A Review and Flavor Ranking of Krono Protein Bars. These flavors include Crunchy Salted Caramel, Brownie, and Chocolate & Banana.
Overall Review & Verdict
First off, the smell of these is absolutely amazing. Once you open it, you’re greeted with the sweet smell of the exact flavor advertised. Sure, many protein bars have a smell, but something about these came across as much more authentically bold and sweet, making me want to gobble them down.
In terms of appearance, they look sort of organic and have a dry texture. They’re all about the same size square, and all have little white pieces embedded throughout the filling, although the brownie one has chocolate chips on top.
Texture- and composition-wise, they’re on the drier side, only a little soft, and slightly crumbly. There isn’t much going on for them–they’re more or less a generic, dry oat bar, feeling and even tasting. Speaking of taste, they’re all mild to moderately sweet and definitely not as strong as they smell. The flavors are fairly mild and mostly authentic, with a clear oat-bar taste.
While overall these are more or less oat bars with added protein, I at least appreciate that they aren’t super organic-tasting or earthy. My biggest wish is that they were less dry and softer. If they could fix that, I think a lot more people would enjoy them. Until then, unless you like oat bars, avoid these.
Taste Ranking
1. Chocolate & Banana
When I bit in, I didn’t notice there were some darker pieces with the white ones, though they didn’t add anything. That aside, the flavor, specifically the banana, falls somewhere between candy-like and authentic. I know I mentioned candy-like, but this is still mildly sweet overall and seems to have a stronger smell than its actual banana flavor. Overall, it tastes like a mix of oats and an almost synthetic banana, with mild to moderate sweetness. Unfortunately, the chocolate flavor wasn’t as present as the banana.
2. Brownie
This definitely tries to replicate a brownie, but I’m not sure if it hits the mark. It has equal parts oat flavor and semi-dark chocolate, almost reaching cocoa in some ways. It’s not bitter by any means, but it’s not creamy nor smooth either. It tastes more or less like a generic dark chocolate oat bar, with mild sweetness.
3. Crunchy Salted Caramel
I’m not sure if I got precisely salted caramel; it was more of a generically mild-to-moderately sweet, sugar-ish-tasting organic bar. At best, a hint of a caramel flavor when I really searched for it. Nonetheless, I could taste the oats more than anything, reminding me of a regular oaty bar you’d find in the store with a little sugar added.