A review and flavor ranking of the Mezcla Puff-Crispy Plant-Based Protein Bars Variety Pack, ranking the tastiest to the worst flavors of this treat box. The flavors include Peanut Butter Chocolate, Hot Chocolate, Pistachio Chocolate, Maple Blueberry, Hazelnut Chocolate, Almond Butter Chocolate, and Matcha Vanilla.
Overall Review & Verdict
There are quite a few chocolate-based bars here! They’re all made with “Pea Crisps” according to the ingredients, which include pea protein and rice starch. The protein-to-calorie ratio isn’t half bad either.
Before diving in, I’ve personally never been a fan of pea protein because of its taste. How do these potentially off-putting bars stand?
Looks-wise, they look like cobbled-together, medium-sized rice treats, bonded together with what appears to be a usually darker sugary glaze, interwound with rice pieces. This rice composition differs from your standard white rice, sporting different colors depending on the flavor you’re eating. Additionally, most contain tiny embedded bits that vary, though they don’t significantly affect mouthfeel. Lastly, each one has a layer of cream on the bottom, whether it’s white, milk, or dark chocolate.
Unfortunately, I found a lot of these bars to be artificial. Not in a typical protein bar way, but more so, the fact that many of the flavors tasted fake, as if they used different extracts instead of the real thing or genuine ingredients. This led many bars to taste more bitter than they ought to. Most still came out decent, but they could have been a lot better.
In terms of sweetness, they’re also all about the same: roughly slightly below average in terms of most protein bars on the market, more on the mild, inoffensive side. The compositions and mouthfeel were also all identical: lightly chewy, somewhat crunchy, and about your typical crispy bar experience. No real standouts here.
The verdict? Most of these bars fall on the more artificial-tasting side, especially for crispy, rice-based bars, and in doing so, further hold back their advertised flavors. They’re not terrible bars by any means, but there are so many better options, even in the crispy protein bar-flavored world, let alone your generic, regular protein bars. Basically, they need to use real ingredients instead of having every bar have a subtle “extract” flavor that emphasizes unnecessary bitterness throughout the taste.
Flavor Tier List
1. Maple Blueberry
This flavor looks a lot like a traditional Rice Krispies treat, albeit slightly darker, and is one of the lightest-looking bars on the list. It also has a white cream bottom and some embedded small blueberry pieces throughout. Unfortunately, these blueberries don’t add any texture.
Its flavor is nearly as advertised, reminding me of a sweet, creamy blueberry pie. It’s one of the sweeter bars on the list, quickly giving away an initial taste of artificial sugary blueberry. After your taste buds adjust, you begin to get additional creamy, sugary notes (no explicit maple, however) that boost the blueberry. Along with the crispy rice part, it gives me blueberry pie vibes.
The biggest downside is the subtle artificialness, yet I was still able to mostly ignore it and appreciate how creamy and sweet this was compared to most other bars on the list. It’s a good blueberry bar, and definitely worth trying if you want something sweeter.
2. Peanut Butter Chocolate
A darker brown sugar-orangey-looking, crispy bar with a dark chocolate bottom layer and a few chocolate chips scattered throughout the inside. Is this a Reese’s in a crispy protein bar form? I hope so.
Biting in, it’s mildly to moderately sweet, with a lightly chewy, crunchy, crispy mouthfeel. The few embedded chocolate chips don’t add anything to the texture — this is a rice-crispy-based feel, nothing more. Its flavor leans heavily towards a darker chocolate with just a light touch of regular sugary peanut flavor.
Notably, I found this bar to be more genuinely tasting compared to the others on this list. The peanut tastes like you bought actual plain peanut butter off the shelf, and combined with the darker, non-bitter, slightly sweet dark chocolate, it’s a tasty, pleasant combination.
If you want just a good, inoffensive, mildly crunchy, and super lightly chewy darker chocolate bar with peanut butter undertones, this is for you! Overall, I don’t think you’ll be blown away, but I don’t think you will leave disliking it — it’s just a solid bar.
