Reviewing and ranking all the flavors from best to worst of the Aloha plant-based protein bars that I can find!
Overall Review & Verdict
I’m not a fan of the calorie-to-protein ratio; the calories are on the higher side, especially given the lower protein content. The ingredients consist of a brown rice protein concoction and other basic ingredients. Notably, they don’t use sweeteners; instead, they rely on sugar and tapioca syrup.
Despite their appearance (and the fact that they’re plant-based), these bars are not at all organic-tasting, earthy, or weird in any way. Further, these bars are surprisingly authentic-tasting despite their rubbery, processed appearance. However, like their appearance, you can probably guess their mouthfeel. They’re definitely on the chewier, tougher side, feel dense, and seem compressed or flattened.
At the same time, each one also seems to have a very tame, crispy-ish crunch in every bite, and most flavors have more nuance thanks to the included chocolate chips or peanuts. This composition may not be the most satisfying for many people because, again, it’s on the chewier, denser side. Personally, I didn’t mind it, though I’d still prefer a softer, less tough protein bar.
They all fall between mildly and moderately sweet, with no sweetener taste (they do use regular sugars after all). If I had to compare them to other protein bars, they sit around the middle on the sweetness scale, maybe a little below. Despite this, and I say this as someone who loves sweets, I found that what makes up for it is its extraordinarily rich and authentic flavors. Who needs sweetness if it just tastes good?
The verdict? Despite their appearance, they are surprisingly good bars. Sure–chewy, a bit tough, but the flavors are great, represented so well, and nothing is artificial or organic tasting. I’m not sure how they did it — they made someone who loves sweets enjoy these protein bars!
Flavor Ranking
1. Chocolate Cherry
Limited edition?! They’d better keep this around!
Notably, this is the only one with what appears to be a dark shell; however, it’s thin and doesn’t add anything. It’s still a chewy bar with the same texture as the others.
When you take a bite, you’re first greeted with a lightly sweet, authentic, deep dark chocolate flavor. It’s not at all bitter as it’s balanced with a touch of sweetness. Then the cherry notes start to hit perfectly — not fruity or sugary, just a pleasant, smooth cherry flavor. If I had to compare it to something, it’s like they took some sugar from a cherry and then dipped the cherry in a homemade dark chocolate sauce. It also gives me vibes of a dark cherry cordial without any overbearing sweetness or punch.
2. Coconut Chocolate Almond
Why do these look like they have mold on them? Anyway…
I can taste all three flavors perfectly. They’re balanced well, which is something hard to do when you have three, often distinct and pronounced competing flavors. I taste the coconut clearly, followed by an equal part of chocolate and almond. Honestly, I’m surprised by how well the coconut specifically tastes, because as is often the case with coconut-based treats, the flavor tends to be either overly strong or just misrepresented through an artificial coconut. Here it’s perfect, with the bar as a whole on the milder-sweet side.
3. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
These have decently large, soft embedded chocolate chip pieces and white-looking chips that provide a small, soft crunch to the chewy texture.
On the first bite, I wondered where the cookie-dough part was, but after munching through it, I started to taste it. For the most part, it’s a moderately sweet milk chocolate-flavored protein bar with a hint of traditional cookie-dough-like taste in the background. Notably, this bar is a tad sweeter than most on this list, which I appreciated because it really brought out the chocolate. Then again, I would have liked the cookie dough to be more flavorful.
4. Chocolate Caramel Pecan
This flavor was surprisingly accurate — how’d they make it work? You get all three flavors represented in perfect harmony! A darker, mildly sweet, non-bitter chocolate, along with a hit of smooth, equally sweet caramel and a background of nuttiness. What I especially liked was how the caramel elevates the dark chocolate and smooths out the taste! And of course, the background nuttiness adds just more to the entire profile without taking away or overshadowing the other two.
5. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
Notably, this bar has a good amount of itty-bitty peanut bits throughout the filling, and unsurprisingly, the bar as a whole leans towards a mildly sweet, authentic peanut with a hint of milk chocolate. It’s satisfying and not overly sugary or candy-like–the peanut here is the real deal without being too nutty either. I just wish the chocolate were stronger; then again, it just says ‘chocolate chip,’ so maybe I shouldn’t expect a super pronounced chocolate here.
6. Maple Sea Salt
Interestingly, a little softer than the others on this list. That aside, to me, it tastes like a mix of regular sugar and something else. If you’d have asked me if it was explicitly maple, I wouldn’t have guessed. I also didn’t get much of a noticeable salt taste either. Essentially, just expect something that has a sugary-ish flavor that falls around mild to moderately sweet overall. Personally, a bit boring.
7. Blueberry
First, I’m not sure why they would have a traditional blueberry flavor marked as “Limited Edition,” but anyway…
As they look, while they do have a slightly sticky outside texture, they’re more or less sporting the same texture and composition as others on this list.
Flavor-wise, it’s an authentic, reasonably sweet, and smooth blueberry. Not fruity or punchy by any means, nor is it candy-like, which other protein bars often try to present when they hit you with blueberry. It tastes like Aloha used a little bit of sugar with blueberry, yet it still comes out especially smooth and not overbearing by any means. It’s enjoyable, but as someone who prefers a sweeter blueberry or a blueberry-pie-based flavor — just something to make this bar more exciting —this didn’t score as high.