(I received this product as a gift or at a discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.)
A good food bar is a handy little item. Being hungry usually means getting at least a little bit dull-minded, if not downright grumpy, so having a bar or two in your bag to get you through until your next meal is a good idea. It’s so much easier than preparing anything, and it’s safer than fruit, really. Once I mashed a pear in my bag. Not fun.
But, not all bars are created equal, so you’ve got to take a good look at them to make sure you’re eating something that’s actually decent for your body.
With that in mind, I was happy to try Brisk Bars, which are made with pretty gosh darn good ingredients like coconut (first listed!), pea protein, maca, and organic dark chocolate. They also do not use genetically modified ingredients, which is a huge plus. The only ingredient I was unfamiliar with was agar, so I looked it up. It’s a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed and used to thicken food products. (It’s also used in labs for science-y stuff.)
The “Brisk” in Brisk Bars refers to the energizing element. The bars contain guarana to give it 100mg of natural caffeine. A lot of energy drinks and bars give you the kick via caffeine and sugar, but Brisk Bars have only four grams of sugar–another big plus. The bars are fairly small (25 grams) and contain just 100 calories, plus five grams of protein. They are vegan-friendly and free of gluten, soy, preservatives, and lactose.
The first flavor (and only flavor currently available as this is a new company) is 70% Dark Chocolate and Coconut–right up my coconut- and chocolate-loving alley. The company reminds you that due to the low sugar content, the bar is a bit bitter tasting, which you would expect from dark chocolate anyway. Keep in mind that guarana is also naturally bitter, so that contributes to the taste, as well.
And it is bitter, but not unpleasant. If you’re used to your nutrition/meal/granola bars being sweet, you might be disappointed with the first bite. I was ready for it, and didn’t find it off-putting. The bitter chocolate taste does overwhelm the coconut taste, so it’s not as coconutty as I would have liked. The texture is soft and chewy, which I loved.
One thing I didn’t love was the aftertaste: it left a bitter taste at the back of my mouth. After about five minutes, I decided I had to brush my teeth. When I ate a second bar (different day), I ate something else afterward, and that worked to eliminate the aftertaste, too. But, to me, that’s a pretty easy fix, and worth it for everything else I like about the bar. When I’m shopping for something like this, taste is nice, but the ingredients list is more important to me.
I tried four of these overall, at different times of the day: once at breakfast with a green smoothie, once as a pre-workout snack, once as a post-workout snack, and once in the middle of the afternoon. As for the energy boost or mental clarity, I did feel alert and on top of things after eating them, but I generally feel that way throughout my day. On the day of my pre-workout bar, I felt extra-ready to tackle that workout, which wasn’t an easy one. I’m not especially sensitive to caffeine and am used to guarana because it’s an ingredient in the healthy energy drink I like. (Sometimes I drink coffee in the morning, sometimes not, and I generally feel the same either way.) There was definitely no sudden rush or jittery feeling, nothing like that.
Going forward, I would be most likely to use this as a pre-workout snack. I’m really looking forward to trying other flavors of Brisk Bars as they come out.
For more information, visit http://briskbars.com