As you can see above I was lucky enough to receive 4 Paleo bars from the wonderful people at The Primal Pantry (formely The Primal Kitchen) including their new Hazelnut & Cacao Raw Paleo Bar!
The Primal Pantry was founded by UK nutritionist Suzie Walker, in 2014 (a fantastic interview with Suzie can be found here at Paleo Polly). Armed with nothing more than her kitchen blender, some dried fruit, coconut and nuts Suzie embarked upon a mission to create the perfect Paleo bar. Her wonderful taste testers were so impressed that The Primal Pantry was born!
The Primal Pantry bars were designed to provide people living a Primal lifestyle with the opportunity to buy a natural energy snack that they could carry around on-the-go and consume knowing that it’s ingredients are 100% Paleo and 0% junk. Every bar is made from no more than 5 ingredients and always with produce that you would find in your own home cupboard. This means no grain, no dairy, no soy, no vegetable oils and most importantly no refined sugars! The dried fruit in the bars is unsweetened and hasn’t been treated with suplhites or oils.
But my favourite little fact of all is that the bars are lovingly cold-pressed and handmade in the UK. Splendid!
Oh and I forgot to mention that these bars are all Vegan friendly!
So we all know about the bars but what do they taste like?!
Brazil Nut & Cherry Paleo Bar
This lovely bar is made from dates, brazil nuts (40%), cherries (10%) and almond oil.
When I opened this my first reaction was ‘oooh it’s looks like it should be made from jewels’ it is just so pretty to look at! This bar was very chewy and was pleasantly crunchy too – as you can see unlike other dried fruit and nut snack bars this one has chunks of nuts which I loved. It has an earthy flavour followed by the heavy, sweet flavour of dates and I couldn’t taste the cherries at all but I could definitely see them in there. I really wanted to taste the cherry in this so it’s a shame that it didn’t come through.
Almond & Cashew Paleo Bar
This bar contains dates, almonds (30%), cashews (20%, and almond oil (0.75%)
This bar was less sweet but more fruity than the Brazil Nut & Cherry Bar. There were crunchy chunks of nuts again which just made the bar a fun experience overall.
Coconut & Macadamia Paleo Bar
This bar contains dates, cashews, coconuts (20%), macadamias (10%), almond oil.
This bar was chewy, coconutty, creamy macadamia heaven! I loved this one! The fruity taste was lovely and not too sweet, the texture was perfect too. This bar was one of my favourite ones!
Hazelnut & Cacao Raw Paleo Bar
This bar contains dates, hazelnuts (28%), almonds, cocoa powder (5.5%), vanilla powder, almond oil.
This is the latest bar from The Primal Pantry and my favourite without a doubt! It has a nice and dark cocoa taste that took away from the date flavour and sweetness. Just stunning. The vanilla and hazelnut came through really well too and it was like some sort of ‘Nutella’ type chewy wonder! I will definitely buy this one again without a doubt.
What’s the verdict then?
Well, luckily for us Suzie is a qualified nutritionist so these bars have been formulated with the right amount of natural protein and energy sources to consume that are adequate for an active lifestyle. I can definitely vouch for this one as I ate these post weight training/kettlebelling and it helped me to recover almost instantly. It also left me full of bags of energy for quite a while without the crash of those awful post workout sugary protein bars that you can get! Fantastic!
The branding is just awesome! The colours are modern and the little caveman style sketches just make it for me – it’s funny how something so ancient can be transformed into something so modern! The logo totes and awesome spearhead behind the word ‘kitchen’ and I love it!
It does state on the back of the label that the bar is grain-free and also the UK’s 1st Paleo bar so for those less familiar with the concept it does help to raise awareness which is fab. They also say ‘Go against the grain’ on the side of the wrapper with a cute little spearhead too.
I did really enjoy these bars, the texture is satisfying, they are filling and they taste nice too, but other than the new Hazelnut & Cocoa bar I didn’t feel that there was enough depth of flavour. These are as pure as you can get which isn’t necessarily a negative thing but I do hope that in the future some new flavours emerge using some natural oils.
If you like Nak’d bars but want more for your money then I would definitely opt for The Primal Pantry over those without a doubt!
The Primal Pantry bars weigh 45g and cost on average £1.49 each. They are available from:
Ocado – currently priced at £1.49 per bar and are still listed as The Primal Kitchen!
Superdrug (I know go Superdrug!) – currently on offer for 99p each and still listed as The Primal Kitchen!
Perfectly Paleo – They are the only place that seem to be stocking the new Hazelnut & Cocoa bar so nab one fast! Singular bars cost £1.59. They also sell a mixed case of 8 bars for £12.00 and 18 bars for £27.00!
Alternatively if you pop in your post code here it will tell you where your nearest stockist is!
Other than this check in at your local CrossFit box (and get your WOD on) as the chances are they will stock them too!
If you would like to see what Suzie and her fellow Primal Pantry team are getting up to then follow them on:
Twitter: @PrimalPantryUK
Facebook: @primalpantryuk
Instagram: @theprimalpantry
Website: http://www.primalpantry.com/
No Comments