3. Matcha Vanilla
This has such an interesting color! It’s made from crispy pieces with that traditional yellow look, but with a mix of ghoul-like green or mashed-up pea stringing it together (yeah, I’m exaggerating the matcha-infused color here, but it definitely is unique to say the least!). It also has a few green-looking nut pieces throughout it and a white cream bottom.
This matcha flavor is dominant, bold, and a bit bitter. A few more bites in, the bitterness mostly goes away, and I can start to taste some nuttiness along with mild sweetness. I’m not sure whether the bitterness, like most other bars on this list, comes from an artificial ingredient, but either way, the matcha tasted mostly genuine. Perhaps this is because there is just enough sweetness (albeit light), as well as a hint of creamy vanilla from its bottom layer. Lastly, there is some nuttiness to it, which adds an appreciable, complementary flavor.
So for the most part, this is a bitterish, mildly sweet, matcha-flavored crispy bar with a nutty essence.
4. Hot Chocolate
As advertised, this looks like a darker chocolate-based bar, similar to the Almond Butter Chocolate flavor. Its crispy pieces seem to be mixed with a darkish, brown-sugar-looking chocolate, giving it a darker complexion, while also having a decent amount of chocolate chips and a darker cream layered at the bottom. A crispy, dark chocolate bar? Here I come!
Its flavor is, well, mildly sweet, non-bitter dark chocolate with something—I’m not sure what—in the background. You’re initially hit with generic chocolate, but then there’s some subtle aftertaste that feels artificial, as if they used some fake cocoa or cocoa extract to give it a hot chocolate flavor. It’s not overwhelming, it’s just something I noticed on my first bite or two. Also, those chocolate chips add nothing to its texture or eating experience!
Despite the mild artificialness, it’s more or less a typical, decently sweet, darker chocolate crispy bar, but I guess a little worse since it has that aftertaste. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it has a cocoa flavor, let alone hot chocolate.
5. Hazelnut Chocolate
A lighter-looking bar with suggestions that they mixed it with some milk chocolate. There is also a dark milk chocolate layered bottom. Interestingly — and unfortunately — unlike most of the others on this list, I don’t see any embedded extras or bits. This bar looks pretty uniform.
Both the smell and flavor remind me of an artificial hazelnut. Like, it’s clearly hazelnut, but it doesn’t taste authentic, as if they used flavoring instead of actual hazelnuts. It just tastes off, I’m not sure how else to describe it! The good thing about the bar is that the chocolate works well and balances the hazelnut, but I still can’t get over that subtle artificial flavor, which seems to hold it back from its true potential.
6. Almond Butter Chocolate
The darkest-looking bar on this list, both in the crispy rice part and in its similar-looking layer of cream splashed on the bottom. It looks like toasted brown sugar was made to mold it all together. It also has a few dark chocolate chips throughout, essentially making this bar look quite chocolately! Notably, it looks a lot like the Hot Chocolate flavor.
Biting in, I’m immediately greeted with what tastes to be an artificial almond, as if they used a little too much almond extract. It’s not horrible, but if you’ve never used or had almond extract, you might be taken aback by its initial bitterness. Alongside this almond flavor is an essence of a darker chocolate and mild sugary sweetness, which brings this flavor to a more tolerable level. Lastly, the chocolate chips are useless and don’t add anything aside from appearance.
I wouldn’t say this is as creamy or mild as almond butter by any stretch. Instead, they need to dial down the almond extract taste and opt for something more natural and creamy. The upside is that the dark chocolate flavor is nice and adds some appreciable nuance overall.
7. Pistachio Chocolate
This looks a lot like a few others on this list, like a mix of brown sugar looking crispies, except with a few very, very tiny green specs spread throughout. It also has a dark chocolate-covered bottom.
When I opened this, I got a strong, synthetic, perfume-like smell. Then, when I bit in, yup, it’s a bitter, clearly artificial pistachio, as if they used pistachio extract — and too much of it! Really, what’s going on here? Further, the dark chocolate, while mild, doesn’t work well with the flavor either, and it only makes it worse.
Overall, the bar is mildly sweet and is held back by a lack of authentic pistachio flavor. It’s edible, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend this one.