snack that isn’t a protein bar, you can certainly give these a try, but there are much better options out there.
