Which Is The Best Barebells Protein Bar? I Tried And Ranked 12 Flavors

While you can have too much protein, not eating enough for your body's activity levels and age can lead to a deficiency over time. Protein bars can be an easy way to help meet your daily target, along with a diet rich in high-protein ingredients (some of which you may not have realized are high in the nutrient). Of the many protein bar brands out there, Barebells is the one I recently found myself especially curious to try.

Barebells has been around since 2016, but I never gave it a thought beyond the cute name — a play on "barbells." When it came to my post-workout protein surge, I focused on figuring out the best and worst high-protein yogurts at the grocery store (or ranking Chomps meat sticks from worst to best when I got sick of yogurt). Barebells makes a wide range of protein snacks, from traditional bars and shakes to protein sodas and milk drinks. The no-added-sugar bars appealed to me, along with the wide range of flavors.

Even the worst of these 12 Barebells bars were loads better than the old-school Powerbars I used to eat before the gym long ago. Those were extremely sticky, dense, and sweet, with quite a tough bite. While a few of these Barebells flavors didn't do it for me at all, several were passably good, and some of them were so tasty, and with such a pleasing texture, as to be nearly indistinguishable from candy bars. One of them blew my socks off — and it was a flavor that could have gone so, so wrong.

I love the idea of birthday cake-flavored treats (like ice cream), but they never live up to my hopes. They tend to have an odd, synthetic flavor that I think is supposed to taste like icing but ends up tasting more like Play-Doh. I crossed my fingers, but even the smell of this Barebells bar told me that this was going to be another birthday cake dud — which it was.

Barebells Birthday Cake was pleasantly soft when I bit into it, but I got hit with that unmistakable artificial, protein-bar flavor. It popped out intensely, possibly because there's no chocolate in this bar to mask it, unlike most of the others. All I got was a fake sweetness and that awful let's-pretend-it's-icing rubbery taste. I do like the look of this protein bar, though; in fact, it's the prettiest of them all. When you bite into it, there are colorful sprinkles inside that just make the flavor all the more disappointing.

If peanut butter is involved, I'm usually on board, so I thought the Barebells Peanut Butter protein bar would be a no-brainer success. For one thing, it was coated in chocolate, and choco-PB is a great pairing. I did detect the aroma of my favorite nut butter when I gave it a sniff, but something was off; it had a synthetic note that made me think, "Uh oh."

Texture-wise, this was very nice. The rice crunchies added a nice crispness, and the bite had a toothsome give without being tough or overly dense. The peanut butter itself didn't read as artificial once it was on my taste buds, but something else jumped out at me: a funky, fake aftertaste. If the peanut butter flavor had been stronger, it might have masked this flaw, but there just wasn't enough to accomplish that. This bar tasted slightly better than Birthday Cake's, but it was nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing.

Besides peanut butter, two ingredients I can't get enough of are caramel and cashews. I expected the Barebells Caramel Cashew protein bar to combine the rich, almost buttery notes of caramel with the mild, nutty flavor of cashews. We also ranked this Barebells bar as the best protein bar out of 12 different brands, so naturally, I had high expectations.

A quick sniff revealed only the aroma of chocolate and peanuts (peanuts are also included, according to the packaging). The first bite had a pleasant, slightly chewy texture, but the flavor was disappointing. While not awful, it gave no sign whatsoever that cashews were present. All I tasted was chocolate and the faint flavor of a generic protein bar. The base layer also became a bit chalky after I chewed it for a while. Despite those issues, this flavor was still heaps better than Peanut Butter, with a less unpleasant base layer than the strange aftertaste of the bar that landed in eleventh place.

Banana Caramel was one of the three "soft protein bars" included in my Barebells variety pack. These bars feature a thick coating of milk chocolate and a super-soft core, minus the rice puffs and thicker bite of the conventional bars. These softer bars contain 16 grams of protein, compared with the 20 grams in the regular bars. That's still a good amount for a snack you can eat in about three big bites. (To put it in perspective, a 5.3-ounce cup of Fage Greek yogurt contains 15 grams of protein).

