The best protein bars give you energy, sure, but it’s essential that they also taste good. Gone are the days when you could only get your quick protein from a can of tuna or a tub of flavorless powder. Now, you can eat the equivalent of a Snickers and immediately add 20 grams of protein, vitamins, and minerals to your diet. A protein bar is perfect to eat first thing in the morning to ward off hunger pangs until lunch—and if that bar is gonna stand in for breakfast, it better taste good.
When we set out to find the best tasting protein bars over the course of two separate taste tests, we wanted agreeable flavor and texture. More specifically, we didn’t want that grainy, unpleasant protein powder taste. Basically, we were looking for what everyone’s looking for: a healthy candy bar. Protein content was a factor, but not the deciding factor. We aren’t nutritionists, we’re taste testers. Basically, if a bar contained around ten grams of protein and tasted like something we’d actually be excited to eat again, we included it. So what brings the juice and gets you ripped? Check out the list, dawg.
- Elevation Salted Caramel Keto Bar (6 grams protein)
When my colleague Jordan Myrick took one for the team and ranked the best keto bars (no easy feat!), this one was tasty enough to secure a spot at the top of the list. “It looks more like a candy bar than anything else we tried, which is extremely appealing,” they wrote. “The texture is so much softer than most of the other bars we tried (which were like compressed sand). Elevation is one of Aldi’s proprietary brands, which means this bar is cheap as hell, too. It doesn’t pack a lot of protein, but if you’re on the keto diet, this will satisfy you for a while. —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Kind Dark Chocolate Nut Protein Bar (12 grams protein)
This Kind bar is almost like a fancier PayDay candy bar, except with chocolate. It’s chock full of nuts and bittersweet dark chocolate, yet it’s chewy and has an outstanding depth of flavor. Sweet and salty usually scores high points here at Sporked, and this Kind bar is no exception. It’s a tad basic, but it’s one of the best tasting protein bars all the same. These things are supposed to be utilitarian. And the texture is phenomenal. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Luna Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (12 grams protein)
Eating this Luna bar is straight-up like biting into a bar made of entirely of cookie dough. We tasted a lot of cookie dough protein bars (what an oddly popular pairing, by the way; nobody gets ripped on cookie dough, do they?), but this one is the best tasting protein bar in that category. It’s chewy, dipped in chocolate, and filled with chocolate chips. A few of our testers cited the flavors as being “mapley” and “like pancake syrup.” The bottom line here is that it’s sweet, and the texture is doughy and pleasant. Both good selling points for a protein bar. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Power Crunch French Vanilla (14 grams protein)
This is a delicious wafer bar that packs a protein punch. It’s light, thin, and airy instead of dense and chewy like so many other protein bars. The vanilla is really pronounced, too. This feels like a fancy wafer wrapped chocolate that you’d find in Grandma’s Jar™—if your grandma was super into powerlifting. And, hey, French vanilla creme is written in cursive on the package. That’s impressive. I completely forgot how to write in cursive and sometimes I can barely even read it. It has 14 grams of protein and it’s a delicious vanilla wafer. Give it a shot. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Fulfil Vitamin & Protein Bar chocolate Salted Caramel (15 grams protein)
This Fulfil protein bar is a low-sugar option (only one gram per bar!), but it doesn’t taste like fake sweeteners. That alone makes it one of the best tasting protein bars. It eats like a chocolate-dipped bar of caramel with some little crunchy bits on the outside. Flavorwise, I don’t think you can trick anyone into thinking it’s candy (it’s a little too weird for that), but in terms of protein bars, it’s delicious. I was pretty shocked and would be stoked to try some of their other flavors. —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Nature Valley Salted Caramel Nut Protein Bar (10 grams protein)
Nature Valley makes great products, period. This protein bar is nutty, salty, and buttery. “It’s like eating crunchy peanut butter,” said Jordan. It perfectly balances crunch and chew. Everything about this protein bar just sings. It’s meaty, delicious, and guaranteed to make a dent in your hunger pangs. It easily could have been number one based on flavor and texture alone. It ended up being a tight race for the best tasting protein bar, and this one is a worthy contender. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Clif Bar White Chocolate Macadamia Nut (9 grams protein)
Clif Bars are delightfully chewy and slightly sweet without overstaying their welcome. The texture of a Clif Bar is always incredible, and the taste of this bar is outstanding as well. The macadamia nuts are rich and buttery, and the white chocolate is subtle and pleasant. This isn’t too sugary and it’s a great source of carbohydrates. It only has nine grams of protein, but it does everything it’s supposed to while being totally satisfying and tasty. It was the best Clif Bar we tried. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Elevation Chocolate Peanut Butter High Protein Bars (20 grams protein)
This protein bar from Aldi is just a gosh darn delight. The peanut butter is creamy and the salt factor here is completely welcome. There’s none of that weird, powdery protein aftertaste either. “It’s like a layered candy bar,” Jordan said. “It’s like a Rice Krispies treat meets a Reese’s Cup.” The change in texture from crispy to smooth is beautiful. There’s 20 grams of protein in this thing and the real kicker? It’s dipped in chocolate, yet doesn’t feel too sugary. This is a great protein bar-candy bar hybrid, which makes it one of the best tasting protein bars you can buy. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Gatorade Chocolate Chip Protein Bar (20 grams protein)
In our second protein bar taste test, a new bar took the top spot! I don’t think I would have expected Gatorade to make one of the best tasting protein bars (most companies are lucky to do one thing well), but here we are. First of all, this thing is huge. It’s big enough to actually double as a satisfying meal. And it’s super tasty. I don’t really get any bad protein flavor or any of the weird chalkiness you get from so many protein bars. They’re like big, fat Nestle Crunch bars. The chocolate flavor is very authentic and it’s packed with crunchy rice bits. This is delicious and it has 20 grams of protein (it is high in fat, tbh, at 13 grams a bar, and it also has 41 grams of carbs). I would love to eat this before a workout. Now I just have to start working out. —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best Keto
Best Granola Bar Dupe
Best Cookie Dough
Best Fancy
Best Chew
Best Texture
Best Clif Bar
Best High Protein
Best of the Best
Other products we tried: Protein One Strawberries & Creme, RXBar, Quest Protein Bars, Simple Truth Protein & Omega 3 Bars Cookies & Creme, No Cow Protein Bars Birthday Cake, Elevation Chocolate Mint, Clif Thins Chocolate Chip, Special K Protein Bars Strawberry
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