Reviewing and ranking TRUBAR plant-based protein bars, including flavors Daydreaming About Donuts, Smother Fudger Peanut Butter, Saltylicious Almond Love, Whole Lotta Macchiato, and Oh Oh Cookie Dough.
Overall Review & Verdict
What drew me to these plant-based bars was their really cool names: “Daydreaming about donuts.” What a really awesome name! Their packaging is also bright and colorful, and the combination really draws you into their marketing.
Advertising aside, their protein-to-calorie ratio is decent but could definitely be better. This is likely because they used actual sugars rather than sweeteners, which increased the calories. These still contain a good amount of fiber and use a mix of brown and pea protein.
They all have a thin shell attached around a uniform filling. They’re also somewhat pliable and soft, offering a more chewy protein bar experience. They are on the thinner side, too.
Taste-wise, unfortunately, there’s something off about many of these. I’m not sure if it’s the protein they use or some other ingredient combination, but they have some distinct weirdness to them. I wouldn’t describe it as a traditional protein bar taste either — it’s different, unique, even just weird. Lastly, in terms of sweetness, most fall between mildly and moderately sweet, a bit below average compared to a regular protein bar. These two things I noticed really hinder the supposedly glamorous advertised flavors.
In conclusion, I would not recommend any of these, except the macchiato flavor, which was surprisingly tasty and authetic. However, for the others, the off-tasting ingredients they use make for an unpleasant eating experience at best, which I believe is due to the combination of proteins they used. Are they edible? Would I eat them if I had to? I guess so, they’re not inedible, but they’re definitely not enjoyable to say the least.
Flavor Ranking
1. Whole Lotta Macchiato
The smell of this is quite strong, with a clear, distinct sweet coffee macchiato aroma. Then biting in, the taste matches perfectly. It’s a sugary-sweet, authentic macchiato flavor, as if I’d ordered an actual one and added a bit of extra sugar. It doesn’t have any bitter coffee taste or anything like that, though it’s not necessarily smooth or creamy either. It simply nails a sweet macchiato flavor with little artificiality.
To note, this is by far the sweetest and most authentic-tasting on this list!
2. Oh Oh Cookie Dough
Unlike any of the other bars on this list, this has very small, soft chocolate chips on the inside, though they’re so soft they blend right into the eating experience.
Biting into this, I noticed that the taste is almost like a regular cookie-dough-based protein bar. It’s not quite there, as the chocolate flavor is more prominent than the cookie dough. Importantly, I’m not saying it’s authentic-tasting either, as it leans towards an artificial “typical cookie dough protein bar” type of vibe, though it’s not as weird or off as several of the other bars on this list.
It actually tastes okay, and, combined with its slightly sweeter flavor, it makes for a decent, more chocolatey-based cookie dough bar. If they added more sweetness and cookie-dough flavoring, this might be a mid-tier protein cookie-dough bar.
3. Smother Fudger Peanut Butter
When I initially bit into this, I immediately noticed a darker chocolate flavor. To me, it doesn’t necessarily taste like authentic dark chocolate; it has an off taste. Perhaps it’s the protein used? It’s not bitter or anything like that, it just tastes “different.” Then, immediately following that, I got a milder plain peanut butter that did help, although the chocolate is still the dominant flavor here. Lastly, it’s not very sweet either.
4. Saltylicious Almond Love
If you blindfolded me and asked me what flavor this was, I would say it’s a weird, off-tasting, semi-dark chocolate. It’s only when you read the packaging that you realize there’s almond essence in this. Either way, this tastes off. It’s mildly sweet, and I don’t think adding sweetness here would help either. I also didn’t get much of any of the advertised saltiness; maybe it was being overpowered by everything else, I’m not sure!
5. Daydreaming About Donuts
For some reason, the white shell feels sticky and soft, as if the coating had been partially heated up. It’s not as smooth or as rigid as the others; in fact, when I tried to open this protein bar, it stuck to the packaging!
Right before I bit into this bar, I smelled something off, and then my teeth went through it — this tastes very artificial, like fake vanilla protein powder, ew! Actually, the protein powder would taste better!
It’s like it’s trying to mimic some weird combination of vanilla and something else, and what you ultimately get is a really weird-tasting concoction of a protein bar. If I wasn’t clear enough, this is not a donut, or more accurately, it’s perhaps attempting to be some type of vanilla donut with powdered sugar. Still, its artificiality and lack of sweetness make it taste trashcan-worthy.