Aldi 'Hike' Protein Bar Review: Banana
Anyone who buys protein bars surely knows how expensive they can be - often you're looking at £3 odd for 4 small ones. Getting larger ones on their own can be worse still - how can it be affordable to pay £2 for one bar?!
The obvious solution is to make your own, but sometimes that's not really an option. Hence why I'm glad that "budget" stores like Aldi are catching on and making own brand ones. And I'm impressed.
I noticed two flavours by the checkout - both 50p! - banana, and berry. The first one I tried was the banana flavour.
Looking at the ingredients (dates, oligofructose, soy crispies, gluten free oats, banana pieces, raisins, soya flour, pear juice, citrus fibre and natural flavourings), I'm pretty sure that these are a spin-off of Trek protein bars. They certainly taste quite similar, though the shape is a single bar rather than being in segments.
I really like the consistency. It's dense and chewy, with a few crunches where the soy crispies are. This makes a really satisfying bar, and the banana flavour comes out really well, along with a warming pinch of cinnamon.
The nutritionals are excellent as well. For a 55g bar, you get 169 calories, 11g protein and 9.9g fibre. The downside is 16g of sugar, but this is mostly natural and probably quite a good thing if you're going to do anything high intensity.
All in all, I would definitely recommend these bars. I've yet to try the berry flavour, but if the banana's anything to go by, I'm sure I'll be having an indulgent and satisfying bar for a price that my wallet is happy with too.
