Mezcla Plant Based Protein Bars

I have tried a *lot* of bars in my time.  No, no, I'm not talking about the places where crowds of humans used to gather, drink, and be merry, I'm talking about bars the food products.  Generally trying to be quasi-healthy, often boasting high protein, usually non-GMO, gluten-free, etc, etc.  They started life as simple granola bars (like Quaker), and have evolved from there (like Nature Valley or Kind bars).  Available in every country (like Nakd bars, Alpen light, and Perkier bars in the UK or Go Natural, Be Natural, and SuniBrite in Australia).  Sometimes sold as meal replacements (like Quest), other times as breakfast items (like Bobo's oat bars, which I actually do like!), sometimes for sports recovery (like LUNA bars and LÄRABAR) ... you know the type.  They frequently have great sounding flavors, and most often, never even remotely live up to the names (why *did* I believe "Cinnamon bun white chocolate" by Think Thin would be good?).  Sometimes they try to do good for others, or the planet, like This Bar Saves Lives.  Or they go totally roque, like the meat and veggie bars by Wild Zora.  Or they just *sound* appealing, like Awesome Bars.

Yet still I try them.  I try them all (ok, all except those with whey protein isolate in them, because, alas, I've learned the very hard way that my body does not like whey protein).  And yes, most I try, I review, and I never get again.

Enter Mezcla.

"We are a delicious vegan bar that brings you the flavors of the world in a healthy and crunchy snack. With 10G of Protein, 170 calories, and a Pea Crisp base coated in vegan chocolate, Mezcla bars are bringing innovation and personality to the protein bar space."

I read the tag lines.  The bars are vegan, gluten-free, etc.  Yup, yup, I know the type (e.g. Raw Rev vegan bars).  Looking closer though, I was thrilled to see that the protein content comes from pea crisps (made from pea protein and rice starch), along with chickpeas, sunflower seed, and crispy quinoa.  No isolates, no soy, and best of all for me, no whey protein (my body hates it!).  

The flavors, although few, are unique, and are actually ones I'm interested in.  Not just because they *sound* good, but, because they are things I actually enjoy.  Matcha.  Cocoa peanut butter.  

There was a lot of promise here.  But still, protein bars?  Tasty?

It turns out, yes, yes they do exist.  Finally, I found a bar that delivered.  I highly, highly recommend these bars.

Even just opening the package of the first bar I could tell these were different.  They don't look funny, they look like, well, candy bars?  And turns out, they taste like them too ...

Mexican Chipotle Hot Chocolate.

"Have you ever had a warm cup of Mexican hot chocolate? If you have, you know the delicious sweetness it packs along with a little extra kick. If you haven’t, try this bar and find out what you’ve been missing. "

I opened my first bar one morning post workout when I was really really craving chocolate.  I expected to pick this flavor last, as I adore matcha and chocolate-peanut butter (the other flavors I had on hand), but, I  wanted just chocolate that morning.  Stat.  This bar sounded like just the thing.

I was quite pleased when I opened it.  It really did look appealing.  A well sized bar, full of crispies (made from pea crisps, sunflower seeds, chickpeas, and quinoa), and, yes, actually coated in chocolate.  Coated on one side, drizzled on the other.

I eagerly bit in.  So so many of these bars go wrong from that first bite, before you even get to taste, as they often have a strange texture.  I was overjoyed to find this one didn't have an odd texture in any way.  It was crispy.  

And the flavor?  It was good!  Basically, I felt like I was eating a crispy candy bar (but hey, the crispy was pea crisps, sunflower seeds, chickpeas, and quinoa!).  There was plenty of chocolate, both in the bar itself and in the generous coating.  Mezcla does not skimp on the coating.  Sure, there was mostly healthy things lurking in here, besides the chocolate, I was literally eating chickpeas, sunflower seeds, pea protein, and chicory root fiber ... but it sure didn't feel that way.  The hint of chili pepper gave it a touch of a kick, and the cinnamon came through on the finish, completing the "Mexican Chipotle" aspect of it.

