Jun 18

Jun 18 PhD Smart Bar: Reviewing Every Flavour of PhD Protein Bar

We review each flavour of the PhD Smart Bar: The High Protein, Low Sugar protein bar

The last time we took on this herculean protein bar challenge, we tried every flavour of Grenade Carb Killa, and it was a mysterious adventure of flavours and textures that left us with some very clear favourites.

This time around, we did not know what to expect, as unlikely their competitors, PhD have not yet made the newsagent and supermarket shelves in the same way. So, with the tasting panel in place, again including our very own 4-year-old Jay Rayner, we set about trying the PhD Smart Bar!

PhD Nutrition Smart Bars: An intro

So PhD has been around for a while, and like most fitness-driven companies, has a roster of influencers and celebrities creating content and wearing PhD clothes and drinking and eating PhD products.

The question is, are their protein bars as good to eat as they look? How do they compare to the other son the market in terms of nutrition, and which ones would suit your palette? Find out with us!

All bars are Palm Oil Free, which is great, and are extremely low sugar.

A note, we are not affiliated with PhD Nutrition and have not been paid by them for this, and it is not an ad.

What flavours are we working with?

PhD Smart Bar - Birthday Cake

PhD Smart Bar - Salted Fudge Brownie

PhD Smart Bar - Chocolate Brownie

PhD Smart Bar - Mississippi Tough Mudder Pie

PhD Smart Bar - Cookies & Cream

PhD Smart Bar - White Choc Blondie

PhD Smart Bar - Choc Peanut Butter

PhD Smart Bar - Dark Choc Raspberry

PhD Smart Bar - Caramel Crunch

PhD Smart Bar - Birthday Cake

Protein: 20g Carbohydrate: 24g Fat: 10g Sugars: 2.2g Calories: 236

So the expectation was high as this was the favourite flavour of both 4 year old and 40 year old in the Grenade bar review. This time, it was not quite as glowing an endorsement.

Very strong Jam taste, “Like a jammy dodger” said 4 year old.
40 year old found it too sickly
It has a very strong taste of concentrated strawberry, but if that’s your thing you may love it
Not the best by any means, and sadly also not near the flavour of its main rival

PhD Smart Bar - Salted Fudge Brownie

Protein: 20g Carbohydrate: 17g Fat: 10g Sugars: 2.1g Calories: 232

The overriding comment on this one always contained the word ‘Fudge’, which is a good start for a Fudge Brownie flavoured bar.

Nice salty taste to accompany the rich fudge
5 x 5 stars from 4 year old boy
A comforting flavour that would work well as a treat, instead of your regular sugar fuelled brownie
If you like fudge, this one is definitely for you

PhD Smart Bar - Chocolate Brownie

Protein: 20g Carbohydrate: 21g Fat: 7.1g Sugars: 0.4g Calories: 237

This tastes just like one of our other favourite ‘healthy’ treats, the Fibre One Chocolate Brownie, which we absolutely love!

Very rich, dark and flavoursome, but possibly eating a whole one would take a lot of effort
It has a very inviting lumpy and bumpy texture which looks unusual
40 year old liked this one, with a big glass of milk, which would be over 30g of Protein in one sitting, so great for bulking!
Virtually SUGAR FREE

PhD Smart Bar - Mississippi Tough Mudder Pie

Protein: 21g Carbohydrate: 24g Fat: 6.4g Sugars: 1.1g Calories: 233

Bearing the name of the unbearable Facebook favourite, Tough Mudder, this was actually the first bar we all tasted, and overall the feedback was good!

4 year old was delighted at the smell of the bar, 2 x thumbs up
A bobbly texture was noted by all tasters
A lovely malty flavour was a welcome change to Taster No. 1 - who loves malted stuff
Quite a strong protein aftertaste, and quite dry, but with a warm drink this would be hard to beat

PhD Smart Bar - Cookies & Cream

Protein: 20g Carbohydrate: 23g Fat: 11g Sugars: 1.9g Calories: 241

The visual design of this bar was not lost on the 4 year old, who instantly shouted ‘Oreo’, when he say the packaging. So we were all very excited as we are a family of Oreo munchers. However..

Was very light in appearance and did not taste like Oreo at all, which was a bit of a mind melter
Tasted more like a caramel/malty bar but reminded us of Protein shakes of old
There is a hint of Vanilla and tastes like a vanilla protein shake, so if you like that, it might be worth trying

PhD Smart Bar - White Choc Blondie

Protein: 21g Carbohydrate: 24g Fat: 11g Sugars: 2.1g Calories: 241

The lead reviewer was certainly looking forward to this as he has a penchant for white chocolate, reviewer number 2 not so much, 4 year old, yes he looked very excited.

We ALL agreed, it tasted like Mini-milks, which are popular with 2/3 so that’s totally fine
Very creamy and sweet, a real treat
A hint of marshmallow about it
Overall good reviews all round

PhD Smart Bar - Choc Peanut Butter

Protein : 20g Carbohydrate : 23g Fat : 6.8g Sugars : 1.9g Calories : 239

The favourite in the early betting, peanut flavour snacks are held in high esteem here at The Sporting Blog, so there was no suprise when this one got the team excited.

Voted as tasting like Reese’s Pieces, this was definitely a winner
very peanutty, and if you like peanut butter and chocolate you cannot go wrong
5 stars, 5 fingers, 5 everything, this was the crowd favourite by a long way

PhD Smart Bar - Dark Choc Raspberry

Protein : 20g Carbohydrate : 22g Fat : 11g Sugars : 0.4g Calories : 237

There was a general nervousness around this bar, since the Grenade version was NOT popular. So we went in with trepidation…

Smells very much like a Turkish Delight chocolate bar
Tastes a bit like a Turkish delight chocolate bar also
A much more subtle taste than the Grenade version
Freeze dried raspberry taste is pretty strong if you get a little bit of it, so Raspberry fans will be pleased

PhD Smart Bar - Caramel Crunch

Protein : 20g Carbohydrate : 22g Fat : 11g Sugars : 0.6g Calories : 238

So this one was a bit disappointing, based on the name, all of us were ready for a crunch and a sweet taste sensation.

Sadly a bit bland
Tasted like one of those pink wafer things from the 80s
Not really a taste of caramel in our opinion
Couldn’t eat a whole one as the protein taste was very strong

PhD Nutrition Smart Bar - In conclusion

Well, we liked some and didn’t like others. To fit 20g of Protein in a bar it will always have to be quite big, quite chalky, and not that easy to eat. However they have done a good job of keeping the sugar low, and the taste decent.

Why not try them for yourself and let us know what you think.