Purchased at: Grocery Outlet (Seattle – Madrona)
Price: 33 cents per bar (purchased six total)
Marisa’s Take: In today’s image-conscious society, it is now not enough just to be thin. One must think thin as well. thinkThin Protein Bar founder & CEO Lizanne (a one-name wonder like Cher or Madonna) describes the inspiration behind the bars on the packaging and the website as well: “I created the Think Thin bar for women like me. As a busy working mom committed to managing my weight*, I wanted truly delicious, high-protein foods without sugar or anything artificial. Think Thin has no sugar, is naturally high in protein, and is completely satisfying so I can stay fuller longer. It’s that simple!”
*along with a healthy diet and exercise
As a lazy childless female, I’m not sure if I’m fit for this bar. My no-sugar-high-protein food of choice has always been steak. Are thinkThin bars right for me? I didn’t mind dropping 33 cents per bar (or $1.99 total) at the Grocery Outlet Seattle-Madrona location to find out. Apparently, these bars are normally around $3.00-$3.50 a pop, so essentially I had hit the jackpot. In addition to a high protein content, his bar has no sugar, but contains sugar alcohols in the form of maltitol. It can have some unsavory effects on your gastrointestinal system, so if you think about it, they have a good chance of making you lose weight!
Interesting note: these are not “weight loss” bars, but “weight management” bars.
Onto the tasting. First was the Brownie Crunch. As another review we found mentioned, there was no “crunch” detected in the bars (ingredient list mentions “soy crisps”). There was hardly any chocolate flavor, more like chalk-olate. I’m assuming it’s from the “protein blend”, which is the proprietary ingredient in all of the thinkThin bars. White Chocolate Chip was the least offensive because it didn’t really taste like anything. It had a white coating with a brownish inside with “chocolate chips”. The Creamy Peanut Butter was mediocre, more like Crumbly Peanut Butter.
Least appetizing were the “fruit” based varieties that we tried. The lemon/tangerine/strawberry flavors tasted quite artificial (the scent of the Lemon Cream Bar was akin to floor cleaner). We were were first opening the bars, I predicted that the Chocolate Covered Strawberry would be my favorite, but I was sadly mistaken.
I would pass on these bars, especially if you’re going to pay over three dollars for one. We ending up paying $2 for 6 of them. You’ll probably manage your weight better by not eating these at all.
Ben’s Take: Now, normally I prefer to eat landjager as my post-workout-snacky-protein-source but it’s really not most shelf stable product in the world. It does well, but it’s just not the kind of thing you want lying around your car for a few weeks. Plus landjager seems to go for about $12/lbs for decent stuff. It’s just not cost effective to eat a good quality cured meat product three times a week no matter how fantastically tasty and portable it is. However, at a cool $0.33 a pop the thinkThin bar seemed like a rather viable candidate for a shelf stable post workout protein supplement. Something I could leave in the gym bag and eat as needed.
It’s a good thing we decided to taste test these guys first.
Brownie Crunch
If you’ve ever eaten an MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat) “chocolate covered fudge brownie” you’ll know what this tastes like. It tastes like a chewy, chemically treated, under sweet brownie like bar. Not the most pleasant flavor in the world, but as we go on with the review, it’s definitely not the worst thing you could put in your mouth.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Fruit flavors are generally pretty good in bar format. I eat Larabars by the metric ton (which is probably why I’m both broke and fat) and I rather like a good strawberry smoothie. I also love chocolate so I had high hopes for this particular flavor. Too bad those hopes were dashed as soon as I opened the package. The aroma of artificial strawberry flavor bludgeoned my olfactories so hard it took a little over a hour to clear my senses. The flavor was equally harsh and fake. The strawberry center overpowered the chocolate coating (perhaps it leeched into it) so the entire bar was just one chewy artificial strawberry. Not my idea of a good time.
Creamy Peanut Butter
The creamy peanut butter flavor was pretty mediocre. I actually didn’t notice any of the flavor or aroma I’ve come to expect from a peanut butter flavored bar. It was rather unmemorable except for the fairly strong taste of whey protein. If I were starving, I’d consider eating this before chewing on one of my fellow passenger’s arms.
Lemon Cream Pie
I’m going to preface this by saying – I dislike citrus flavored bars, so I’m just a little biased. This bar was terrible. They sure got the lemon flavor down, which only served to enhance that lovely whey protein flavor most other manufacturers attempt to mask. It’s indelibly bad.
White Chocolate Chip
The white chocolate chip bar is probably the best bar out of the bunch. Not that means much considering the competition. It has a somewhat sweet yet bland flavor with a thick chewy texture. It’s rather neutral as far as things go, but it’s only as good as a mainstream protein bar. Definitely the best out of this sad lot.
Tangerine Creamsicle
DO NOT EAT THIS BAR. I found the tangerine creamsicle flavoring so repulsive that I had to spit my sample in the sink. I just couldn’t bring myself to swallow it. I just didn’t find the idea of a chewy, room temperature creamsicle bar appealing, and in practice, it confirmed that.
Other thinkThin Reviews ‘Round the Net:
I Ate a Pie (Creamy Peanut Butter)
I Ate a Pie (Chocolate Fudge)
I Ate a Pie (Brownie Crunch)
On a Lobster Placemat (Chunky Peanut Butter)
You know you want to buy some on Amazon.com:
Brownie Crunch
Creamy Peanut Butter
Chunky Peanut Butter
White Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Lemon Cream Pie
Tangerine Creamsicle
