Exo Cricket Protein Bar - Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip - 12 Bars

I was searching for a low sugar, high protein bar, and these Exo cricket-based protein bars are perfect. Insect protein will be the food of the future, and these bars are a great way to try it out. But beyond being a novelty, they deliver exactly the type of nutrition that I was searching for. Although some people have suggested that the taste is only "ok", I disagree - they are simple but tasty.Many "other" bars today have, in my opinion, lost their way...they are in reality a candy bar with some protein added rather than being a healthy snack or meal replacement. Often loaded with sugar or coated in chocolate, other bars miss out on what a nutrition bar should be - simple and healthy. I've eaten these on the trail and between meetings, and they don't leave your hands covered in melted chocolate, which is an important consideration for me.The price may be a bit high in comparison, but cricket protein is sort a a rarity now. Give it some time and when more people eat them, I'm sure the price will come down.

I'm going to open by saying I actually like crickets. At least the small ones that get baked or whatever that you can find at Spencer's or other like places. My son and I actually go out of our way to eat them. So I was actually kinda excited to try out these bars.And they're...alright.The flavor is fine. They taste like any other higher quality protein bar you can get. The problem is that they're so darn dry! It isn't that they're chalky or anything, but you're going to want a glass of water to wash it down.The other problem is price. While I don't hate them, I do wonder if they're good enough to pay for again. Right now, my answer is no. But I can also see why people would be willing to buy them again.

Reviewing a protein bar feels a little like reviewing a novel: it's all a matter of what you like and what you expect. For me, the texture of the peanut butter chocolate chip Exo bar felt stale, hard, and sticky—like biting into a thick slab of French toast you left sitting on your bathroom floor for the last month. I found the texture so overwhelming that I couldn't detect chocolate or peanut butter flavors—I don't mind a flavorless protein bar, but the aftertaste here was metallic and acrid, a bit like the flavor you taste when a dentist puts a silver amalgam filling into a cavity.I really wanted a cricket-based bar to work for me, and I'm clearly an outlier here; I strongly hope your experience of these bars is different than mine was.

I really like the taste of these and prefer them to most others. I’ve been buying them and actually crave them from time to time. I like that these have a smaller footprint, with responsibly sourced protein, than your typical protein bar.Also, the seller is stand up. I voiced a concern and they contacted me to clarify. I’ve edited my review to reflect this.

Pros:-great to see cricket flour products available in the marketplace-packaging and presentation is great-doesn’t taste or feel grossCons:-the flavor left something to be desired. It wasn’t very peanutty, wasn’t very chocolatey, sort of plain. Not bad at all, just kind of ‘meh’.

Started buying these a few years ago when they were still labelled as cricket flour. But I didn't want whey, grains, or sugar. This fit the bill. (Well, the chocolate chips have some sugar.) And I LOVE the taste and texture. I can't get anyone to taste them when I get one out. Wimps. That's ok; a bit pricey so they are ALL for mwah.

I purchased these after thinking about the overall impact to the meat industry by the recent pandemic and wondering where the most efficient sources of protein come from. Plus thought it would be interesting to try out bugs. Overall the flavors of these bars are reasonably in line with most other protein bars. The peanut butter is my favorite with the other two tied for second as they are edible and fine. I will admit that I am a big fan of quest bars and I think that it’s hard for any others to compare flavor-wise. I would like to see these bars compete at a better price point, as I would expect the main insect ingredients to drop the overall price, but perhaps that will come with economies of scale as demand increases. Overall I would buy these again as I like the idea of a more sustainable protein source.One important note, the cricket protein could trigger crustacean/shellfish allergies. I didn’t notice that before reading and thought I should mention it.

I was excited to try these a few years ago when they weren't afraid to market them as cricket protein. I guess marketing decided that they were losing potential business, scaring people off when they're not ready to acknowledge that eating insects is no big deal.These never tasted all that great three or four years ago when I first tried them. They were tasty enough a little dry but not too much. Perhaps I am overstating the quality back then, because now when I bit into one it tastes and feels like chocolate cork. I didn't want to even finish the one bar, and come unfortunately this is not something eligible for return. So I'm stuck with $30 box of cricket bars. Again, not a bad idea come up but these are pretty nasty.