Hormbles Chormbles Review: A Guilt-Free Candy Bar That Actually Delivers

If you're someone who regularly scans the protein bar aisle with the hope that this time you’ll find something that tastes more like dessert and less like a compressed oat brick, you're not alone. And finally—finally—there may be an answer.

Meet Hormbles Chormbles, the latest brainchild from Jared Smith, co-founder of RXBar. Yes, the same guy who helped build a movement around clean-label protein bars is now out to reinvent the chocolate bar—but with macros you don’t have to side-eye.

After hearing the hype, I decided to grab the sampler pack from Hormbles Chormbles’ website. Thanks to free shipping on the first order and the promise of a candy bar with 10 grams of protein, 0 sugar, and just 100 calories, I figured it was worth a try. What I wasn’t expecting was to blow through the whole sampler in one day and end up back on the site placing another order. Let’s get into it.

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First Impressions

Straight out of the box, Hormbles Chormbles doesn’t look like your typical protein snack. Instead of a thick, chewy bar or one of those dry, chalky types, these come in a slim, four-square chocolate bar format—exactly what you’d expect from a candy bar.

It’s sleek, snappable, and portioned in a way that makes you feel like you’re actually treating yourself. No guilt, no shame, and no weird textures to power through. Just clean ingredients, a bit of crunch, and chocolate. Lots of it.

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What’s Inside?

Each bar contains:

• 10 grams of protein

• 0g sugar

• 9–10g carbs

• 6g of fat

• 100 calories

The sweeteners used are allulose, monk fruit, and stevia—so you’re avoiding the fake taste of some sugar alcohols and also dodging the stomach discomfort that comes with them.

The protein comes from a mix of whey and milk protein isolate, and the fat comes in part from EPG, a low-calorie fat alternative that keeps things creamy without pushing up the calories. It’s not just clean—it’s smart food science.

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Flavor Review: Breaking Down All 4

I tried all four flavors in the sampler. Here's how they ranked:

1. Peanut Butter

This was an absolute standout. Smooth, slightly salty, and just the right amount of peanut flavor to balance the chocolate. It reminded me of a peanut butter cup, but way more satisfying thanks to the protein crisps inside. If Reese’s ever went keto and high-protein, this would be it. Easily a reorder.

2. Cookies & Creme

Okay, here’s where personal preference plays a big role. I’m not a cookies and cream fan in general, so I didn’t expect to love this one—and I didn’t. BUT (and this is key) I passed it to my husband and he was instantly hooked. He said it reminded him of an Oreo dipped in protein-packed chocolate. So while it wasn’t my favorite, it definitely has its audience.

3. Salted Fudge

Rich, intense, and a little grown-up. This one tasted closest to a high-end dark chocolate bar, with just a hint of salt that makes each bite feel indulgent. If you’re a fan of bold chocolate flavors without added sweetness, this is a must-try.

4. Milk Chocolate

Sometimes basic is best. This flavor didn’t try too hard—it was just a smooth, simple milk chocolate bar with a light protein crunch. It reminded me of a childhood candy bar, but one I could eat without regret. No sugar crash, no bloating, just a satisfying snack.

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Taste vs. Macros: The Real Magic

Here’s the thing: lots of bars boast “great taste” and “no sugar,” but we all know the drill—most taste like something you’d pack for a solo camping trip. Hormbles Chormbles actually delivers. You’d never guess these bars are:

• Only 100 calories

• Zero sugar

• 10g protein

And yet, they taste like something you’d grab at the grocery checkout line.

Even better? You’re not locked into a giant brick of 20g protein that takes ten minutes to chew. These are quick, satisfying, and modular—want more protein? Eat two. Still only 200 calories, and you’re hitting 20g of protein without any weird bloating or artificial taste.

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Price Point and Value

You can buy a box of 12 for $39.99, which breaks down to about $3.33 per bar. That’s not cheap, but it’s competitive with higher-end protein bars like Barebells, Perfect Bar, or Quest. Plus, the quality and taste put it in a different category. You’re not just paying for protein—you’re paying for an enjoyable snack experience that doesn’t feel like a compromise.

