Today I gave myself the best job in the world: taste testing! Just a few days ago I spotted these interesting bars in my campus’ student store. I picked up the Chocolate Espresso one and decided to give it a taste. I really liked it and decided to pick more up and give you all an overall review of these bars and brand as a whole!

First off, the nutrition is awesome. Most the bars are 230 calories, 20g of protein, and sugar/gluten free. There are tons of other flavors (lemon cream pie, tangerine cremesicle, cookies & creme, caramel fudge and chocolate dipped strawberry!) that are 200 calories but 15g of protein. I haven’t tried any of those yet, but I’m very curious! They claim to be totally natural; I can pronounce and recognize every ingredient, so that’s awesome!

So the first one I tried out was the Chocolate Espresso. It was so good. It tasted exactly how I’d expect a chocolate espresso bar to taste. It wasn’t overly sweet (no sugar, duh!). It did have a very protein bar kind of texture however: crumbly and kind of grainy. It wasn’t horrible or anything, but it was the one downside. But for the nutrition it comes with it wasn’t enough to bother me.

Today I picked up four more: Chocolate Fudge, Dark Chocolate, Brownie Crunch, and Creamy Peanut Butter. Now you may be wondering why I picked all flavors that sound the same; well that was my exact reason! I wanted to know how different three chocolate flavors could taste! And these ones were the majority of the ones with the higher protein content.

The first of these four I tried out was Chocolate Fudge. I think this one was my second favorite of the four, taste wise. It had a much, much better texture than the Chocolate Espresso. And it also didn’t have a strong protein taste; in fact it tasted really chocolatey, and tasted like a sinful treat! With how good it tastes I never would have expected it to be a protein bar with such good nutritional value if I hadn’t known! It also contains calcium (6%) and Iron (8%).

The second one I tried was Dark Chocolate and was my favorite. It’s extremely rich; it doesn’t taste like a healthy bar at all! This is one of those things that are so rich that you can just break off a small chunk and eat it as a way of satisfying chocolate cravings. It’s really, really good. It’s texture also isn’t crumbly, but it’s a lot firmer. This one was kind of tough to break a piece off. It also has little chocolate chunks in it which is y-u-m-m-y! Dark Chocolate is also the one I’d say is the healthiest for you. Of all the ones I have, it has the lowest total fat (7g), the only one with no cholesterol, the lowest sodium (135mg), lowest sugar alcohol (10g), and the highest iron (15%!). It the highest when it comes to total carb, but not by a significant amount at all.

Next up was Brownie Crunch. This one was my third favorite. Maybe it was because of the very strong chocolate flavor of the Dark Chocolate bar, but I felt like I couldn’t taste too much chocolate out of this one. It’s still quite chocolately, but not nearly as strong as the Dark Chocolate. I’d say it’s in the same range as the Chocolate Fudge one. So for those of you who don’t want super rich chocolate, try this one! I also really liked that it had little rice puffs in it. It was a nice little surprise and texture addition. The texture was a little crumbier, but not nearly as much as the Chocolate Espresso. It was much smoother than that one. Overall it was really good, and definitely comparable to Chocolate Fudge, except this one has the rice puffs. This one also has the second highest iron content (10%).

And last but not least, Creamy Peanut Butter! I was slightly disappointed by this one. I really love Balance Bars’ Peanut Butter flavor because it’s really peanut buttery and rich. However, I must remember that these guys are sugar free and have a lot more protein than Balance Bars (200 cal, 17g sugar, 14g protein. yikes!!!). The taste in general wasn’t very strong at first; it’s the aftertaste that has that peanut butter kick. It has a texture similar to Brownie; somewhat crumby, but at the same time it’s soft and a lot smoother than the Espresso. This one ranks low on the nutrition scale (well, compared to the others, that is). It has 10 more grams of calories from fat than the others; it has a whopping 300mg from sodium, 1g of dietary fiber, and the lowest iron percentage (4%). It does, however, have the lowest amount of total carbs, but not by much. Of all of them this was my least favorite for it’s lack of taste but worse nutrition info. If you are a serious peanut butter lover, you might like it better than me though. 

