With two high protein snacks released this year, we decided to pick up Optimum’s slightly older release for review. The product we’re talking about is the three or four month old Opti-Bar, which we recently grabbed a full box of in Chocolate Brownie. It didn’t unfortunately turn out to be as good as some of the other protein bars released this year, but still an edible and enjoyable effort.
Just to give you a quick rundown of the nutrition behind Optimum’s Opti-Bar, or at least the Chocolate Brownie flavor we’re reviewing today. Each bar packs 20g of protein, 24g of carbohydrates with 3g of that sugar and 8g fiber, 7g of fat (2g saturated), and a total of 240 calories. The bar’s other flavors do of course vary, although they do all keep the protein consistent at 20g.
Soft to bite, long to chew
The Opti-Bar is a classic, soft straight through protein bar that you can bite into pretty easy. That doesn’t last too long however, as once you get that first chunk into your mouth it does take quite the chewy effort to get down. On the bright side the Opti-Bar does pack a good amount of flavor to keep you entertained while you chew away.
The Chocolate Brownie Opti-Bar is filled with a not overly sweet, but intense, chocolate fudge-like flavor, which plays well with the bar’s chewy consistency. The chocolate squiggles on the top don’t really add too much to the overall taste, with the full on chocolate fudge flavor being what shines through. While we did only grab the one flavor to review, we imagine Optimum’s other Opit-Bars are about the same, featuring a chewy, intense amount of their base flavor.
Good just isn’t enough anymore
As mentioned the Opti-Bar is definitely an enjoyable and edible effort, as we cleared out our box of 12 Chocolate Brownie bars with ease. If however we were presented with the question of would we purchase them again, the answer would probably be no. As good as the Opti-Bar is, much like with the pre-workout market, the protein bar game is so competitive these days that you need to be more than good to stand out.
The Opti-Bar really just lacks a highlight of any kind, it’s basically what you expect is what you get. With so many other options out there we’d find it hard to want to go back for more, especially with the likes of the Carb Killa and ProSupps recently released MyBar out there, and available in a lot of places.