And for first-timers, there’s a sampler pack with all four flavors for $14.99 and free shipping. That’s how I got started, and honestly, it’s a no-brainer if you want to test the waters without committing to a full box.

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Any Downsides?

Honestly, there’s not much to complain about—but here’s what I’d note:

• Flavor is personal: If you’re not into a certain flavor (like me with Cookies & Creme), you might not enjoy that one as much. That’s why the sampler pack is a smart move.

• Price: It’s premium. If you’re used to $1 snack bars, this might be a stretch. But again, you’re getting a functional candy bar, not a dry bulk snack.

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Final Verdict: Worth the Hype?

Absolutely. Hormbles Chormbles hits the rare sweet spot between indulgence and performance. It’s a functional food that doesn’t feel “functional.” It feels like something you’d crave, not just something you tolerate because it fits your macros.

If you're on a high-protein diet, cutting sugar, or just looking for a better treat to keep at your desk or in your bag, these bars are more than worth it. And if you’ve ever wished someone would just make a candy bar that works with your goals—this is it.

Try the sampler, find your favorite, and get ready to rethink what a protein bar can be.

Hilo Cotton Candy Gummy Pre-Workout Review

The supplemet company Hilo, known for packing their supplements into a sweet, chewy, tasty, gummy form, recently announced they were rolling out some more convenient packaging for their gummy products. Previously available in tubs, the company is rolling out their gummies in a more convenient form, 10 packets of individual servings, making it easier to bring to work, throw into a gym bag, or just keep on you at all times as you never know when you'll have the urge or get time to workout.

While we've heard about Hilo Gummies, we hadn't actually had a chance to try them out yet. We recently got our hands on a tub of Hilo's Pre-Workout gummies in the cotton candy flavor and wanted to give them a try, as well as a writeup. A serving size is 8 gummies, which means you get a tasty snack along with your pre-workout. Each tub contains 10 individual servings, and they are fairly cost effective at $19.99 per tub. 

It's also worth noting that a full 8 gummy serving is for intense workouts. If you're just looking for an afternoon pick me up, that's a 2 gummy serving. If you're taking them as a normal pre-workout that's 4 gummies. If you have a hard workout session and are looking to set some personal bests, then yeah, take the full 8 gummy serving. Potentially you can squeeze 40 servings out of this tub if using it for light workouts or just for an afternoon pick me up.

That versus a traditional 30 serving pre-workout tub works out to about $60 as opposed to say the normal $30 to $50 of most more traditional powdered pre-workout supplements. Hilo Gummy Pre-Workout is also gluten free, allergen free, kosher, and vegan and vegetarian friendly. 

Hilo Pre-Workout Gummy Macros

So as we mentioned, a serving size is 8 gummies, which is quite nice as oftentimes when taking gummy vitamins you wish you could eat a few more. Each tub contains 10 servings. Yes gummies do have a downside, they do add calories and some sugar, a serving of Hilo Pre-Workout Gummies do contain 70 calories, but that's fairly reasonable. 

As far as the active ingredients, Hilo Pre-Workout gummies have a fairly simple straightforward blend of 3 main active ingredients including 1.6 Grams of CarnoSyn Beta Alanine for some tingles, a gram of Betaine for Pumps, and a reasonable 150mg of Caffeine. This is perfect for those who want a little extra energy but aren't stim-heads. You can checkout the full supplement facts panel below.

The Taste

We had the chance to try out the Pre-Workout gummies in a cotton candy flavor, however they also come in a Red Fish aka a Swedish Fish type flavor which sounds pretty tasty as well. The gummy texture isn't quite that of your traditional gummy, however that is likely due to the fact they didn't use any animal products to keep this vegan and vegetarian friendly, they are still tasty but not quite your traditional gummy your likely used to.

