Where to buy: Amazon, Whole Foods
The GFB gluten free bar (confusing name and packaging) is fairly easy to find, and a bar that I wanted to include in my vegan protein bar testing.
There aren’t too many great gluten-free vegan sources of protein, so bars and protein shakes can really help.
The bar happens to be vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free.
I’m testing as many vegan bars as I can find (at least 20 so far), and rating them as objectively as possible in three categories: protein content, taste, and cost.
This review is broken down into those 3 main categories.
Table of Contents
Protein Content and Nutrition of the GFB Bar
This is the weakest part of the bar by far.
In each bar, there is:
- 240 calories
- 10 grams of protein (varies a bit based on flavor)
- 31 gram of carbs
- 15 grams of sugar
- 4 grams of fiber
So there’s more sugar than protein, which isn’t a great thing nutritionally speaking.
In total, only 16.7% of calories come from protein. That’s the number I use to calculate a score out of 10 for all bars.
The GFB only gets a score of 4 out of 10 here, which is one of the lowest there is.
Ingredients
On the bright side, the ingredients are fairly simple and there’s nothing sketchy in them:
Virginia peanuts, organic brown rice syrup, complete protein blend (organic brown rice protein, pea protein), organic dates, organic agave nectar, organic brown rice, flaxseed, natural vanilla flavor, sea salt.
The protein comes from both the peanuts and protein powder blend of brown rice and pea protein.
But note that there’s a lot of sugar coming from multiple sources: brown rice syrup, dates, agave nectar.
Does the GFB Taste Good?
You can probably guess that the bar tastes good based on having a lot of sugar and not too much protein.
It comes in 6 flavors:
- Peanut Butter
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
- Cranberry Toasted Almond
- Oatmeal Raisin
- Dark Chocolate Coconut
- Coconut Cashew
I’ve tried 3 so far (Peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter, and dark chocolate coconut).
They all have a similar texture, just different flavor.
My biggest takeaways from the taste test were:
- It’s quite a firm (dense) bar.
- Flavor is pretty good, and obviously fairly sweet.
- There’s a bit of an aftertaste, but it’s not too bad.
This is obviously a bit subjective, but I ended up scoring the bar a 9 out of 10for taste. The flavor wasn’t quite perfect to me.
There’s nothing hugely wrong with it, and based on your personal preferences you might even give it a perfect score.
Does the GFB Bar Cost More Than Other Vegan Protein Bars?
Depending on where and when you buy it, you can typically find the GFB for around $2 per bar (if you buy a box of 12).
That sounds like a lot, but it’s about average for a plant-based protein bar. But consider that you only get 10 grams of protein per bar, so most athletes may need to buy and eat more than one at a time.
Again, I score bars out of 10 based on how cheap it typically is per 10 grams of protein (a high score is better), and the GFB gets a score of 6 out of 10.
How Does The GFB Compare to Other Bars?
The whole point of scoring protein bars in this way is so that I can compare them with each other.
It’s clear that the GFB is better tasting than most (not all) other vegan protein bars.
However, the protein content is quite weak, and the cost is average.
If you add up all those scores, we get an overall score of 19 out of 30. Not bad, but not that impressive. Quite a few bars have a better overall score.
If you’re looking for just a bit of extra protein (that’s gluten and soy free) and don’t mind the sugar, the GFB is a good option.
Alternatives to the Gluten Free Bar
Here are a few bars that I think are better overall that you might want to consider. They are also gluten-free (most vegan protein bars are these days):
- Simply Bar – This is my personal #1 of all the protein bars I’ve tried. It has healthy ingredients, still tastes good, and has a solid protein content. You can see my Simply Bar vegan protein bar review for more details.
- No Cow Bars – These bars have the highest protein content you’ll find in a bar that still tastes relatively good. They’re also quite affordable. However, note that they contain palm oil, which may be an issue for some. My No Cow vegan protein bar review has a full breakdown of its strengths and weaknesses.
