by Lars Hundley
Hot
- Tastes great and easy to chew.
- Made from organic, real food ingredients.
- Variety of flavors
Not
- Still hard to find in stores, so it probably won’t be at your bike shop.
Price: $14.95 for a sampler six pack online.
Source: Company website, online, a few retail stores
How obtained: Samples from company
RBR Sponsor: No
If you’ve been cycling since the 1980s or earlier, you probably remember the very first Powerbars, which were almost like chewing through rawhide. They were so tough that some riders would literally tear off pieces of one and stick them on their stems so that they could later grab a piece and eat it without crashing by trying to open to package or take a bite from the bar. It was the only game in town!
Even today, decades later, many energy bars are hard to chew and not exactly what you’d call tasty. So I was intrigued when someone from Kate’s Real Food contacted Road Bike Rider about reviewing their bars. They mailed me a sample pack that included all six of their different flavor options.
I’ve been eating the bars during rides, and have been very happy with both the taste and the results. They are quite easy to chew and swallow, so you can open and eat one during a ride with no difficulties.
But even better, they are tasty. And if you care about things like gluten free, organic, non GMO and sweetened with honey instead of high fructose corn syrup, then it checks all those boxes too. They were easy on my stomach, and I was able to eat one on a hard ride with no gastrointestinal issues. The package is also easy to open, so you don’t have to struggle when you need to get to it quickly.
The very first ingredient for the bars is organic oats for all of the flavors except Mango Coconut and Lemon Coconut, which have the first ingredient of coconut.
Even better, you can actually read and understand all of the ingredients in these bars when you look at the label. Here’s an example of one of the ingredient lists, for the Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate bar:
Organic Oats, Organic Honey, Organic Peanut Butter (Organically Grown Dry Roasted Peanuts), Organic Brown Rice Crisps (Organic Whole Grain Brown Rice Flour, Organic Honey, Sea Salt), Organic Dark Chocolate (Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Liquor, Organic Cocoa Butter), Organic Dried Apricots (Organic Apricots, Organic Rice Flour), Organic Raisins (Organic Raisins, Organic Sunflower Oil), Organic Sunflower Seeds, Organic Sesame Seeds, Sea Salt.
If you live near an REI, you can buy them there. They are also available directly from the manufacturer’s site, and on Amazon.
I thought these bars were great, and I hope that we’ll see them in more stores over time. If you’re looking for a bar that tastes a little better and is easier to eat than your typical energy bar, then they are certainly worth ordering.
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