I liked it.  Mexican Chipotle isn't *really* my thing, and actually I'd probably like this more just as a chocolate variety, no chipotle, but, it did make a fairly interesting flavor.  I enjoyed my crispy, chewy, decadent tasting bar, and was rather thrilled that I got 10g of protein (170 cal, 6g fat) in such a fun way. 

***+.  I couldn't wait to try the next flavor.

Peruvian Cocoa Peanut Butter.

"For those of you who aren’t quite ready to totally abandon the classic protein bar flavors you love, we took the already delicious chocolate peanut butter combo and made it even better. "

Next, I grabbed the Peruvian cocoa peanut butter.

I think I was really in the mood for this at the time.  I loved it. 

I again liked the crispy bits (pea crisps, quinoa, amaranth) that make up the base, and really loved the bits of peanut in it for crunch and pops of peanut intensity.  Besides the bits of peanut, there was not a super strong "peanut butter" flavor, but the peanut was present enough.  

And of course, it had an excellent chocolate coating, made with Peruvian cocoa.  A hit of pink sea salt amped up the flavor even more.

Just, truly a joy to eat.  I had it for breakfast alongside a cup of coffee and felt like a rebel, but I imagine it being a great snack bar, post workout, or even a dessert.

Again, like eating a candy bar ...  Can't wait get my hands on more of these.

****+.

Matcha Vanilla.

"Satisfy your matcha cravings with this deliciously smooth, earthy protein bar. This unique pairing perfectly satisfies that worldly sweet tooth you didn’t even know you had."

I saved the matcha vanilla for last, expecting, actually, to like it the most, as I usually love matcha, and am generally more into matcha than chocolate.

It turned out to be my least favorite.

It wasn't bad at all, same crispy base (pea crisps, quinoa, amaranth, sunflower and pumpkin seeds), this time with a vanilla coating.  And of course, matcha powder.  Like the others, it ate very much like a candy bar.  Very sweet.

But the matcha flavor was not very strong.  In fact, honestly, I barely tasted matcha.  The crunchy bits were all the same great texture, but they too didn't have as much flavor, at least, compared to the awesome peanuts in the Peruvian Cocoa Peanut Butter or the zing in the Mexican Chipotle Hot Chocolate.

So, overall, a sweet candy bar, with no dominant flavor.  Still fun to eat, and certainly still a very tasty way to get 10g protein, but I greatly preferred the others.

***.

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Gelato Fiasco

First, let's just get this out there.  If you think grocery store packaged gelato is not "real gelato", then guess what?  Yeah, I basically agree.  I've had some *incredible* gelato in my days, but it has always been from a shop, prepared only a few hours at most before.  The grocery store stuff generally is no different than any other packaged ice cream.  The serving temperature obviously has to be the same as standard freezer temp, like all other household frozen goods, so that softer texture due to higher serving temp distinguishing characteristic isn't there.  However, if a company brands itself as "gelato" rather than ice cream, they likely really do use lower milkfat.

I eat a ton of frozen dairy treats, obviously, but I don't generally prefer one style over another.  Some occasions (like, you know, warm fruit crisp) call for hard plain ice cream, others (like, a 80* sunny day) call for soft serve, in a cone, with rainbow sprinkles, and others (rainy days!) demand froyo loaded with toppings.  I don't have any "category" of time I would gravitate towards gelato, besides, well, if I'm somewhere like Sydney, and happen to be near a lovely gelato shop (hi, Messina!  Hello Anita!).

In the freezer aisle of a grocery store however, I'm most likely to just pick ice cream, not gelato (although I do remember getting drawn in when Talenti first came out in the US, the clear packaging made such an impact!).  This past summer, while staying in New Hampshire to escape from city life during COVID, I explored the freezer aisle quite a bit.  And there I discovered many east coast brands, including Gelato Fiasco, made in Maine.

"We searched and sought, but we could not find the perfect gelato. The centuries-old secrets of the Italian masters had been lost! Knowing that gelato should be magnificent, we set out to rediscover those Old World techniques and create a new standard of quality and taste with our own inspiration, ingredients, and creativity."