On the question of texture, Barebells isn't kidding: This was definitely soft. I barely had to engage my jaw muscles to take a bite. While I don't mind the tougher consistency of the regular bars, I actually enjoyed the nougat-like pillowiness of this bar. If you need easy-to-chew foods, this Barebells soft line could be a great high-protein option. As for taste, though, I'd recommend a different flavor. The banana in this was so clearly artificial. Even if it tasted more like banana and less like a robot's idea of what bananas taste like to humans, it didn't pop hard enough. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from Barebells' Salted Peanut Caramel, another from the soft protein bar line. Caramel usually makes things taste good to me, but I'm not the biggest fan of peanuts, salted or otherwise (peanut butter is a different story). This bar smelled a little chocolatey and a little peanutty, which was a good sign. Nothing artificial stuck out.

Like the soft protein bar in ninth place, this bar offered a pillowy texture as I bit through the layers. Unlike Banana Caramel, there was a hint of crunch from the peanuts, but not much — it's still definitely soft. The flavor didn't really do enough for me, though. While this wasn't bland at all, I expected a saltier peanut taste and more of that distinctive warm sweetness you typically get from caramel. Instead, this offered the bare minimum in flavor. That tasted better than the imitation notes of Banana Caramel, however, putting this bar in eighth place.

I had hoped that the Barebells Cookies and Cream protein bar would have a creamy white coating and an interior flecked with cookie bits. When I opened it, I found it milk chocolate-coated, with what turned out to be crispy rice flecks, like all the other standard bars I tried. The aroma gave definite notes of chocolate and cream. That was a good sign: my favorite part of any cookies-and-cream dessert is the cream.

The bar had a slight chewy give, along with a nice crispiness from the puffed rice flecks, like a candy bar. There was a light brown, nutty center inside – a cookie dough core –flecked with tiny bits of chocolate. The sweetness was balanced, but I didn't get much "cream" on my taste buds, which was a bit disappointing. I still enjoyed the bar, but I knew right away it wouldn't be my favorite — and this was the first Barebells bar I tried for this ranking. I didn't know how the others would perform, but I assumed they would be as reasonably tasty as this one, just with more interesting flavors. And some of them definitely were, like the bar one place ahead of this one.

When Chowhound ranked 12 high-protein bar brands, Barebells came out on top again, and Creamy Crisp impressed our reviewer most. The name gives little away, but as with Cookies and Cream, I had my fingers crossed for white chocolate. Alas, it had a regular chocolate coating. This bar completely tricked my palate, though, as it smelled like chocolate and ... coconut. I thought that was odd since coconut's presence is usually indicated in a food's name.

The texture had that same slight chew and crunch as many other standard Barebells bars. As for the flavor, it reminded me of a Mounds bar — that chocolate, coconutty delight — dialed down a few notches. It was fairly sweet; if you enjoy candy bars, you should enjoy this. However, this is not a coconut protein bar; it's a caramel protein bar — as in, there is probably no coconut in this, per its packaging. If it's anywhere, it's hiding in the natural and artificial flavors, but I have no reason to think it is. My taste buds probably just have an imagination. I do enjoy coconut (even the phantom taste version), but I'd want more of it if it were intentional. So while this is good, it's not my favorite.

I ended up surprised by how well the Barebells Chocolate Dough protein bar fared in this taste test. While I like chocolate, it doesn't usually satisfy my palate on its own; it gets overwhelming. This bar smelled good and richly chocolaty, but it read as a little one-note to my nose, and the puffed rice in its coating adds nothing but texture.

This bar was indeed the Barebells you should get if you can never have enough chocolate. This was pure chocolate throughout — no caramel. And those crisps on the exterior were, in fact, chocolate-flavored. The texture was great; the chocolate dough interior was wonderfully chewy (slightly more so than the others), with the light crunch from the chocolate crisps offering a pleasant contrast. Maybe it was the delightful candy bar-like chewiness combined with the chocolatiness, but I really enjoyed this bar and had to stop myself. Despite its total dedication to a single flavor, Chocolate Dough would be ranked higher if I hadn't loved four other bars more.

