Nothing says protein bar like a bar made out of meat.
Yes. Meat bar.
Intrigued? We were.
Epic, created by Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest, is a gluten-free, soy-free and dairy-free snack made with organic turkey and grass-fed organic beef and bison. Each bar has 150 to 200 calories, 11 to 14 grams of protein and pronounceable ingredients.
"In order to continue eating animal protein on the go, we were forced to choose between conventionally raised animal jerky and canned meats filled with preservatives," the creators wrote on their website. "We refused to eat either and set out to create what would evolve into the modern day EPIC bar."
Bars are shelf-stable for up to 9 months and contain organic cultured dextrose, a natural preservative, and have little to no added sugar.
"The Bison-Bacon-Cranberry has brown sugar in the bacon, but that's it," the company tweeted back when we asked.
So how do they taste?
I took all three flavors of the whole food bars to my mostly-Paleo running group and they looked like I'd served up a platter of grass-fed unicorn.
"Ohhhhh! We've heard of these," they said, "But we've never actually seen them before."
We love the bison bar with bacon and cranberry (because come on, bacon). While it looks a little like raw meat, it's more tender and tastes way better than traditional jerky. Others loved the cumin flavors in the turkey bar. The beef bar was a little 'meh' compared with how much we liked the other two flavors, though it was perfectly edible.
Epic creators debuted the line's new flavor — lamb, currant and mint — at Outdoor Retailer. We'll have more sneak peeks from the show next week.
Buy it:
www.epicbar.com and some Paleo gyms; $34 for a box of 12.
Do you run on plants? Check out Epic's sister company, Thunderbird Energetica, and their line of plant-based bars.
Sara Davidson is an ultrarunner and our resident women's gear destroyer. She's waiting for someone to make a bacon with bacon bar.
