Chocolate of the Day
Hemp Yeah!
Dark Chocolate, Almond, Sea Salt Protein Bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.59 oz. (45 g.) / 19.08 oz. (540 g.) in total box of 12 bars
Calories: 230 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $ missing information/receipt
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA
Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and EFGHI Theme Week, featuring chocolate items with flavor inclusions that begin with the letters E, F, G, H and/or I, for example, hemp seeds.
Today's Hemp Yeah! Dark Chocolate, Almond and Sea Salt Protein Bars with hemp seeds were manufactured for Fresh Hemp Foods Ltd. (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada).*
The aroma of this protein bar was bright, green, sweet, seedy and chocolatey. It had a soft chew, and hemp seed, pea protein, coconut, nut, and mellow dark chocolate flavor notes. (And the hemp seeds did not contain psycho-active ingredients if some of you were wondering.)*
I enjoyed that fact that I was eating a grain-free, gluten-free, soy-free, vegan protein bar with 10 grams of plant protein. (Hemp seeds are quite high in protein, and "pea protein crisps," almonds and pumpkin seeds boosted the protein content even higher.) Protein bars with a smidge of balanced fat (Omega-3 and Omega-6) seem to forestall cravings later in the day if I'm exercising. (Today was a hike day for me.)
Also the flavor of the hemp seeds was nicely off-set with chocolate, nut, seed, coconut and other flavors. (Even hulled hemp seeds can take some getting used to, but their flavor was not at all objectionable in this bar.)
While not gooey sweet, this bar was a little sweet for me. (It contained three different sweeteners.) But, the sweetness level will probably be perfectly fine for most people trying this protein/snack bar.
Ingredients: Shelled hemp seeds, fair trade dark chocolate (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin, vanilla extract), PEA protein crisps (pea protein, tapioca starch, tapioca syrup, agave syrup, toasted coconut, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sea salt, coconut oil, cocoa powder, almond extract, natural flavor.
*Note: Hemp plants used to be grown in the U.S. for fiber and seeds before hemp production became illegal in the 1900s.
Federal laws were targeting the use and sale of marijuana. However, industrial hemp products that did not contain psycho-active ingredients (THC), such as hemp seeds, hemp rope, hemp paper, plastic and cloth, and other products made from hemp plants, also were effectively banned by these anti-drug laws.
Hemp seeds, such as those contained in today's protein bar, have come primarily from Canada, because it has not been possible to grow hemp plants in the U.S. (It became legal to cultivate industrial hemp in Canada more than 20 years ago.)
However, the laws concerning hemp seeds and industrial hemp production in the U.S. are starting to change, which may help bring down hemp seed prices, and expand the use of these seeds in future protein powder/flour, snack, cereal, animal feed, chocolate and other offerings.