Costco Robert Irvine’s Protein Bar Review

I’ve tried a lot of different protein bar brands over the years. Some taste great and some are nutritious, but not many are both delicious and healthy. These Chef Robert Irvine’s Baked Protein Bars from Costco look like chocolate bars. Do they taste like chocolate bars? Are they any healthier than chocolate bars? Read on to find out!

Other protein bars and granola bars from Costco are the Kirkland Signature Chewy Protein Bars, Simply Protein Bars, Smart for Life Protein Bars, Quest Protein Bars, Kirkland Signature Protein Bars, Kirkland Signature Soft & Chewy Granola Bars, No Sugar Company Keto Bars, Made Good Chocolate Chip Granola Bars and the That’s It Mini Fruit Bars.

Other protein bars and granola bars from Costco are the Kirkland Signature Chewy Protein Bars, Simply Protein Bars, Smart for Life Protein Bars, Quest Protein Bars, Kirkland Signature Protein Bars, Kirkland Signature Soft & Chewy Granola Bars, No Sugar Company Keto Bars, Made Good Chocolate Chip Granola Bars and the That’s It Mini Fruit Bars.

Location in Store

These are located in the snack section at Costco, near the other protein bars, jerky and candy. The item number is 1566195 for the chocolate peanut butter flavor and 1929518 for the chocolatey brownie.

Taste

Chocolate Peanut Butter

These are pretty tasty protein bars and could almost pass for a candy bar! They have a nice, sweet, chocolate peanut butter flavor. The texture of the bars is soft and chewy and there is some crunchiness in the middle from the cookie center.

The bars in general are pretty sweet and the caramel adds additional sweetness. The main flavor I noticed is peanut butter but there’s a good balance of chocolate, peanut butter and caramel. These taste very similar to a chocolate bar except the texture is chewier than most chocolate bars.

Chocolatey Brownie

The outer shell has some crispy pieces in it, but otherwise the bar is quite soft and chewy. It’s also very sweet for a protein bar, though you can tell it uses an artificial sweetener.

Still, it has a fairly nice chocolate flavor. All the different layers kind of blend together into one artificial chocolatey flavor, but it’s tasty enough for a protein bar.

Cost

The box comes with 18 bars, each bar weighs 46 grams and the box costs $28.99 Canadian, which seems expensive. However, most boxes of protein bars are at a similar price at Costco and you get 18 bars in the box, which is more than some other boxes.

Convenience

Each bar is individually wrapped and the best-before date is about 17 months from the date I purchased them. Protein bars like these are very convenient to pop in your lunch or work bag for a quick breakfast, snack or meal replacement on-the-go.

I personally wouldn’t give these to my kids due to the ingredients being a bit too processed for my liking, but I think a lot of adults will enjoy them! The box also recommends that children under 14 years old not consume the bars.

Nutrition

Calories

Chocolate Peanut Butter

One bar contains 190 calories, eight grams of fat, 14 grams of carbohydrates, one gram of fibre, three grams of sugar, eight grams of sugar alcohol, 16 grams of protein and 200 milligrams of sodium. I’m a little disappointed that there are only 16 grams of protein in one bar; I expected a bit more protein per bar.

Chocolately Brownie

One bar contains 210 calories, 11 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbohydrates, one gram of fibre, four grams of sugar, seven grams of sugar alcohols, 16 grams of protein and 140 milligrams of sodium.

Ingredients

My favorite protein bars are the RX Bars from Costco because of the few, simple, ingredients they contain. These contain a ton of ingredients and a lot of them I’m not fond of such as palm oil, palm kernel oil, sugars, sucralose, maltitol, sorbitol and genetically engineered ingredients.

They’re very processed, in my opinion, this isn’t “real food”.The bars contain milk, soy, almonds and peanuts but are gluten-free.

Scoring

Taste: 8.5/10 for the chocolate peanut butter. 7/10 for the chocolatey brownie.

Cost: 6/10

Convenience: 10/10

Nutrition: 3/10

Overall

Give it a try!

These taste really good but they’re not my first choice for health, I prefer cleaner ingredients. If you’re looking for a tasty protein bar/meal replacement you might like these, they basically taste like a candy bar.

Have you tried these protein bars? What did you think of them?

Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).