Bros Before GMO’s – My Review of Bearded Brothers Bars

In my quest to find nutritious food for my summer of thru hikes, I came across Bearded Brothers.  A small company based out of Austin, Texas, these bars grabbed my attention for a few reasons.  First of all they’re called Bearded Brothers – how perfect is that for hiker food?! Secondly, they’re organic bars, raw, and full of real food which means they’ll provide healthier calories that don’t leave a bitter taste in your mouth.  Bearded Brothers graciously sent me a box full of their sweet flavors to review for the readers of Appalachian Trials.

The first bar I got to try was the Radical Raspberry Lemon.  I love citrus flavors in trail foods because fresh food is too heavy and usually too delicate to pack out.  The lemon flavor was bright  with the crunchiness of the hemp and chia seeds in the bar.  This bar was sweet and devoured very quickly!

I also really enjoyed the Bodacious Blueberry Vanilla flavor.  This one was eaten in 15-degree weather on a nervous stomach just 20 minutes before my first half marathon back in March. It was like eating a blueberry muffin without all the negative side-effects from eating rich baked goods before running 13.1 miles!  (And for the record, I finished my first half in 2:05:45, which was about 5 minutes faster than I thought… maybe Bearded Brothers helped?!)

Mighty Maca Chocolate had some unexpected flavors.  When NoKey thinks chocolate, he thinks dark and sweet.  This bar had more of a spicy flavor to it, having two different kinds of cinnamon in the Mexican chocolate.  While the bar was still delicious, NoKey would have preferred more chocolate flavor and the spice being a bit more subdued.

Bearded Brothers has nine flavors currently – six sweet flavors and three new savory flavors in their BOLD line – The Greek, Texas BBQ, and Coconut Curry.  I love that savory flavors are starting to take the hiker food market by storm this season and seeing the array of new foods hitting the market is really exciting for me as a foodie who happens to be addicted to hiking. Be sure to check out Bearded Brothers on their website.  They’re pretty much only in stores in the Austin area right now, but you can order directly from them online.