The Purchase
Now, as most know Quest Nutrition is based in America, where you can buy them from most big name stores, both in boxes and singular bars. Unfortunately its not the same in other countries, and so I had to choose wisely about who to buy from. Of course I went straight to the source first Quest Nutrition and made up a basket to see how much it would cost. Then compared this another website iHerb a site I have made purchases from before. The latter was more expensive and only had boxes. The former had decent pricing with both variation boxes and singular bars but what stopped me was knowing I would have to pay both shipping AND import taxes. This is the extra price that needs to be paid for bringing food into the country. Otherwise the they hold your food hostage till its paid.I dimissed the idea of buying from them and decided to look for other options. Enter 'The Protein Pick & Mix' and their 'Not-so-Dirty Dozen' deal. Its a fantastic site, based in Britain that aims to please with a wide range of protein products in trial sizes. I immediatly purchased a dozen box, choosing my flavours as well as buying a packet of Quest peanut butter cups. Because...is chocolate and peanut butter. Two of my favourite things. I got one of each flavour aside from Lemon cream, having heard really bad reviews, and the mixed berry as it wasnt as exciting as all the other flavours. Maybe I purchase both at a later date and update this post. Maybe. (I have. At the bottom. Whoop!)
My Method
The way I chose to review each bar is by giving rating for the smell, the raw bar, the cooked bar and an overall grade. With side notes just to be extra thourough. Part of the way through I relised that its better to heat the bar in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and than grill it for a minute or two on each side. And when I say grill I mean the british term for 'broil'. So lets get started on this extra long post.
The reviews
Firstly, I wanted to mention that I was slightly disappointed by the size of the bars. I took a picture of one next to an average marker pen to show how big they are. Now that I have tried the bars I would say that the serving size is actually quite spot on. Though the price still high.
Peanut Butter Supreme
Ingredients: Sucralose sweetned. Not a fan.
Nutrition: 210Kcal, 20g Protein. A little calorie high for the protein count but I guess its mostly from the peanuts.
Smell: 6/10 Sort of PB2-ish
Raw: 1/10 A jaw breaker, like taffy/bubble gum but worse.
Cooked (8 mins in the oven): 8/10 Peanut butter cookie, very good.
Overall: 5/10
This bar wasnt bad, but I could not eat it raw and doubt I would by it again.
Double Chocolate Chunk
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol. I'd prefer all stevia, but the stevia does contribute to the weird aftertaste. Also 'Caramel colour' has been added.
Nutrition: 160Kcal, 20g Protein. Excellent.
Smell: 4/10 Dark cocoa smell, like a Nak'd bar.
Raw: 2/10 Hard, hard, hard.
Cooked (8mins): 6/10 Slighly over cooked brownie texture.
Overall: 3/10
Just look at it. Where the hell are my chunks! Two. Two in the whole bar. Obviously the product quality and consistency should be looked at because I was heavily disappointed with this. I will say don't over cook this or it will be dry.
Vanilla Almond Crunch
Ingredients: Sucralose sweetened.
Nutrition: 190Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Processed protein smell.
Raw: 5/10 Chewy but with crunch could only get through one bite.
Cooked (8mins): 8/10 Cookie crunchy texture. Bad aftertaste.
Overall: 5/10
The raw form is horridly sticky, I put it on the plate and had to wrench it off. The almond chunks add good texture, if you want a soft cookie dough texture cook for 10 seconds in the microwave. I did this with the other half of my raw section. I wouldn't buy a full box but maybe one or two in a pick and mix.
Apple Pie
Ingredients: Sucralose sweetened.
Nutrition: 180Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Subtle store bought apple pie smell, almost no smell at all.
Raw: 2/10 Hard and chewy.
Cooked: 7/10 10secs microwave: mush. 6 mins: Okay. 8mins: Best. Still gritty texture, the apple sticks to your teeth.
Overall: 5/10
The chunks of apple and almond add texture but the bar is incredible sticky. It sticks to your fingers and the plate. When I baked it I couldn't flip it without it all ripping apart.
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Ingredients: Sucralose sweetened.
Nutrition: 200Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 4/10 PB2-ish again, with a slight strawberry aroma.
Raw: 1/10 Hard and chewy. No real flavour at all.
Cooked: 2/10 10secs microwave: Best, still gritty but soft. 4mins oven: No flavour 8mins: No flavour, but no extra chewy.