As far as the taste, the taste was decent. As far as the effects, we tried it in all three recommended dosages, 2 gummies as an afternoon pick-me up. 4 gummies as a normal pre-workout, and 8 gummies prior to an intense workout. The two gummy serving aside from being a tasty afternoon snack we felt little to no results. The four gummy serving provided a slight pick me up, though not quite what we're used to from a pre-workout. The 8 gummy serving did provide a good pick me up, some energy and focus to get through a workout, and a slight bit of tingles, which was perfect as I'm not a huge fan of tingles and Beta Alanine to begin with. 

Would We Buy Them Again?

Okay, so I definitely think these are worth trying at least once. They are tasty and it's an interesting take on a pre-workout, a gummy snack as opposed to messy and mildly inconvenient powders. The convenience is great as there's no need for a shaker bottle or even a water bottle and you don't have to drink a whole serving of a pre-workout. I left these in my gym bag and made for an easy way to take them on the drive to the gym after work. 

As far as the effects, I'm not a huge stim head and don't take super powerful pre-workouts, but still felt these were slightly lackluster in regards to the effcts. I would say they are worth trying, however due to the slightly lackluster effects and the slightly higher cost than a standard powdered form pre-workout it probably won't be my regular pre-workout supplement. I could however seeing myself picking this up prior to going on vacation. I like to get my workouts in on vacation and this would alleviate any need to bring shaker bottles with me on vacation and wouldn't require any mixing. 

Where To Buy Hilo Pre-Workout Gummies?

You can pick-up a tub of Hilo Pre-Workout Gummies on Amazon with Free Prime shipping for $19.99 for  tub, and they are available in the Red Fish and Cotton Candy varieties. Hilo Gummies are also sold on the brands own website for $17.99 with Free Shipping, however the company currently has them on a Pre-Order status where you can buy them on Amazon immediately. 

Reviewing Cellucor C4 SuperBrain Smart Energy Drink | All New Nootropic Energy From Cellucor C4

Cellucor, the brand behind C4, one of the Most Popular Pre-Workout Supplements on the market has rolled out an All New Nootropic Energy Drink under the C4 Series. The all new product from Cellucor is called C4 SuperBrain Smart Energy. It features 200mg of InnovaTea Natural Caffeine along with patented Cognizen Citicoline, and other Nootropic ingredients intended to support energy and cognition. In today's post we're going to be reviewing this all new Energy Drink.

Cellucor C4 SuperBrain Smart Energy Review

So we had our chance to choose between Electric Sour, Cotton Candy, and Peach Mango Nectar. We selected the Electric Sour flavor which wound up tasting somewhat like a combination of a Lemon Lime Gatorade, along with some sourness. I'd almost compare it to drinking a Lemon Lime Gatorade with a sour head in your mouth. 

If you take a large sip you don't get a ton of the sourness of this drink. If you take a tiny sip you for some reason get a lot more of the sour flavor. The drink isn't quite as sweet or sour as a Bang SourHeads flavored drink, and I actually prefer this to Bang Sourheads. 

As far as effects, the Nootropic and Cognitive effects are definitely noticeable. Whenever I take Nootropics I get a feeling almost as if little fingers are massaging my brain, I can actually feel my mind being stimulated for lack of a better word and that's definitely noticeable after drinking even half a can of this Nootropic Energy Drink.

Would I Recommend It?

I would definitely recommend trying C4 SuperBrain Smart Energy. The taste is on point, the perfect amount of carbonation and not overly sweet. The Electric Sour Flavor was tasty, I'm anxious to try Cotton Candy and Peach Mango Nectar. If you like Nootropics and/or Energy Drinks I'd highly recommend picking up a can.

Where Can I Find Cellucor C4 SuperBrain Smart Energy?

As of the time of publication, January 10, 2020, this drink was just released. I believe it actually wound up being released about a week ahead of schedule. C4 SuperBrain isn't even up on Cellucor's website yet, not has it made it out to local supplement shops and nutrition stores, however we were able to find C4 Smart Energy at My Supplement Store where it's currently selling for $29.99, and for a limited time you can save 10% OFF a case by using code "SUPERBRAIN".

