Seed Nutrition Bar Roundup

We ate every nutrition bar we could find in Portland’s health food sections. Here’s a rundown of the standout bars.

Picky Bars Balanced Energy Moroccan Your World Bar

Too many energy bars have a sickly sweet taste, meant to impersonate unhealthy goodies like chocolate and candy—it doesn’t work. Picky Bars’ immediately set itself apart from the other seed bar brands by adopting a savory turmeric, pistachio, ginger flavor profile.

GoMacro Macrobar Maple Sea Salt Bar

You know how eating too much health food can lead to strange taste approximations? Well, GoMacro’s Maple Sea Salt Bar is like a Nestlé Crunch of the seed bar world. The bar’s smooth texture and pops of rice puffs account for this comparison. Also the maple syrup flavor is a sweet taste that actually works.

Perfect Bar Lemon Poppy Seed

Although we’re taking points off for necessary refrigeration, Perfect Bar is a snacky delight. It possesses a texture of halva and cookie dough, and the poppy seeds add the requisite bursting texture pop.

Kind Fruit & Nut Bar

Don’t overthink it! Kind has been knocking it out of the park with its flaxseed-filled bars for years. There aren’t any hidden bells and whistles—vitamins, extra protein and caffeine—involved with this bar. Kind will take the edge off your hunger with natural ingredients in their most basic state.

Quantum Energy Squares Dark Chocolate Pink Himalayan Salt Bar

The Pink Himalayan variety of this brand edged its Coconut Almond counterpart out of the running because—unlike its brother bar—it does not have a mysterious banana taste unsupported by the ingredients list. We added points to Quantum for the inclusion of caffeine, but this one was on the low rung for taste.

Bobo’s Lemon Poppyseed Oat Bar

While we expected seeds in this bar, it’s really more of an oat situation. Possessing a similar texture and crumbly quality to cake, this bar also sneakily includes a serving size for two—as if you’re going to split an energy bar after a workout or on a clandestine deadline.

Epic BBQ Chicken Raisins and Sesame Bar

We really wanted to like this bar because of its similarity to jerky, but the unmistakable cat food aftertaste cannot be denied. Too bad.

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