Disclaimer: I received three boxes of Built Bars to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!
When I took the Road Runners Club of America coaching class nearly two years ago, I learned about protein’s key role in post-run recovery.
A basic rule of thumb is that runners should eat protein right after a long run of an hour-and-a-half or more, according to the RRCA Coaching Certification Course book. I’m not a nutritionist, so I can’t provide nutrition advice.
Anyway, this isn’t always something I do — even though I know I should. A lot of times, the long runs are ones I drive to — so I can meet friends or run in a different location to keep things interesting.
Built Bar can make getting that protein easier — because it’s a packaged snack that you can just grab and bring with you. There are many flavors of bars, and they have between 15 and 20 grams of protein each.
I received three 18-bar boxes from Built Bar.
I got one box of Peanut Butter bars, one box of Coconut Almond bars, and a mixed box.
In the mixed box were the following flavors:
- Coconut Chocolate Creme
- Double Chocolate Mousse
- Orange Chocolate Creme
- Raspberry Chocolate Creme
- Salted Caramel Chocolate
- Vanilla Chocolate Creme
- Banana Chocolate Creme
- Mint Brownie Delite
- Black Cherry Chocolate Creme
My favorites were the Banana Chocolate Creme and Vanilla Chocolate Creme flavors. Mint Brownie Delite was a runner-up.
I tried all of them except for the Orange Chocolate Creme, because I don’t like oranges (at no fault of Built Bar’s, of course). I generally liked the flavors. I didn’t love the black cherry flavor, but everyone will have their preferences.
The bars have a chocolate coating, which is great for those of us who have a sweet tooth. They also aren’t super high-calorie — the ones I received ranged from 110-170 calories, and I see one other bar on the site (Toffee Almond) that has 180.
The flavors can be pretty chewy — some more than others. I found that the chewiest one was the Double Chocolate Mousse. I still enjoyed the flavor, but it did get stuck to my teeth.
A recommendation was made in our BibRave Pro communication app about putting the bars in the fridge or freezer. I think putting them in the fridge may have helped somewhat — the difference wasn’t extremely noticeable to me — but putting them in the freezer for a few days made them a little too hard for me. Or, if you do put them in the freezer, maybe don’t take it out and eat it right away like I did.
Whatever your flavor preference is, it won’t be hard to find a Built Bar that suits the flavors you like. And, there are numerous potential flavors in the running to be a new release — you can vote here if you want. I voted for Birthday Cake with milk chocolate coating as the regular flavor and Hazelnut Spread as the nut flavor.
Want to order a box? You can choose to get a box of all one flavor, get a mixed box with 14 flavors/18 bars, or build your own box with 18 bars and three flavors.
Each box is $37.80 ($2.10/bar), but you can save 20 percent with code BUILTNOW and bring the cost down to $30.24 ($1.68/bar).
In addition to eating the bars after some runs, I also enjoyed them as anytime snacks.
Learn more about the bars and flavors, read nutrition facts, and place an order at BuiltBar.com.
See what fellow BibRave Pros had to say:
She Runs by the Seashore 
I loved for Birthday Cake as well! I love that the company really seems to listen to customers’ needs and responds right away from what I’ve seen on social media. My favorite is probably the Peanut Butter. I’m a sucker for PB. Great review as always, Vanessa!
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