Samba99 Guarana Energy Bar Review

Robert Flam, the CEO/Founder of the company that makes this product contacted me via email and informed me of this product. I was immediately interested, I often say that Guarana is my favorite energy drink ingredient. Why? Simply because some of my favorite energy drinks contain a lot of it or are based on it. So, at the chance to receive some samples of this bar I had to say yes. This Samba99 bar (believe me, of no relation to the Samba energy drink I reviewed nearly a year ago now) is actually made in Brazil, but was "conceived in New York". Robert Flam has quite the name for himself, and has done a lot of things having to do with Brazilian culture, including producing and directing a three-part HBO series called Brazilian Music Festival. However, in the end I'm just an energy drink consumer so when faced with a product like this I really have to be skeptical on whether or not I will enjoy it as much as my caffeine-laden, sugary, and strong energy drinks. Still, I was very excited to give this product a try and upon receiving the samples in the mail I had to try one right away. So, let's see how this "Antioxidant Super Fruit Bar" can stack up compared to my energy drinks in the packaging, taste, and of course buzz categories.

The Box:
These bars are individually packaged, and in case you think you're a geometry expert I believe that the shape of the box is a "triangular prism". Something that I appreciate about this product is that you can tell that it's sort of grassroots in nature. It sort of sets itself apart from products made by giant, well-known American corporations with it's own unique packaging. The colors of the box seem to remind me of something that would be coffee flavored. I opened my box by opening one of the triangles on the top and pulling the bar out that way. If you pull it down farther there's a perforated line that you can tear across so that the box will no longer be a triangular prism but will just be flat. Inside of each box is a picture and as far as I know you can currently submit your own pictures on the official Samba99 website to be on the inside of future bars that are produced. Inside of both of my boxes was a picture of a woman wearing boxing gloves, and basically looking pretty threatening. The pictures inside are a nice touch and I like how they top off the products' design, but you have to wonder how many people are going to take the time to open the box and look inside. The actual bar inside is also wrapped in a clear wrapper, to keep it nice and fresh I would presume. All in all, the packaging for this product isn't half bad, and I can see it being one of those products that you know about because of it's cool packaging.

The Bar:
It's kind of different for me to be reviewing a healthy energy bar when my favorite energy drinks are usually energy sodas or abnormally large energy drinks. Also, you really, really have to keep in mind that this is an Antioxidant Super Fruit Bar. So, you shouldn't pick this up expecting it to be some kind of cake or chocolate or something. It's fruit, and everything about the taste just says that over and over again. The bar itself is a purple-brown, and looks like a big raisin in a sense, but not wrinkled like a raisin. The bar isn't that much smaller than it's box, and the shape is similar to the box but more rounded. Upon unwrapping it and taking a bite, it's definitely also has a raisin taste. It's very chewy, and I really can't think of what to compare it's consistency to. I found the bars' tastes to be fairly enjoyable, although fruit certainly isn't the main part of my diet. For the sake of enjoying this, please remember that it is a fruit bar and is going to taste like fruit. But, it's good, tasty fruit and I can really see this being big with healthy people.

The Buzz:
These bars are actually vegan and gluten free, and contain 0 % trans fat. As for ingredients, they contain Organic Cacao Pulp, Organic Bacuri Pulp, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Guarana, Pectin, and Citric Acid. For me, the only familiar ingredient there is Guarana. Guarana is natural caffeine, and believe it or not I've actually known that for awhile. I didn't know that to expect from these bars, as I've never eaten any energy products prior to this and I just had no idea what the ingredients would do together. I enjoyed both of my bars on different occasions, once in the evening and the second one in the morning when I was tired. I must say, I really felt the effects the second time around. These bars provide "performance energy" in a sense, not what I would call "useless energy". In other words, you're not going to eat this to push your body to the limit with how much energy it can handle. You're going to eat this feel more alert, stay awake and be energized in a sensible way. Thankfully, these bars really deliver in that department. I felt substantially more awake and for several hours both times. I never "crashed" either, and I felt good all day.

To conclude, I'm definitely glad I tried these bars. They were something different, and all in all I would say that they're worth a try. As far as I know they're coming soon all over the place but are currently available on Amazon. For more information, check out their official website here. A special thanks goes out to Robert Flam for allowing me to try these bars, and good luck!