So that concludes this very yummy review! Just to sum everything up, I’d probably repurchase all of these but Peanut Butter. If I had to just pick one, I’d go with the Dark Chocolate because it ranks highest on the nutrition scale and tastes the best. I absolutely love this brand for doing something so awesome; these bars are all natural, sugar free, gluten free, low cal, high protein, and YUMMY! I highly recommend trying them out.

Check out http://thinkproducts.com to see their other products. They have tons of other things that look so good!

If you have any other products you would like me to review, just let me know and I’d be glad to check it out! Thanks for reading! :)

*disclaimer: No, I am not being paid to review these products, nor were they sent to me. I really did buy these in my college student store with my own money, and these are my 100% honest opinions!

I am not a Greek yogurt fan. I never really have been. But after hearing all this talk of how amazing Chobani Greek yogurt is, I had to give it a shot.

I went to the store and picked up the non-fat strawberry. I figured strawberry was the safest bet.

This morning for breakfast I added 1/4 cup of Fruit Not Fat granola and some coconut shreds into my yogurt. These were my saving graces. I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to eat the whole thing without my toppings.

It does have the typical taste of Greek yogurt; it’s really rich and creamy, but very sour. It also had the fruit mixture on the bottom that you stir up. The texture is lovely though. It’s really soft, creamy, and rich.

As for the nutrients, you can’t really go wrong for the size. For 6 oz it’s 140 calories, nonfat, and 14g of protein. The one downside is the 19g of sugar as a result, I assume, from the fruit on the bottom. Lately sugar has been one thing I’ve been avoiding like death, so I was bummed to find that much sugar in it. But, remember, it’s all natural, so that’s good. No to mention the cultures and other things in yogurt are really good for you too. 

I checked out the nutrition info on the plain flavor and I was floored. The plain yogurt has 18g of protein and only 7g of sugar! What!? So I guess that fruit at the bottom really does make the sugar content way higher!

After looking back at my tasty adventure with my first Chobani, I’d say it was a good one. I still much more prefer the taste of regular yogurt, but for the protein content you can’t really go wrong.

I’ll probably repurchase these but stick to the plain flavor. It’s definitely not going to be a daily food for me until I get used to the taste, but I think they’d be great for days when I do very high protein intake after weight lifting!

So the other day on a trip to Spouts, I saw a big sale on coconut water. I had never tried it, but I feel like I hear about it daily. So, I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a shot!

Taste: I’m conflicted on the taste. I absolutely love everything coconut flavored. But for some reason the taste just… bothers me. It tastes like watered down coconut milk, which makes since considering it’s coconut water. So it doesn’t really taste bad, but I just don’t think it tasted particularly good. I didn’t sip it and immediately go “Mmmm!” like I do with most coconut flavored things. It was just eh.

Texture: Yes, liquids do have texture! I am a super taster (google it), so I definitely pick up on textures of liquid (hence why I can’t stand milk). It kind of does have a milk-like texture. It feels a bit heavier in the mouth than normal water. It’s not enough to bother me though.

Did it do anything special for me? No, not really. I didn’t feel more hydrated than I would if I just drank water. Then again, honestly, I only had a few sips because I didn’t care for the taste.

Would I buy it again? No, definitely not. I’m trying to come up with ways to get rid of the huge bottle of it I have in my fridge. As I type I’m drinking pineapple water from my college’s caf (chunks of pineapple in water) and I find it a lot more refreshing and better tasting. I’d much rather put chunks of watermelon, pineapple, strawberry, or other fruits in my water than drink coconut water, but it’s mostly a taste thing. I’m really, really sad I didn’t like it because it’s supposed to be quite good for you and I love coconut. But it just didn’t do it for me! I guess it’s a good thing, because it’s one less thing I’d have to spend money on. Could it possibly be the brand I got (pictured above)?

So these were my thoughts on the hyped up coconut water. What are your guys’ thoughts on it?