We just got our first shipment of Epic bars and now we have had a chance to try them all. If you haven’t heard about the Epic bars yet, they are a gluten free, soy free, protein bar made from bison, beef or turkey that had a 100% vegetarian diet. Cool concept, but how do they taste? I had some skepticism at first, but the Austin based company really makes the flavors work. The bison bar is complemented by bacon and cranberries, beef is infused with habanero and cherry & turkey rounds out the trio with almond and cranberries. If you love meat, and I most certainly do, these bars are pretty darn good. They are like a meaty, delicious power bar similar to jerky but without the jaw straining workout. Overall, I like them. My dad also likes them. My mom, on the other hand, was pretty turned off by the whole idea. She begrudgingly tried the Turkey Epic Bar and made the face of a 3 yr old trying brussels sprouts for the first time. These will be a hit with some and others are going to get freaked out by the idea of Thanksgiving dinner in a bar form.
Last night we were at Danielle Walker’s book signing for Against All Grain. RxBar had a table set up with samples of their 100% Paleo bars and I got into a good discussion with the owner, Peter Rahal. He was wondering how they made the Epic bars shelf stable. Hmmmm, I never thought of that. Peter had a few ideas of how it could be done, and it sounded like salt is probably the easiest way. Sure enough, Peter was right. Each bar has 220-240mg of sodium per bar. Not the end of the world, but 9-10% of your daily sodium intake. Just something to keep in mind as you are tastily munching away.
So, where do Epic bars fit into the mix? Energy bar? Jerky? They are probably a whole new category and I hope they inspire even more creative Paleo foods in the future.
Me Paleo. 
Redolent of bacon with a nice sweetness, I really liked the bison bar. I thought the texture was so much better than other protein bars. It kind of reminded me of corned beef hash in bar form.
I could eat the bison on a regular basis.
The Habanero cherry sounds delicious. I’ll have to try them out
The habanero & cherry is my fave bar. I hope they keep adding to the line up of flavors.
Careful with the “100% vegetable diet.” A lot of these manufacturers consider corn to be a vegetable.