Thursday, November 8, 2018

REVIEW: Quest Limited Edition Holiday Flavors

If you've been around my corner of the InterWebs for a while, you probably noticed I somehow snuck onto a coveted list whereas Quest Nutrition sends new products to try every once in a while. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I hope I never fall from grace because it's like winning a small lottery every few weeks. And this recent delivery was no different.


As you can see from the picture above, this was a limited edition, seasonal box! And boy was I excited to bust into it! 

Left: This was the little poem on the inside lid / Right: Each of the products was under a little "door"
[I absolutely loved the packaging of this! It reminded me of an Advent Calendar, but I opened them all at once!]

The box included four new products - Pumpkin Pie Protein Bars, Snickerdoodle Protein Cookies, Peppermint Bark Protein Bars and Gingerbread Protein Cookies. {FYI - The Snickerdoodle Cookie is the only one of the new flavors sticking around long term, the rest were only available for a very limited time and are all unfortunately already sold out online.} Although all of the goodies aren't currently on the market, I still wanted to share my thoughts (that way you know if you want to give them a try if/ when they come back). Shoot, you may even want to start a petition to get them back ;)

Source: Quest Nutrition's Facebook Feed

So... without further ado, let's jump to my review (with additional thoughts from the hubby) of the four seasonal products.

____________________________________________________________________________



Pumpkin Pie Protein Bar

Let me be honest... and it may cause you to think differently of me, but I've gotta #KeepItReal, so here goes... Pumpkin flavor is not my jam... I know, I know, it seems sacrilegious to say, especially during the fall season, but I said what I said. With that being the case, I wasn't overly excited to give this bar a try (but I took one for the team and decided to try it so I could report on it for you!). Surprisingly I liked it! Both the hubby and I mentioned that it didn't overtly taste like pumpkin, but had more of a 'fall spice' flavor to it. There were chunks of what I would consider pie crust throughout the bar, which made the texture interesting (if you've had the S'mores Protein Bar, it's similar to the graham cracker pieces). Again, neither of us were necessarily expecting to really like it, but we both put it in the top two of the products we tasted.

____________________________________________________________________________



Snickerdoodle Protein Cookie

At the beginning of the year, I received a surprise delivery of Quest Cookies and I was PUMPED! The hubby and I both gobbled them up. The Peanut Butter Cookie was my fave, followed by the Chocolate Chip Cookie. When Quest asked what other flavors they should make, the hubby and I both suggested sugar cookies or snickerdoodles... and, lo and behold, here they are! If you've had Quest Cookies before, you are probably used to their taste (I wouldn't say there is an aftertaste, per say, but you can definitely tell they aren't your run-of-the-mill dessert cookie) and these are no different. The hubby and I both mentioned we wished there was a little extra cinnamon flavor to them, but overall we both gave them two thumbs up. This was actually the hubby's favorite out of the four products and he felt as though they were the closest to the "real deal". (PRO TIP: Putting them in the microwave for about 10 seconds makes them even more delectable!)

____________________________________________________________________________



Peppermint Bark Protein Bar

I'll be honest, this was the one I was most excited about. I know I said pumpkin isn't my jam, but peppermint definitely is! Right away, when I opened them I was intrigued because the cross-section did look like what you think your traditional peppermint bark looks like (milk chocolate bottom, white chocolate top with peppermint pieces on top). And you can definitely taste the peppermint, that's for sure... but the other flavors were a bit of a let down. The milk chocolate and white chocolate flavors weren't strong enough - it tasted more like what you would think a traditional protein bar would taste like (and not in a positive sense). I think if there were chunks of peppermint throughout it might help to break up the consistency (similar to the chocolate chips in the Cookie Dough Protein Bars). Maybe I'm being ultra critical because I really wanted this one to be my favorite, but it ended up being just decent (but I guess that's okay since it's sold out).

____________________________________________________________________________



Gingerbread Protein Cookie

I was very interested to see how this one stood up against the other cookies I'd had in the past. In my mind, gingerbread tends to have a very strong flavor profile, so I thought maybe it would hide the "Quest flavor" that the other products have (again, nothing wrong or bad about that taste, just was interested to see if the spice flavoring would mask it a bit or not). I would say, in my opinion, this one definitely was my favorite of the Quest Cookies I've tried. I really liked the consistency (seemed more like your standard cookie) and the flavor profile fit perfectly. The hubby, on the other hand, thought it could have used more spice. We joked and said that if they released this flavor again, they should make them square shaped instead of round so you could build gingerbread houses with them or maybe include a gingerbread man cookie cutter ;)

____________________________________________________________________________


Source: Far Left / Middle Left / Middle Right / Far Right

The hubby and I both agree that it feels like you're cheating on your healthy eating lifestyle with these, but with Quest products, you can eat toward your goals and love every bite along the way. Food can taste as good as it is good for you.

What is your favorite seasonal flavor?

No comments: