These energy bars from new brand Outdoor Provisions tick a whole host of boxes: they're vegan, the ingredients are all natural, the wrappers a compostable, they're pleasant to eat and they work well. If you want a tasty trail snack that won't trouble your conscience, we recommend you give these a whirl.
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Outdoor Provisions has developed the vegan bars with ingredients you can recognise and pronounce, rather than lists of chemicals, plus they're all cold-pressed and rolled by hand.
The mainstays of each of the four flavours are sultanas, oats, almond and dried bananas.
Each flavour is inspired by an area of the UK renowned for outdoor activities. You've got:
- Choc Kendal Mint Cake inspired by the Lake District
- Parkin (treacle and ginger) inspired by the Yorkshire Dales
- Barra Brith (orange and tea) inspired by Snowdonia
- Cherry Bakewell inspired by the Peak District
The 'arduous' task of taste-testing each flavour revealed they avoid the overly sweet nature of many pressed fruit/nut bars. The Choc Kendal Mint Cake works particularly well, as the bitter cocoa balances out the sugariness nicely.
The bars are quite hard, so don't get too mangled if wedged in a pack, and don't contain any ingredients that melt. This means that while they soften in a jersey pocket against your back, they never turn into a sludgy mess you can't get out of the wrapper.
I'm a fan of brands such as Nakd bars for healthy riding snacks, but I found these Outdoor Provisions bars more filling and better at sustaining my energy. It sometimes took a little water to wash a whole bar down, though, and they're slightly more crumbly than chewy.
The wrappers are compostable (still doesn't mean you can drop them in the woods, mind...), and if you buy a box the packaging is all recyclable. A box of 18 direct from outdoorprovisions.co.uk is £27, whilst a pack of four is £7. For now, this brand-new company is offering 30% off your first order, making them £18.90 and £4.90 respectively.
These are natural energy bars with a conscience and, better still, they're tasty, very palatable and work well to keep you riding. Recommended.
