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Muscle Masala Protein Bars: Product Review

Chocolate Cherry Cardamom

It's kind of weird that most of the foods that fall into the Sports Nutrition category are glorified junk foods, don't you think?  Gatorade, most protein bars and meal replacement shakes are full of sugar, artificial colours and flavours and a whole lot of crap.

So when Muscle Masala asked me to review their products I eagerly agreed.  I love protein.  I love Indian food and I love healthy, good-for-you products.

They generously sent me 2 of each of their protein bar varieties:
  • Chocolate Cherry Cardamom
  • Vanilla Fig Saffron, and
  • Chocolate Ginger Espresso
They are shaped like cookies and at 78g, 298 calories each, might be a little to hefty for most people for a 'snack'.  They are perfect for very physically active individuals, or those who choose to divide their daily food intake into 5-6 smaller meals rather than 3 square meals and 2 small snacks.

The ingredient list is pretty impressive: no refined sugar or grains (sweetened with agave), whey protein, and choc full of nuts, seeds and dried fruits.  They are not, however, vegan as they contain both eggs and cottage cheese.  I have to say I was pretty surprised about this as it limits their target market.

Adam and the girls tried the Chocolate Cherry Cardamom and they all enjoyed it.  Adam said it tasted much better than expected - given how healthy it is - but he had a difficult time detecting the chocolate flavour. 

I tried the other two varieties.  The Chocolate Ginger Espresso was my favorite.  Both the chocolate and coffee flavours were detectable, however, I would have loved more sharpness from fresh ginger in there.  The Vanilla Fig Saffron was nice too, although I tasted the figs more than the vanilla. 

None are very sweet, so they definitely do not taste like conventional cookies or candy bars, which means they won't appeal to you if you only like that kind of thing.  If you are generally a healthy food lover and enjoy more exotic flavours, you will like these.

What really sets this product apart from other protein bars and supplements is this:

Fresh from the Oven to Your Door

Although our products are available at select locations in Toronto, our core business is delivering boxes of freshly-baked bars directly to our clients. In fact, for about the same price as you'd pay for a box of factory-made protein bars from a health food shop, we're able to send a box of Muscle Masala bars directly to your office or home, shipped within 24 hours from the time they're baked. The price of a box of twelve individually-packaged bars is only $44, which includes free shipping to any address in Canada. And for orders within Toronto-proper, we'll even deliver your bars by rush bicycle courier for no additional charge.

So would I buy these?  No.  Only because they are pricey(although not much more expensive than many larger protein commercial bars on the market), I live on a budget, and I love baking so I would rather create my own snack bar.  But if you are looking for a healthy, tasty, portable, high protein snack or breakfast treat, than you may want to give these a try.

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