Review of 5% Nutrition KTCO Keto Cookies

A few weeks back 5% Nutrition had teased an all new mystery product on their Instagram account. They didn't let on with much info besides showing a silhouette of what appeared to be a cookie and stating that it would be both delicious and low carb. We were guessing we'd be seeing a Keto Cookie, however we had to wait another week to find out for sure. Well they finally announced it was indeed a Keto Cookie in both Chocolate Chip and Snickerdoodle flavors.

This was pretty exciting because 5% Nutrition doesn't roll out a lot of new products, so it was great to see something new from the brand. It was also exciting because these cookies are Knock the Carb Out Cookies which are part of the same line as the Knock the Carb Out Bars which were a huge hit among 5% Nutrition Fans.

We had a chance to get our hands on these and wanted to give you guys a review.

So upon grabbing one of these out of the box my initial reaction was how small these cookies are. It's bigger than an Oreo, but substantially smaller than say a Lenny & Larry's Complete Cookie. Other initial impressions was there was a lot of chocolate chips for a "healthy" snack food, a lot of time protein cookies and other functional foods skimp on the chocolate chips. Last impression was that it was fairly dense.

So again, as you can see they really pack the chocolate chips into here which is great to see. Typically in protein cookies the actual cookie itself does't have a ton of flavor or buttery goodness or sweetness, so the chips help to make up for that. The cookies are somewhat dense but still have a decent texture.

Upon taking our first bite, it wasted good. The texture was a little dense which we always expect from protein foods, but better than a lot of other protein cookies on the market. The taste was a little underwhelming, again the cookie didn't have a ton of flavor and wasn't buttery and rich. I actually expected it to be a bit richer considering how much fat it had, and because it was a keto food. Again not bad, just not wowed. The good portion of chocolate chips however helped out with the taste.

Okay, so let's move on to the Macros. In the chocolate chip cookie we have 21 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar, and 1 gram of net carbs. Beyond that we have 15 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, and 230 calories. 

Would I Buy These Again?

So the 5% Nutrition Keto Cookies sell for $36.99 for a 10 pack. That comes out to $3.69 per cookie. That's not crazy, however if we compare that to another leading brand like Lenny and Larry's who sells a 12 pack for $21.99 which comes out to $1.83 per cookie, these 5% Nutrition Keto Cookies are a little pricey.

As far as the taste, again they're good, they are fairly filling, but the size of the cookie is relatively small for the high fat and calorie counts and the taste isn't as good as I'd hope for for the macros that are in it. I could have 3 Oreos for about 180 calories and Oreos actually taste like a real desert or sweet. 

If you're on the Keto Diet and looking to satisfy your sweet tooth these aren't a horrible option tough. Drop a comment and let us know what you think of these if you've tried them. 

Lenny & Larry's Peanut Butter Complete Cookie Review

So I've been familiar with these Lenny & Larry's Complete Cookies for quite some time. The gym I used to attend years back always had them for sale at the front counter, and people would always rave about them. I'd been meaning to try them but just had never gotten around to it.

Well today, I happened to wake up late and left my Fit Crunch Bar at home, and my go to Protein Bar was sold out, so I decided to pick-up and try a Leny & Larry's "The Complete Cookie". 

These cookies come in a variety of flavors, something to suite every taste. Some of these flavors include Salted Caramel, Chocolate Donut, Coconut Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Birthday Cake, and about a dozen other flavors. The particular flavor I grabbed today was Peanut Butter Cookie. 

These cookies are vegan which is pretty amazing, especially considering how tasty they are. They contain 10g of fiber, no dairy, no egg, and no soy. They also have 16 grams of protein. 

Now make no mistake, while this cookie probably is better for you than a Ms. Fields Cookie, this isn't exactly a healthy snack either. Just because they throw in some protein and fiber doesn't automatically make this a magically healthy food. 