They use local dairy, natural cane sugar not HFCS, real fruits & nuts, pistachios only from Sicily, vanilla only from Madagascar, etc, etc.  I was drawn in by the incredible flavor range - I wanted to try nearly every single one.   They claim to have made 1,500 flavors, although many of those were available only at their shops, not by the pint in stores.  Even so, the lineup at my local grocery store was impressive enough.  They had many creative flavors, but the ones that really called out were Nutterfluffer (yup, their play on the very popular fluffernutter sando, salty peanut butter gelato base, marshmallow fluff swirls, pieces of pound cake!), the Sunken Treasure (brown butter gelato, salty pretzels, chocolate dipped bourbon butter orbs, fudge swirl), and, ok, several others.

But I started with just one.  Sadly, it wasn't as impressive as it seemed it should be, and after discovering other brands that I liked more, I didn't try another.  I would still, if it were to just show up somewhere I was, but I wouldn't seek it out.

Wild Maine Blueberry Crisp
Vanilla gelato / crunchy oat streusel / maine blueberries.

"Remember blueberry crisp with a scoop on top? Our version has blueberries, crunchy oat streusel, and vanilla gelato. Wow."

I started with one that was featured in the Bon Appetit magazine as one of the editors’ favorite artisanal ice cream flavors, which seemed like a great place to start.  Plus, I *loved* the sound of Wild Maine Blueberry Crisp!  I do love fruit crisp.  And my fruit crisp is *always* served a la mode (and warm, unless its for breakfast, then it is cold, and with whipped cream).  This had so much promise.

Sadly, it was kinda eh for me.

The base vanilla ice cream was fine, but it was the kind that freezes *hard* and takes considerable time to soften.  The blueberry component was very sweet blueberry goo in some pockets, but not really distributed all that well, and not really as blueberry forward as I'd like - it was mostly sweet.

But the real issue was the streusel, the part I was most looking forward to even!  It wasn't chunks of streusel, it wasn't "crunchy", and it wasn't identifiable as oat ... it was just grit throughout.  Much like many of Ben & Jerry's flavors that I otherwise love, the grit texture just didn't work for me.

I didn't hate this pint, and I did make ice cream sundaes with it, and use it on top of fruit crisp, but, I certainly didn't enjoy it just as it was, and I wouldn't get another pint.

**+.

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Little Secrets

"WE FIXED CHOCOLATE TO BRING BACK THE MAGIC."

Well, that is quite a claim.  And yet it is the tag line for Little Secrets, a chocolate snack food manufacturer.

Little Secrets makes 3 product lines: crispy wafers, chocolate pieces, and cookie bars.  The chocolate pieces are crispy chocolate coated like M&Ms, with fun fillings - peanut butter, mint chocolate chip, toasted coconut, sea salted almonds, and sea salted peanuts.  The cookie bars sure look a lot like Twix.  I tried only the crispy wafers

"Little Secrets makes the chocolate you loved as a kid, for your all-grown-up-now, mature taste buds. It’s chocolate exactly how you remember it — only better."

The difference between the Little Secrets versions and the "originals" is that they are non-GMO, fair trade certified, do not use high fructose corn syrup, etc.  Quality products, yadda yadda.

Crispy Wafers

"Our Gourmet Chocolate Crispy Wafers are layered with creme and dipped in fair trade chocolate with sea salt. No artificial flavors or ingredients. Pick your favorite flavor."

Crispy Wafers come in 4 varieties: Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, peanut butter (!), and almond butter.  I only tried the dark chocolate, but I'd gladly try others.

Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt.

"Three crispy wafers layered between airy, Fair Trade Certified™ dark chocolate crème and drenched in premium dark chocolate come together for an incredible combination of textures and tastes that are guaranteed to delight. With mouth-watering, real ingredients these delicious crispy wafers make for a slightly more sophisticated snack time."

I really liked the crispy wafers.

The dark chocolate was shockingly high quality, really deep dark chocolate.  I quite liked it.  And the wafers?  Yup, crispy!  Great product, I gleefully devoured my twin back in seconds.

I'd get these again.

***+.

Update Review: I've since had these several times, and I really, truly adore them.  The dark chocolate surprises me every time by just how good it is, really, truly fabulous dark chocolate, seemingly really high quality.  Protip: These are great from the freezer too!  ****.

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