REVIEW: INBar Food Bars

Holy INbars, Batman!

Recently my friend Ashley sent me a box of INBar food bars.  I'm not talking like a handful of flavors to try either; my beloved sent me a handful of each flavor to try... about 30 bars in total.  As usual when I get mail, I was like a kid on Christmas, shoving my new gifts in Aaron's face and saying things like, "CHERRY CHOCOLATE?!  I bet that is so good!  Doesn't that sound good baby?!" to which he had to reply an enthusiastic and satisfactory yes to before I would go on to describing the next ultra exciting flavor... my poor boyfriend.  He is a good sport though and tried all of the flavors at least once.  Well, the exception that is the Chocolate Mint; he apparently doesn't care for "minty things" (which translates roughly to "more for me").

We destroyed the supply in a couple of weeks.  I was impressed with us.  I was instantly hooked since they're vegan, gluten-free, soy free, gmo-free, allergen-free, etc, etc.  What this meant for me was that it was a no brainer that these were safe for me.  I combined these, usually with a meal drink, for my lunches at work.  It was nice to be able to fuel up, not think about it, and not suffer dire stomach consequences for the rest of my shift.  They tasted much better than I expected, and overall I never felt like a got a mouthful of powder or grit... anyone who eats meal bars knows exactly what I mean by that.  The macronutrients were spot on for what I wanted, and the sodium levels were decently low at around 30mg per bar (1%*).  Another important note is that the bars are high fiber at 10g per bar (40%*).

Typical lunch for me.  Meal bar from INbar, meal shake from TrueNutrition.com
(it's a custom mix; order with code BBE100).

INbar Chocolate Mint flavor (56g):
Total Calories: 173
Fat: 5g
Carbohydrates: 21g
Protein: 11g

Taste: This was probably my second favorite.  I love mint chocolate anything.  It's a problem; I miss Thin Mints like it's no one's business.  Anytime you combine chocolate and mint, I'm there.  These were certainly no exception to the rule, and I ate all of these by myself gladly.

Training at Lorna Jane with my Jamba Juice and my INbar.

INbar Chocolate Butter Crunch flavor (56g):
Total Calories: 173
Fat: 5g
Carbohydrates: 21g
Protein: 11g

Taste: I loved this one.  It wasn't one of Aaron's favorites, but only in comparison.  I thought it was delicious and I loved the crunchy texture (probably what he didn't like about it, actually).  To me the crunch read like.. crunchy puffed rice bits, but for him I think it just read as grit or texture.  I thought this one was very tasty and I welcomed the base of organic sunflower seed butter.

INbar Cherry Chocolate flavor (56g):
Total Calories: 173
Fat: 5g
Carbohydrates: 21g
Protein: 11g

Taste: This one was Aaron's favorite, and being a good sport I tried to leave this flavor primarily for him.. but I definitely ate my share since we had more of these than any other flavor (thank goodness).  I loved this flavor, too.  It was a good balance of chocolate and cherry, neither really overwhelming the other, and no weird after taste (probably because it used actual cherry concentrate; some fruit flavored bars have weird aftertastes due to artificial flavors).  When we order a few cases of bars, this one will definitely be included.

INbar Chocolate Fudge flavor (56g):
Total Calories: 173
Fat: 5g
Carbohydrates: 21g
Protein: 11g

Taste: I'm sorry, did you just say chocolate fudge?!  Uh, yeah, we loved this one.  It has crispy brown rice in it, and I wanted to eat these with every meal.  There isn't a lot to say about this one except for: buy it.  Eat it.  Love it.

INbar Cinnamon Swirl flavor (56g):
Total Calories: 173
Fat: 5g
Carbohydrates: 22g
Protein: 10g

Taste: This one was our least favorite.  That's not to say that we didn't like it (or at least I did), but between this and the other flavors, this wasn't one that I found myself reaching for.  We only had two of these, and each of us had one, but neither of us were sad to see that we didn't have more.  Would I eat it again?  Yes.  Would I purposefully purchase it given the other options?  Probably not outside of variety.

A superfood-packed green salad, water and an INbar.. what's not to love?

INbar Strawberry Banana flavor (56g):
Total Calories: 169
Fat: 5g
Carbohydrates: 21g
Protein: 10g

Taste: I have a love/hate relationship with this flavor.  I liked it a lot, but it wasn't chocolate.  I ate it a lot, but it wasn't chocolate.  It was just sweet enough and delicious and reminded me a little bit of strawberry shortcake if it were a meal bar, but it wasn't chocolate.  For some reason (maybe because 66% of their flavors are chocolate), I found myself wanting this to be chocolate, too.  Is that actually an issue?  No, not really.  It's great that there are chocolate free options, especially because some people are allergic to cocoa.  Would I buy these?  Yes.  Were they my favorite, no.  But confession: I'm a bit of a chocoholic.

OVERALL:
Would I buy these?  Heck yes.  We've already looked them up on Amazon since we haven't seen them in our local Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Walmart, Central Market, etc.  When Kroger starts carrying them (fingers crossed), we will get them there.  They were delicious.  The textures were on point; chewy enough to feel like you're eating food, but not so much texture that it's gritty or dry.  The variety of flavors is excellent as long as you don't hate or are allergic to chocolate.  And with them being organic, non-gmo, vegan, gluten-free, kosher, suitable for diabetics, low sodium, high fiber, preservative free, etc, etc, etc, what's not to love?  They fit in with my personal food philosophy quite well; I'm sold.

More training at Lorna Jane, more Jamba Juice, and another INbar.

*daily percent values are based on a 2,000 calories per day diet

Disclaimer:  I received these items for free from my friend.  She does not work for INbar.  I was not contacted by INbar in any way.  This is my open and honest opinion, as always.