This has my reviews and tier list of of Robert Irvine’s FITCRUNCH Delights Protein Bars! To note, Irivine’s company has several different protein-based bar lines, including Wafer, Baked, and Loaded Cookie variants.
You can find my review of their regular Protein Baked Bars here.
Review & Verdict
I haven’t seen this done like the way it’s done here. The top resembles a smooshed version of a Quest and oat bar with a light sugary drizzle and mostly unnoticeable sliced nutty-like bits. Then, another layer–the bottom, which has a strip of soft cream. Overall, they come out to be thin and easy to bite through; there isn’t much chew, and they’re reasonably dense for their size, though not quite as thick as you might expect or what you have experienced with other protein bars. The eating experience is alright; however, something about it feels off and artificial, like it was clearly produced in a factory. It’s also as if it’s trying to be multiple things at once, but it doesn’t succeed at any.
Unfortunately, like its texture, these all taste artificial to a noticeable degree, giving you vibes of a stevia-heavy, bitter synthetic taste from a mishmash of what appears to be the child of a protein and oat bar. Due to this artificial flavor, it often masks the full extent of the flavor it’s trying to go for. Lastly, in terms of sweetness, it depends on the bar itself, though I would classify most of them as “in the middle” or “just right.”
With its odd texture and artificialness all around, I can’t say I’d grab these again. It’s an interesting and unique bar, but that doesn’t save it from the fact that they’re subpar and overly fake.
Flavor Ranking
1. Pumpkin Spice Muffin
An orangey-looking top layer, a white chocolate solidified bottom, and a few thin pumpkin bits on top with white drizzle. It smells strongly of sweet pumpkin, a great sign! Biting in, it’s definitely a sugary-based, pumpkin flavor with a dusting of cinnamon and hints of a dough-ish-like flavor too. It more reminds me of a pumpkin pie than a pumpkin muffin. Also, while it advertises itself as “pumpkin spice,” it definitely isn’t spicy or punchy by any means–well, aside from a bitter aftertaste that detracts from the experience and pumpkiny flavors themselves… disappointing! Lastly, on the sweetness scale, it’s about right, not too sweet nor too underwhelming.
2. Strawberry Muffin
I smell a creamy strawberry milkshake! And it even looks kind of cool with its pink drizzle on top of its orange layer, finally followed by a pink colored cream bottom. The taste is reasonably sweet, but, unfortunately, unlike a milkshake (unless you added too much stevia or other sweetener), it is noticeably bitter. It really holds back the clearly underlying tasty flavor that this bar could represent. Lastly, as a side note, I didn’t get the “muffin” taste part–to me, this was supposed to be advertised as a strawberry milkshake flavor!
3. Cinnamon Roll
The softest protein bar in the lineup here, it’s even easier to bite through compared to the others for some reason, and with that, it’s also slightly more chewy. Perhaps this flavor was made differently, or I just got a dud, I’m not sure!
There are thin, nutty flakes on top, which don’t seem to belong or do anything, and a white drizzle with a white bottom layer below the top. The flavor itself is definitely a toned-down cinnamon roll, with a small amount of bitter artificialness that hides that creamy cinnamon doughy flavor it should rightfully have. It’s frustrating because I love cinnamon rolls–I can almost taste it–the creamy and sugary cinnamon, and even some butteriness–but that artificialness is really dulling it! In addition, it could have been a little sweeter–we are talking about a cinnamon roll after all!
4. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip
Like the others, this has a (chocolate) drizzled top with a generous amount of thin, nutty-looking pieces and an oat-looking top layer and a solidified dark chocolate bottom. The flavor itself is one of the most artificial here, and frankly, it makes me question what flavor it’s even going for because I literally can’t tell due to the aftertaste! I think it gets some small amount of nutty-oat flavor and some chocolate, but that’s really it. Unfortunately, it’s too artificial to really be confident in what it’s trying to do. Sweetness-wise, it’s in the middle, though, again, it tastes like too much stevia was added. Essentially, the sweetness is fine, and even the flavor to some degree, but that bitter aftertaste needs to go!