REVIEW: 12 QUEST BAR FLAVORS

If you knew me just 4 years ago, you'd probably have heard of my disdain for Quest Bars. They tasted artificial, with that weird metallic, powdery aftertaste of a lot of chocolate protein flavors. The texture was even worse - that stick-to-your -teeth/foil/plate/fingers/whatever orifice taffy chewiness. Bleah.

I wrote them off for a good number of years because there were so many more tasty alternatives. I swore by Grenade Carb Killa bars (the white chocolate cookie flavor is the bomb.com) and Oh Yeah! ONE bars (I'm partial to the peanut butter pie and birthday cake flavors). But deep down, I knew that in terms of ingredients and the what's-good-for-me stuff, it's hard to beat a Quest Bar, really. 

So when Alex put in Quest Bars as a permitted snack into our Burn phase nutrition plans, I was naturally skeptical and unsure I wanted the same taffy-pulling experience from all those years ago. 

But. I. Was. So. Wrong.

I don't know what the good people at Quest Nutrition did with their improved recipe, or whether it was a combination of fairy dust and ground unicorn hooves that they sprinkled into them bars, but these 60g babies are my daily crack now. I look forward to it, I prepare it lovingly by breaking it into little cookie chunks and warming them up in the oven, and I savor it all. Heck, I've even taken to watching Questify videos and making protein treats from these parcels of happiness. 

I tried 12 flavors of Quest Bars because, obviously, I was skeptical and wanted to taste all the flavors I could (except coconut and almond flavors, because.. just. no.) before committing to buying in bulk. So here's my mini review of my Quest-tasting, well, quest. Starting with my Top 3 favorites, with everything else randomly listed in no particular order after.  

(All images of individual bars are from Quest Nutrition)

#1: S'MORES

10/10

Hands down, my favorite flavor of the lot! This bar has a yummy hit of smoky cinnamon, reminiscent of roasting s'mores over an open fire. It also has decadent little graham cracker bites in it, which really makes all the difference in giving some crunch to a soft, gooey, baked bar! This is just all forms of glorious because it has all the right elements of a good s'more - crumbly graham crackers, melty chocolate and all that pillowy, marshmallowey goodness. 10/10 would recommend. Actually, I don't if we're friends, because if you don't eat it, that only means there'll be more for me!

#2: BIRTHDAY CAKE

9.5/10

This might be a little biased coming from me, because I just love all birthday-cake flavor protein bars (ironic for someone who doesn't like most real cakes), but this coated Quest Bar (my first time trying one from this range) was all rainbow shades of amazing. It was luxuriously soft (I don't bake coated bars) and almost melt-in-the-mouth, with little sprinkles peeking out from between the layer of smooth vanilla frosting and the cake interior, which is just the right amount of chewy for me. At 5g of net carbs, this baby's got slightly higher levels than the regular Quest family, but I'm not fussed.   

#3: MINT CHOCOLATE CHUNK

9/10

This bar's also a winner! Instead of the usual chocolate chips, this one's got chocolate chunks, which taste like crumbled Oreos. The mint taste, coming from little apple green smooth slivers, is also subtle and doesn't taste like the minty-fresh-breath mouthwash swigs the flavor is so notorious for. When I have it, I'm always reminded of After Eights, which I go all j'adore over. 

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER

5.5/10

A 5.5-rating for this flavor might seem meh, but compared to what I used to think of their older version being a big insult to a very revered combination of chocolate and peanut butter, it's a huge leap forward. The improved texture is what edges it over the passing mark for me, with the old stickiness being gone, but this bar still has some way to go in terms of flavor profiles. I found it hard to find any taste of peanut butter and the chocolate flavor was mild and a little chalky, at best.

BANANA NUT MUFFIN

7/10

This flavor tasted accurately like what it's meant to taste like: a banana nut muffin. That said, the said muffin would be likened to a pretty mediocre one you'd expect to grab from a Starbucks kiosk at the airport while running for your flight, as opposed to the one your grandma might bake and you can't stop eating even after your third serving. I like that it doesn't have a weird fake banana flavor, but this is still pretty ordinary. Tasty, but ordinary. 

