Flavors Tried: Lemon Delight, Creamy Peanut Butter, Chunky Peanut Butter, Brownie Crunch, Cupcake Batter (Protein+ 150 Calorie Bar)
Nutrition: 230 Calories, 8g Fat, 23g Carbs (1g Fiber, 11g Sugar Alcohol), 20g Protein
Price: $18.99 for box of 12 ($1.58 per bar)
Think! has been a player in the protein bar game for quite some time now, and they’ve had their fair share of reformulations over the years.
They offer a range of bars, including vegan and keto versions, but I decided to stick to their regular high-protein bars for the purposes of this review.
I did snag one of their lower-calorie Protein+ bars, so we’ll see how they compare to the regular high-protein bars.
I grabbed individual bars at my local grocery store, but with a current price tag of $18.99 for a box of 12 ($1.58 per bar), think! bars are extremely affordable compared to other bars out there.
With 230 calories with 20 grams of protein, they are a pretty standard option in terms of nutrition, but without the usual heavy fiber content you find in most bars out there.
There have been a lot of awesome protein bars to hit shelves recently, so let’s see how this classic bar stacks up.
Lemon Delight think! Bars
Opening the Lemon Delight, I was hit with a refreshing citrus aroma that promised something special.
The texture of this bar was dense but not overly chewy, so it was pretty pleasant overall.
There are crispy pieces inside the bar, which I’m not quite sure exactly what they are, but it gave the bar a bit of a stale cracker feel that I could certainly do without.
Unfortunately, this bar has a pretty strong bitterness to it, likely from the sugar alcohols, overshadowing the lemon flavor. While it does resemble lemon cookies a bit, it’s not nearly as impressive as what NuSkool managed to do with their lemon bar.
Creamy Peanut Butter think! Bars
As a peanut butter lover, I look forward to trying any peanut butter protein bar.
This bar is very soft and fluffy, like whipped peanut butter, which makes this pretty enjoyable to bite into.
The flavor of the peanut butter is decent, but definitely not mind-blowing. It doesn’t necessarily taste like a bar made with peanut butter, but rather a peanut butter flavored protein powder (but that’s pretty standard in protein bars).
The chocolate coating didn’t overpower the peanut butter taste, allowing the peanut butter to remain the star, but there was a noticeable artificial bitterness to this one that takes away a point or two.
Chunky Peanut Butter think! Bars
The Chunky Peanut Butter bar was a letdown. It was firmer than the creamy version, and the “chunks” turned out to be those same crispies that are present in the other bars, not peanuts.
A huge miss, especially when the name implied real peanut pieces like in chunky peanut butter.
Flavor-wise, this was average at best. You’d think that creamy & chunky peanut butter would essentially be the same bar with slightly different textures, but these eat like two completely different protein bars.
If you’re going peanut butter, the creamy version is definitely the way to go.
Brownie Crunch think! Bars
Who doesn’t love the smell of brownies? That’s exactly what the Brownie Crunch bar offers, which is very exciting.
Unfortunately, the taste didn’t quite follow through on that enticing smell.
The same stale texture from the crispies was there in this bar, and the overall taste is very bitter. I would name this bar “double chocolate” instead of brownie, because you definitely don’t get the sweetness you’d expect from brownies.
If you love bitter dark chocolate, this might hit the spot, because it’s a solid chocolate flavor overall, but don’t expect anything resembling brownies.
Luckily, the bitter chocolate flavor pretty much eliminates any artificial flavor in these, so if you’re sensitive to the taste of artificial sweeteners, this would be the flavor for you.
Bonus: Cupcake Batter Protein+ 150 Calorie Bar
Think! offers lower-calorie protein bars, and I was really interested to give them a try.
When you open these up, they are noticeably thinner than the regular think! bars. The look of the bar reminded me a lot of a ONE bar, which I happen to enjoy quite a bit.
The Cupcake Batter Protein+ 150 Calorie Bar I tried was the star of the show, and it was far and away the best bar of the entire bunch.
It smells extremely sweet, just like the vanilla frosting on top of a cupcake.
The texture is actually very similar to ONE bar, which works extremely well in a thin bar like this. It’s soft, but with the perfect amount of chew.
The flavor itself is quite sweet, but at the same time, very accurate to actual vanilla cupcake flavor. If you like birthday cake-flavored snacks, there’s no way this will disappoint you.
There’s a noticeable difference in the taste of this bar versus the others, and I was curious why I felt that this flavor was leaps and bounds better than the others. It turns out that the lower-calorie bars are made with real sugar instead of sugar alcohol, and it makes a world of difference.
Yes, these only contain 10 grams of protein compared to 20 in the regular think! high-protein bars, but the superior taste makes it worth the reduction.
If all Think! bars tasted like this, they’d be on to something special.
Final Thoughts on think! Bars
Think! bars are decent, but they’re not about to top my favorites list. The Protein+ 150 Calorie Bar was definitely an exception, making me curious to explore more of that line. If/when I do, I’ll be sure to update this review.
What holds these protein bars back is the bitter/artificial taste from the sugar alcohols, and some inconsistencies in texture between the flavors (as evidenced by the photo above).
But with a reasonable price and wide availability, they might be worth a try, especially if you’re curious to explore different options like keto and vegan.
As with all food choices, personal preferences will vary, so don’t let my mixed experience deter you from giving them a shot. If your palate is sensitive to sugar alcohol, however, you might want to think twice about Think! bars.
I love the variety in the types of bars and flavor options that think! offers, but these didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Nevertheless, I’m eager to try some other flavors of the lower-calorie bars, since that Cupcake Batter bar left a sweet impression on me.