The idea of a cherry-flavored Barebells bar appealed to me, but I had already tried Banana Caramel and worried that Wild Cherry's fruity notes would have that same synthetic bent to them. I wasn't entirely wrong (the bar did smell a little like cherry cough syrup), but the flavor was in a completely different camp than Banana Caramel, and I really enjoyed it. For starters, the white chocolate coating offered a mild creaminess that contrasted nicely with the intensely flavored cherry layer. It was soft, almost jammy, and gave way to a chewy vanilla nougat base with a light crunch from the crispies. As for the question of natural versus artificially flavored, I'd assume the cherry falls into the latter camp, but I don't care — I guess I just love fake cherry.

This reminded me of a similar strawberry or cherry energy bar I used to eat many years ago (maybe a Zone bar) that I hadn't thought about in forever. I didn't realize how much I had missed the presence of a white chocolate/fruity bar in my life until I sank my teeth into this Barebells. This one is better, though, as its sweetness level isn't so overwhelming. This is good, for sure, but unlike the top three flavors, it would get tiresome if I bought a whole box.

The other two soft protein bars in my variety pack had great texture but were underwhelming in flavor. So I was surprised to discover how excellent Caramel Choco was and that it outperformed nine other Barebells bars. The oddest part was that it smelled like it would taste a little artificial and overly sweet.

The smell lied to me. Yes, this protein bar was sweet, but pleasantly so. In fact, of all these protein bars, this was the closest thing to a real candy bar that I tasted. Texture-wise, it reminded me of a Milky Way, but a little less pillowy. It took me a second to pinpoint the flavor, but I finally landed on a Caramello bar, minus the tougher shell or the segments. This was almost the best Barebells bar with chocolate, but another one had a slightly more engaging texture that reminded me of my favorite candy bar of all time.

I don't eat many candy bars these days, but if I did, I'd grab a Whatchamacallit. That fun-to-say Hershey's product contains peanut butter crisp, caramel, and chocolate, and has a delectable give between the teeth. Barebells Cookies and Caramel doesn't contain peanut butter or peanuts (though like any Barebells bar, it's processed in a facility that also handles peanuts and other common allergens). Nonetheless, "Whatchamacallit!" was my first thought upon sinking my teeth in and tasting this protein bar.

The center is chocolate- and cookie-flavored and paired like a dream with the caramel. The caramel's smoothness and the center's chew also created a fun textural contrast with the crispy crunch. This bar was apparently built from the Cookies and Cream bar that ranked seventh place for me. I'm very glad the brand added caramel, because it elevated the whole thing to a delightful degree.

How is it that a key lime pie-flavored protein bar could overtake an array of contenders featuring such winning ingredients as caramel, chocolate, and peanut butter? The flavor was just that amazing; that's how. And the chewy texture with a bit of crispiness, though not unique among these Barebells, gave me no reason not to love it.

What really impressed me is that Key Lime Pie could be such a hard flavor to pull off in a protein bar without veering into the synthetic. Barebell's version is both natural and artificially flavored, like many of the others. Unlike those others, however, this one doesn't feature strong, simple flavors like those aforementioned winners that could feasibly hide artificial flavoring. Yet, the bar somehow approximates the flavor of key lime pie without making it weird. It's not only tart and sweet, but also citrusy. Don't get me wrong — you won't take a bite and be like, "Wow, it's pie!" But you'd know it was key lime pie-flavored without having to be told, and that's quite a feat. It's a refreshing switch-up for a food product that tends to be dominated by chocolate, and I could eat a whole box of them without getting burned out.

I chose these 12 Barebells flavors based on availability, using a 12-flavor variety pack of Barebells available on Amazon as a representative selection of the brand's protein bar lineup. For this taste test, I judged each bar on several factors. First, the flavor should taste like what the name promises, without artificial or synthetic notes. I preferred that the sweetness be noticeable but balanced, rather than overwhelming. Texture was also important. I looked for bars that were pleasantly chewy without becoming dense, tough, dry, or chalky, all issues I've encountered with other protein bars from other brands in the past.