Overall: 1/10
This was the most disappointing of the lot. As you know I love the peanut butter and jam combo with a passion, and this was pathetic. I believe this to be yet another product quality issue because it had no flavour but I have read reviews from others saying it tastes exactly like a blended up sandwich. I might try this once more in the future, just to see if my theory is true.
Cookies & Cream
Ingredients: Sucralose AND Dextrin. One of the top artificial sweeteners I try to avoid at all costs.
Nutrition: 180Kcal, 21g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Not much smell at all.
Raw: 8/10 Chewy, chunky, crunchy. Still gritty but the flavour is great.
Cooked: 9/10 10 secs: Melty gooey chocolate, soft texture cookie dough texture. The chunks are perfectly softened chunks.
Overall: 8/10
saying first that the ingredients are not what I want them to be in terms of sweetener, I would not eat this everyday. Nor could I afford to eat these everyday. But...I would eat this raw. It was that good. I plan on buying these again without any hesistation. If you like Oreos, and white chocolate their fantastic.
White Chocolate Raspberry
Ingredients: Stevia and sucralose. Again, why not just stevia.
Nutrition: 190Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Processed with hints of raspberry.
Raw: 5/10 Tart raspberry flavour, but I like it. The texture is still gritty, sticky and chewy.
Cooked: 9/10 20secs: Still gritty, the chocolate melts but its all still a bit chewy. 8secs and grill: Perfect cookie texture, the center is soft and gooey with a crunchy exterior.
Overall: 7/10 Almost reaches an 8 but the aftertaste brings it down.
I have read many reviews stating that the raspberries are so acidicly tart, they boarder rancid. But I love tart things, raspberries in particular must be slightly tart to be any good. The white chocolate helps mellow it out, and adds the gooey texture needed to make it extra indulgent.
Cinnamon Roll
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol.
Nutrition: 170Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 I've smelt vodka with more cinnamon aroma than this bar.
Raw: 1/10 Sort of a christmas cookie taste, but with a bubblegum texture.
Cooked: 7/10 10secs: Chewy, sticky but more cinnamon roll-er. 10secs and grill: Taste much more like a real cinnamon roll.
Overall: 5/10 Still gritty with an aftertaste.
I love cinnamon. I love cinnamon rolls. I liked this bar. It had a good flavour, with hints of frosting and if you grilled it long enough it had great texture. But it wasnt as 'spot on' as many others bill it as.
Banana Nut Muffin
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol.
Nutrition: 170Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 3/10 Processed muffin smell.
Raw: 1/10 Tastes like a gummy banana sweet. You know the ones I mean.
Cooked: 8/10 10secs and grill: Tastes almost exactly like a freshly baked muffin.
Overall: 7/10
Super duperly sticky this time. The almond and walnut chunks give even more of a muffin feel but yet again the aftertaste pulls it down a bit.
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol.
Nutrition: 160Kcal, 20g Protein. Suprising calorie count for a bar containing peanuts.
Smell: 4/10 Dark/Bitter cocoa smell like the DCC. No peanut smell.
Raw: 2/10 Too chewy as with the majority of the bars.
Cooked: 2/10 10secs: still chewy. 20 secs: Bubblegum texture
Overall: 1/10
The flavour is all dark chocolate. There are chunks of peanut throughout but no peanut flavour. The aftertaste is artifical tasting.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Ingredients: Stevia and sucralose.
Nutrition: 190Kcal, 21g Protein. Fantastic macros for something that tastes this good.
Smell: 5/10
Raw: 10/10 It tastes like the chunks in Ben and Jerrys cookie dough ice cream. Amazing.
Cooked: 10/10 15secs microwave: melty chocolate but slightly gritty texture. 10secs and 2-3mins under the grill: Bliss, an exact cookie taste and texture. There is an aftertaste but its easily ignorable.
Overall: 10/10
I was expecting this to be the best. And it was. Hands down. I want more. I desperatly want to try the cookie dough cereal form as well as putting it into some ice cream.
Cashew Coconut
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol.
Nutrition: 170Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Slight whiff of coconut.
Raw: 5/10 Chewy and a little gritty, but the texture comes mostly from the bits of desiccated coconut.
Cooked: 4/10 15 secs M: Chewy cookie texture. 10s M and 2-3mins under grill: Okay taste, no cashew though. Gritty with the normal aftertaste.
Overall: 4/10
Again this bar is very sticky.