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE
6.5/10

It's pretty dark chocolate they use in this flavor, so it's not as sweet (which might be good for you if you prefer that). Flavor-wise, this felt pretty monotonous, as the chocolate chunks pretty much tasted like the rest of the bar. The plus side is when I baked it, it still yielded a soft, chewy texture that I love in my brownies (I prefer the moist variety over the crumbly type), and the chocolate chunks did melt into little gooey nuggets, so that's never a bad thing.

OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP
8/10

It should be pretty clear by now that I'm not really a fan of things chocolate on chocolate. I like chocolate when it's combined with other preferably subtler flavor profiles (I'm that girl who's all about the swirl soft serve at MickyDs), and I really liked the oatmeal chocolate chip Quest flavor. The bar was very comforting, reminding me of the vanilla protein oats I've grown to love for my breakfasts. Or of oatmeal cookies, which I do love very much. And thank goodness they've got chocolate chips here instead of raisins, because yeah, obviously the two weren't even created equal in the first place.

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE
2/10

This was bad. Just bad. It had none of the lovely, subtle salty hit that cheesecakes always promise, and the strawberry portion was just plain weird, tasting like a bad spoonful of Smuckers jelly instead. The overall flavor was also very synthetic. Texture-wise, there wasn't much variance and definitely no chunky surprises that might have otherwise aided in lifting extremely blah flavors, so I definitely won't be revisiting this one.

MOCHA CHOCOLATE CHIP
8.5/10

This bar was really surprising! It reminded me of the Java chip frappe at Starbucks, which I do like quite a bit. It had a subtle taste of coffee that was just the right amount of aromatic, without descending into any bitter notes or aftertaste. The chocolate chips also went so well with the rest of the bar, giving the optimal amount of bite to an otherwise very smooth-tasting creation. 

ROCKY ROAD
6.5/10

This bar held a lot of promise for me, but I didn't quite like it as much because there was a bit too much almond in there (also a personal preference). I had expected the gooeyness of marshmallow to come through, but it didn't have much of that at all. The almond does provide a bit of a crunch and I suppose what were intended to be marshmallow bits combine to give this bar some interesting texture variance, but it still felt pretty flat to me. The chocolate is also of the dark variety, so the flavor developers kept it quite close to a scoop of original Rocky Road ice-cream.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH

6.5/10

Way back when I was trying out the old Quest Bars for the very first time, chocolate chip cookie dough was the flavor I liked best (which isn't saying much because you know I wasn't a fan of any bar at all). So I was surprised that this didn't wow me at all this time. Perhaps it's because Quest has really upped its game with newer flavors like s'mores and mint chocolate chunk, which have blown me away, but this flavor honestly tasted a little boring. Like a very safe chocolate chip cookie that doesn't have any oomph from extra melty chocolate chips or a very delicious cookie base. The chocolate chips also tasted strangely artificial, compared to the chips I found in the oatmeal chocolate chip and mocha choc chip flavors.

PEANUT BUTTER SUPREME

4.5/10

Not sure what it is about peanut butter flavors, but Quest doesn't nail them at all. This flavor failed to make any impression, which was disappointing to this PB lover. This bar was a little too sweet and didn't have that slight saltiness I always look forward when I stick my fingers into a PB jar. I also felt the same when I tried the Quest chocolate PB cups, which I did not like at all. Overall, a pretty one-dimensional bar with little to offer on the texture or flavor fronts. 

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So there you have it - my two cents' (or 12 cents) worth on the 12 flavors of Quest Bars I've tried so far. 

Credit: Gymmemesofficial

It wouldn't be that far from the truth to say my partial loyalties can be bought by Quest Bar bribes. Gimme gimme s'more, gimme s'more, gimme gimme s'more. 

What's your flavor?