Exo Cricket Energy Bar
Reviewed by
Mike Mineart
REVIEW CORPS
+4,912
January 12, 2021
Six-legged creatures have never tasted so good!
The Blueberry Vanilla EXO Cricket Energy Bar is an energy bar made using cricket powder as the basic protein source. In addition to ground-up crickets, these energy bars are also made from a lot of good healthy ingredients like almonds, apricots, blueberries, and a bunch of other ingredients that you can read, pronounce, and already have a good idea of what they are.
These energy bars taste good and have a nice consistency and make them a great option for someone looking to add another choice to their trail/energy bar selection.
Pros
- Nice consistency—not too hard and not too soft
- High number of calories per ounce
- Nice flavor
- Seems to be made from healthy ingredients
- Not too much sodium and sugar, but a good amount of protein
Cons
- No visible cricket parts—bummer
- Need to avoid if you have shellfish allergies
In our family at Christmas, we sometimes slip small unique or gag gifts into each others stockings and this year my oldest daughter gave me a medley of insect based food items (yum!). One of the items was this Blueberry Vanilla EXO Cricket Energy Bar.
I had a chance to try out the bar during a walk the other day and found I really liked the energy bar. The bar had a good consistency from my perspective, in that it wasn't too soft and gooey, but also not too hard where it's difficult to take a bite out of the bar. I found the taste appealing as it wasn't overly sweet, but had a little tanginess.
The EXO Cricket Energy Bar looks like every other energy bar, which was a little disappointing. When I first opened the package I was really hoping to see a few cricket legs or heads mixed in with the other ingredients, which would have been a memorable experience!
One of the key things that caught my eye with this energy bar is the high calorie-to-weight ratio. This Blueberry Vanilla bar has 270 calories for the 2.1-ounce bar, which is really nice if you're looking for a calorie dense item to add to your pack.
Based on the list of ingredients, the EXO Cricket Energy Bar could easily be called the almonds apricots bar, which are the two main incidents before cricket powder (Acheta domesticus for those of you who like to use big words at dinner parties...). The other ingredients are all good things that you'll recognize and can actually pronounce.
The EXO Cricket Energy Bar has 10g of protein (thanks to the crickets) and 5g of fiber, which is nice, and is low in sodium and saturated fats, which is also good from my perspective.
One thing worth pointing out is that they do indicate in the list of ingredients that cricket products may trigger crustacean shellfish allergies. So, if you have allergies to those types of items you may want to avoid this bar.
There is also a short statement on the back of the wrapper that their goal is to have all of us eating crickets, which might not be all that bad. You can use this link if you would like to learn more about EXO and the other products they make.
Overall, I think the EXO Cricket Energy Bar is a nice trail/energy bar option that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone who has grown tired of the bars they currently eat and are looking to try something new.
If you now can't get the idea of crickets out of your head and have some spare time to learn a new skill, take a look at this link to learn how to make cricket sounds.
Background
I have been eating my whole life and maybe even ate a few bugs as a kid. I have been eating trail bars for as long as they have been making them and have my favorites and the ones I avoid, but generally always have a few in my pack and they are a staple on my multi-day backpacking trips.
Source: received it as a personal gift