Chocolate Brownie
Ingredients: Just sucralose in this one.
Nutrition: 170Kcal, 20g Protein.
Smell: 5/10 Dark cocoa.
Raw: 4/10 Hard, chewy and dense.
Cooked: 5/10 10secs: Still chewy. 10secs and grilled: Easy to overcook, soft inside but not gooey like I like my brownies.
Overall: 4/10
The bar was dry and cracking when I took it out of the wrapper. Like most of the bars it had a gritty texture with a horrible aftertaste. I wont be buying this one again as I can't see a way to get the perfect brownie consistency.
Strawberry Cheesecake
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol
Nutrition: 160Kcal, and 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Strawberry-ish
Raw: 3/10 Just processed strawberry flavour, gritty and chewy.
Cooked: 20secs: exploded, soft and lost all flavour. 10secs and grill: Completely flavourless.
Overall: 0.5/10
This bar was ridiculous, it was incredibly sticky and lost all flavour when cooked. Even in its raw form the flavour wasn't good, no hint of anything 'cheesecake' tasting.
Lemon Cheesecake
Ingredients: Stevia and Erythritol
Nutrition: 160Kcal, and 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Lemony.
Raw: 3/10 Like a lemon bar, but very mild in flavour.
Cooked: 6/10 20secs: Went super soft like the others but gained more flavour, and got more tolerable.
Overall: 5/10
I was really unsure about this bar because so many said it was disgusting. But it wasn't so bad. I love lemony things. Especially a good zesty lemon meringue. But detest the flavour of warm lemon. I was extremely surprised that I liked the warm form of this bar more than the raw.
Mixed Berry Bliss
Ingredients: Sucralose
Nutrition: 200Kcal, (Surprisingly high for a fruit flavour bar) and 20g Protein.
Smell: 2/10 Berry-ish
Raw: 4/10 quite a strong Berry flavour, gritty and chewy.
Cooked: 7/10 20secs: Soft, strong berry flavour . 10secs and grill: Crunchy outside and good berry flavour.
Overall: 5/10
The berry flavour comes from freeze dried strawberries and blueberries. Its sweet with good flavour.
Overall Top 5:
1.Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough2.Cookies and Cream
3.White Chocolate Raspberry
4.Banana Nut Muffin
5.Cinnamon Roll
Peanut Butter Cup
Having never actually tried a real Reese's Peanut Butter Cup maybe I'm not the best person to review this. But I bought the cups to see if they were decent overall, not in comparsion. Billed as Questbar Cravings I assumed they would be good.
When I first opened them up I was quite disappointed by their size. As you can see one cup is about the same size as a small plum. Though this may be looked at as a decent size for a portion size, I feel its not fair for its macros. The calories being very high for the amount of protein. I've put both the ingredients and macros of both the Questbar cups and Reese's Original cups for comparison.
Reese's PB cups (1 packet 2x cups)
Ingredients:
Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate;nonfat milk;milkfat; lactose;soy lecithin;PGPR, emulsifier); peanuts; sugar; dextrose; salt; TBHQ (preservative)
210Kcal
Kcal from fat 110
Fat 13g
Carbs: 24g
Sugar: 21g
Protein: 5g
Quest cups
Ingredients:
Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate), Peanut Butter, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Erythritol, Peanuts. Contains less than 2% of the following: Salt, Almonds, Cashews, Stevia, Sunflower Lecithin and Sucralose.
240Kcal
Kcal from fat: 150
Fat: 17g
Carbs: 10g
Sugar: 1g
Protein: 20g
In comparasion QB might be higher in calories and fat but they exceed Reese's in the fact that they have less carbs, sugar and of course protein. Plus the ingredients are much cleaner, though I don't like the use of sucralose or erythritol.
Smell: 6/10 Nice chocolate bar smell.
Raw: 2/10 The filling is very chalky.
Frozen: 4/10 A little less chalky.
Overall: 2/10
Have you ever watched the film 'Meet the Robinsons' where he's explaining that if you put too much peanut butter in a pb&j sandwhich it gets stuck good and tight to the top of your mouth and dries out your mouth. Thats what the filling of these cups is like. It took ages to get it off with my tongue. This is not an appealing characteristic in food if you ask me. Yes, the flavour is strong, but the texture completely ruins it. I tried melting it in the microwave but it took 30 secs to even get the coating going, at which point the chocolate began to taste off. Overall. Not buying again.
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