16 Responses

  1. Kim says:

    Hi! Just wanted to let you know I ran into your blog searching for a review of the new pumpkin spice cookie butter from Trader Joe’s. Well….I ended up scrolling through all of your reviews and enjoyed them! Great job, and I’ll be following your blog from now on 🙂 (Oh and I’m a quest bar junkie and received 3 boxes of the pumpkin yesterday. I liked it but my faves are cookie dough, cookies n cream, and white chocolate)

  2. Junk Male says:

    Hi Kim!

    Thanks so much for commenting and taking the time to read our reviews. We’re happy to have you following us. What did you think of the pumpkin bars? I was a little letdown, but I still enjoyed them.

    I better, because I have 4 boxes of them.

    • Kim says:

      I actually enjoyed them but agree there needs more of the pumpkin spice kick. The texture was quite soft compared to all the other ones which i liked. I have to microwave or broil all the others, but i didnt have to with this. I was also concerned if i cooked the pumpkin one then the coating would just melt and become a mess so I didnt bother.

  3. Sarah says:

    The mint chocolate chunk one sounds divine! Is it the same cocoa cookie as the cookies and cream? Is it sort of like an Oreo crumbled up? Or sort of a thin mint cookie? Do you generally like bananas? Or banana flavored things? Banana bread, muffins, etc. I found that the banana nut muffin quest bar tasted like banana bread just different texture. Really thorough reviews! Has quest changed their formula for all their bars? It really is a shame 🙁

    • Junk Male says:

      Sarah,

      It’s hard to say that the cookies are the same as Cookies n’ Cream. I really hope that they figure out a better recipe for Cookies n’ Cream after the change, or that I indeed had a bad batch (they’ve spoken on social media about improperly mixed batches). I do like bananas, and that bar is very good. It just doesn’t keep you coming back like some of the more indulgent flavors. Quest has changed the formula for all bars, except for Mint Chocolate Chunk and S’mores which already used soluble corn fiber. I’ve heard they’ve changed some other ingredients as well.

  4. Karly says:

    I stumbled upon this blog looking for a review for the pumpkin pie quest bar…and absolutely loved it! You’re hilarious and informative ☺ although I definitely disagree with your quest bar ranking…but you saw that coming.

    Keep up the awesome reviewing!

    • Junk Male says:

      Thanks Karly! It’s nearly impossible to get people to agree on Quest Bar rankings with the breadth of their offerings. Which bars are your most favorite and least favorite?

      • Karly says:

        Worst is easily that lemon one ? it actually reminded me of Mr. Clean. It was just terrible! It’s a toss up but for the best I’m going to go with the cookie dough one, especially if you bake it a little ? I have yet to try the pumpkin pie bar, although your review left me a little underwhelmed. Maybe I will only order 2 cases ?

        • Junk Male says:

          I think most pumpkin purists like me will be wildly disappointed with the Pumpkin Pie, but I did enjoy it. Definitely sample a single bar at Vitamin Shoppe or GNC before committing to 4 boxes like me. I knew my ranking of Lemon was going to throw everyone off. I LOVE that bar, but there’s no way lemon is a universal crowd-pleaser.

  5. Sam says:

    Nice reviews… I feel like you’ve opened my eyes about the cookies and creme bars. They’ve long been my favorite as well, but I’ve noticed recently that I don’t enjoy them as much, and I just attributed it to the fatigue of eating the same old thing for a long time. I wasn’t aware Quest had changed its recipes, so I’ll have to keep that in mind going forward.

    I’ll have to give the lemon bar another try, as well. I tried it a wild back and was very disappointed (and a little surprised, as I am generally partial to all things citrus), but perhaps I just caught a bad batch or I was pissed off about something that day.

    Thanks again for a great review! I like your writing style and I’ll be watching this website going forward.

    • Junk Male says:

      Hey Sam!

      It’s really disappointing that the cookies n cream flavor has been compromised because it really was the greatest. If I needed an Oreo fix and some protein, problem solved. The change to soluble corn fiber affects all bars except mint chocolate chunk and smores, which already used them. I like both of these bars, as you can see from my rankings, so the new ingredient doesn’t doom all bars if formulated properly.

      Haha it seems people disagree with me on lemon cream pie. I find it really refreshing. My auto-delivery has a heavy density of chocolate flavors, but I make sure to always get a few lemon cream pies. That says a lot, but to each their own!

      Thanks for the feedback and we hope you do stick around! I promise I will wildly disappoint you going forward.

  6. Zin The Phoenix says:

    After almost a year of not eating any Quest bars (I mainly stopped buying them due to the cost), I decided to buy a Cookies & Creme bar (my previous favorite) recently. It was horrible… nothing at all like I remembered.

    Just the other day I found the Pumpkin Pie bars at the grocery store… originally I would have been thrilled, as I am a huge fan of pumpkin-flavored anything… but now I don’t even want to try it.

    Whatever IMOs are, I want them back!

    • Junk Male says:

      Objectively, I don’t think the new bars are bad at all. It’s just that we were used to such a dangerously delicious Quest Bar before, so any change is going to be really noticeable. I think there may be some changes that are not specific to the IMOs, but that is just conjecture. Bring back IMOs regardless! For what it’s worth, the Mint Chocolate Chunk and S’mores varieties always used the soluble corn fiber, and you can see that I ranked them very high. I think they just struggled a bit to hit an identical flavor with their previously existing bars.

  7. Liz says:

    Haha – this cracked me up. Love your writing. I agree with your rankings – who actually likes the mixed berry flavor?? Ick.

    I am addicted to the double chocolate chunk (#6 is probably a fair ranking for the average person’s palette) which is probably why I disagree that cookies n cream was the biggest loser in the IMO –> soluble corn fiber transition. I think the new double chocolate chunk tastes awful …. So much so that even before I realized they changed the recipe, I stopped buying the boxes with a 7/2016 or 8/2016 expiration date because the bars in those expiry windows tasted like butt. It was a sad, sad day when I realized that the butt flavor was here to stay.

    • Junk Male says:

      Glad you enjoyed the review Liz, and thanks for the kind words! Mixed berry is the only one I will just never buy.

      I get what you’re saying about double chocolate chunk – I noticed the change in this bar as well. The transition from IMO -> soluble corn fiber really breaks my heart more than it should, but it’s impossible to ignore. The more consistently I have eaten the bars with the new recipe, the more my palate has adjusted to “butt flavor.” That can’t be good…

  8. Lyn says:

    Just wondering if you’ve had the chance to try Costco’s Kirkland brand of Quest-like protein bars yet. There’s only two flavors, but I think I might actually like them both better than their Quest equivalent. The price doesn’t hurt, either!