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 three 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. In fact, we found a bar so delicious it became our new number one pick (thanks to the commenters who recommended it). So what brings the juice and gets you ripped? Check out the list, dawg.
- Kind Dark Chocolate Nut Protein Bar (12 grams protein)
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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)
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Eating this Luna bar is straight-up like biting into a bar made of entirely 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 is the best tasting protein bar in that category, apart from our #1 pick. It’s chewy, coated 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)
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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)
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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 the realm 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)
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Nature Valley makes great products, period. This protein bar is nutty, salty, and buttery. “It’s like eating crunchy peanut butter,” said Sporked taste tester Jordan Myrick. It perfectly balances crunch and chew. Everything about this protein bar just sings. It’s substantial, delicious, and guaranteed to make a dent in your hunger pangs. It easily could have been the number one best protein bar 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)
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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 while it only has nine grams of protein, 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)
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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)
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In our second protein bar taste test, this bar took the top spot only to be bumped into second place after our third taste test. Them’s the breaks, Gatorade! That said, this is still one of the best protein bars you can buy. 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. It’s like a big, fat Nestle Crunch bar. 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
- Barebells Chocolate Dough Protein Bar (20 grams protein)
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After we published and then republished our protein bar ranking, commenters were aghast that we hadn’t tried Barebells protein bars. First of all, they’re very high protein—20 grams! That’s a lot of protein, which is especially impressive given that this bar tastes so good. It has a tasty, chocolatey coating and the top is covered with crispy little bits of puffed rice. The inside is so chewy, but, like, actually in a good way. Like a Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie but chewier. My colleague Justine Sterling thought she would hate it based on the texture, but I got to watch her eyes light up as she chewed. It tastes like a Tootsie Roll, but even more chocolatey. And there’s even a touch of saltiness like you’d find in actual cookie dough. I would probably eat this bar every day. Between the flavor and the texture and the high protein content, this is a solid addition to the list and our new best protein bar of them all. —Gwynedd Stuart
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best if You Love Granola Bars
Best Cookie Dough
Best Fancy
Best Chew
Best Texture
Best Clif Bar
Best High Protein
Best of the Best
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, Barebells Caramel Cashew, Barebells Cookies & Cream, Pure Protein Chocolate Peanut Caramel, Pure Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter, Aloha Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Aloha Blueberry, Aloha Lemon Cashew
