O(I)81

OU81 bars have a pretty cute name!



To tell the truth, the name was the main reason why I wanted to try them...

But their solid nutrition is a great reason to keep eating them!

The stats are pretty similar from bar to bar and all three flavors are based on seeds, almond butter, dates, and whey powder (so not vegan friendly, but great for all of us who aren't vegan). I liked that they kept the refined sugars out of the bar, making it a really great source of longer-lasting energy: sans the sugar crash! 

They even chose apple juice sweetened cranberries in the Coconut Cranberry Bar, instead of the usual sugar-sweetened ones, which is a nice touch.

The coconut cranberry is tasty, but I preferred the chocolate flavors. 

Don't I always?

Oh, did I mention that they're grain-free and the whey protein comes from grass-fed cows?



Just thought I'd throw that out there - though these are good enough that you'd want to eat them even if that weren't the case.



They're not as sticky as other date and nut based bars, probably because of the whey powder, and they were also sweet, but not cloyingly sweet. The chocolate flavor in the chocolate cherry bar could have been a bit stronger in my (chocoholic) opinion, but I liked the big chunks of cherry throughout. And the chocolate coffee bar was plenty chocolatey!

My one gripe is that while the bars had pretty similar stats to others (about 200 calories, 11g of sugar, 9g of protein) as other bars, they seemed a little smaller. They were pretty dense, though, and kept me satisfied probably as long as other bars (though I've never timed myself). The packaging was definitely bigger than the bar (maybe that's something they could work on, to reduce packaging waste). 

But I still enjoyed the bars, all in all, and appreciated that they didn't grind up all the ingredients too smoothly - I liked being able to crunch through the pumpkin seeds and chew on the sweet dried fruit chunks.

Have you tried OU81 bars?

Do you eat bars as an afternoon snack or a morning snack more often?

Which of the three flavors sounds best to you?