Quest Nutrition Protein Bar Cookies and Cream Review

Quest Nutrition is at it again, continuing their dominance in the fitness community with their beloved Quest Bar. One of the largest strategies for their success is the social media presence of their brand: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. They marketed the brand new flavor, Cookies N’ Cream, numerous times, particularly with an everyday count down for the last few weeks. “Have you tried it yet?” “Do you think it will really taste like Cookies and Cream like they claim?” I was asked by many, as everyone knows how obsessed I am with their bars. Being a chocolate brownie and cookie dough advocate myself, I was ready for a new flavor as eating only a few flavors a week was getting relatively tiresome. My girlfriend surprised me with a visit to the local GNC store and picked me up a few of their brand new bars. Here’s some info on the bar and what I thought.

Ingredients List

As we learned in our post about the top nutrition bars available, Quest’s ingredient list is very legitimate, being free of gluten and soy and having few artificial sweeteners. This has not changed with their Cookies N’ Cream flavor. Here’s their ingredients:

Their signature protein blend of whey protein isolate and milk protein isolate (yes, this bar contains diary – be wary of any allergies!), isomalto-oligosaccharides (explained by Quest as pre-biotic fiber derived from plant sources), cocoa butter, almonds, water, erythritol (a sugar alcohol).

Stated to contain less than 2% of: Cocoa powder, ‘natural flavors’, coconut oil, sea salt, sunflower lecithin (an alternative to soy), dextrin, baking soda, stevia glycosides (stevia), and sucralose (these are the few artificial sweeteners to replace regular sugar).

The bar looks pretty appetizing upon first opening the wrapper. I wanted to bite into it as soon as I saw it.

Nutritional Content

Having 21 grams of protein and only 3 net carbs (total carbs minus the fiber content), this bar is exceptional in terms of nutritional content. Very low calorie at 180 (one of the lowest in terms of protein bars). Click to enlarge.

Overall Taste of Quests Cookies N’ Cream

The white cream look is of a different texture than the bar, giving it a very legitimate feel when indulging.

I was extremely skeptical upon my first bite. “Please taste as amazing as you’ve marketed. Please let me like this so I can stock up on a few boxes for the future!” I thought. In my opinion, when analyzing the flavor of a certain food, you go through phases. The first phase of this bar tasted similar to their cookie dough flavor — I was honestly quite disappointed. However, as I continued to chew, I noticed sporadic crunches of what seemed to be real cookies — it tasted like it too. Next, the ‘cream’ aspect of the bar is also legitimate: the white cream as seen in the picture has a completely different texture than the rest of the bar, giving it the feel as if it were actual cream. This began to change my mind about the flavor, and although there are some similarities in taste with the cookie dough flavor, the additives of cookie crunches and a different texture of cream makes it stand out. I would definitely buy a box of these to keep in my pantry. I wouldn’t consider this flavor a must-have in terms of regularity (I eat about two quest bars a day), but I can see myself eating 2-3 of these a week for a change of taste. Overall score would be an 8/10. Recommended.