One other thing that annoys me a bit is a single cookie is 2 servings. To me things like a cookie should be a single serving. A half a cookie has 210 calories and 10 grams of fat, so that means if you were to eat a full cookie, which is honestly what most people are going to do, your having 420 calories and 20 grams of fat. That's actually pretty bad. Personally for those macros, while these cookies are pretty good, I'd rather eat a Finalfex Protein Pie. 

So yeah, these things aren't exactly great for you and your diet, but how do they taste? I was actually pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture. While it's not going to win any fresh baked cookie awards, and while it's not as good as say a Ms. Field's Cookie the texture is pretty good, its not a crispy cookie, more of a chewy consistancy cookie. The texture is a little dense like most protein foods, however not bad by any means. I personally am very sensitive to textures and hate a lot of protein bars for being overly dense and I thought these cookies were pretty solid when it came texture.

In regards to taste, the taste was pretty solid as well. Sure it's not super buttery and rich like a real cookie, but its not bad for a "healthy snack"

The real question though, would I buy these again or would I waste my calories on these again? Honestly probably not. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty good cookies, if you haven't had one I would recommend picking one up and trying it, however the calories and fat are pretty high for something which the taste and serving size doesn't justify those calorie and fat counts. For this amount of calories and fat I'd probably instead opt to have a Robert Irvine Fit Crunch Bar or a Finaflex Protein Pie. 

Review of Birthday Cake Bash The New Bang Energy Drink Flavor

I was fortunate enough to snag a can of the new Bang Energy Drink Birthday Cake Bash at my local gas station this afternoon. If you've been following the release of this flavor it's been pretty interesting. Normally Bang will tease the new flavor, then release it on their own site, and shortly after it will start hitting the big brick and mortar shops like GNC and Vitamin Shoppe, and shortly after that roll out everywhere else.

This release has been pretty interesting in that it seems some cases went out earlier than they should have, and stores leaked the flavors. This seems to be the case as Bang themselves still have this flavor listed as a "Mystery Flavor" on their own website, and are still trickling out Instagram posts referencing a "mystery flavor" when we already know what it is, and while many of us are drinking it already. 

So now what you have all been waiting for, the actual review of Bang Birthday Cake Bash. You all want to know is it any good, and what does it taste like?

So let me start with my initial expetations. It's summertime right now, and oftentimes I'll take a walk or go for a jog prior to my workout just to warm up. When I get home I'll sip on a bang and relax for a few minutes and then get started with my workout. On a hot summer day when I'm sweaty and just about to start a workout, Birthday Cake is honestly the last thing on my mind, I'm looking for something crisp and refreshing like a citrus flavor or a fruit flavor like a Bangster Berry. I typically don't get into the cotton candy or marshmallow or sweeter flavored drinks.

None the less I decided to give Birthday Cake Bash a try. I'll say that while I probably won't be buying this again, birthday cake just isn't my thing, it's not a terrible drink. It is very sweet, but one thing I like about Bang compared to Redbulls, Rockstars, and other traditional energy drinks is it's not syrupy and it's typically a much lighter or more watery flavor as opposed to heavy and syrupy. 

Another thing about a lot of Bang flavors is that while they taste good, I wouldn't necessarily say they taste like the name. For example the Bang Sour Heads drink tastes good to me, however if you gave it to me without telling me it was Sour Heads I probably wouldn't be able to pin down the flavor.

The Birthday Cake Bash flavor however is true to it's name, it tastes like birthday cake, with the perfect ratio of cake flavor to frosting flavor. While it is sweet, it's still fairly light and not overly syrupy. And it actually wasn't as gross as I was expecting.

Now all that said, I probably won't be buying it again. My favorite Bang Energy flavors are probably Bangster Berry, Citrus, Peach Mango, and occasionally a Star Blast, however it was worth buying a can for the novelty of it and to try it out.

I know right now at the time of the writing of this article these are still pretty hard to come by, but if you get a chance to try one drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts on this new Bang Energy Birthday Cake Bash flavor.