Flavors Tried: Hot Chocolate, Oozy Bluberry, Sticky Cinnamon
Price: $30 for 12 Flings ($2.50 each)
Nutrition: 180 Calories, 6g Fat, 32g Carbs (10g Fiber & 12g Sugar Alcohol), 10g Protein
This is an updated review as of March 2025. Flings has undergone a complete reformulation and the review below reflects the newest formula. For my review of the original formula (which was significantly different), toggle the content below.
Read the original review
Targeted marketing strikes again. I was hit with an ad for these Flings Toaster Pastries on Instagram, and I immediately knew I needed to try them.
I’ve been duped by packaging plenty of times, but Flings plays right into the heart of my inner 90’s child, so I really had no choice.
I recently reviewed Legendary Food’s Tasty Pastry, which is the big name in the very small protein Pop Tart space. I actually enjoyed them quite a bit, but they are very cakey compared to Pop Tarts.
If Flings can deliver on being more of a Pop Tart consistency, we’re going to have a winner on our hands.
It’s going to be very tough for anyone to surpass the Tasty Pastry in the macros department, with their pastries containing 180 calories and an impressive 20 grams of protein.
But Flings does a very respectable job in their own right. While they contain half the amount of protein as the Tasty Pastry, 150 calories & 10 grams of protein still make for a very solid protein snack.
The high amount of fiber doesn’t get me too excited, since I eat so many high-protein foods that are already packed with fiber, but I can’t argue with the appeal of high-fiber snacks.
The sugar alcohol content is pretty high, which some people may not love, but it doesn’t bother me. As long as the sugar alcohol flavor isn’t overpowering, I can live with it.
Flings currently has three flavors: Summer Strawberry, Sticky Cinnamon, and Hot Chocolate. I was able to get them all, so let’s get into it.
Flings Summer Strawberry Review
When you open up the package, it becomes immediately clear that these toaster pastries actually resemble Pop-Tarts. The Tasty Pastry is a square made to look like a Pop-tart, but Flings truly embody a real-deal toaster pastry.
The pastry feels heavier and much denser than a Pop-Tart, but considering it’s made with heavier ingredients like almond flour and chickpea flour, I fully expected that.
I was very excited to see that the icing on top is hard the same way it is on a real Pop-Tart. In my opinion, that crisp break you get from the icing is one of the best parts of a Pop-Tart.
Once you bite into this toaster pastry and get into the filling, it immediately takes you back to childhood.
You can clearly tell from the photo that it’s a bit denser than a regular Pop-Tart, but man oh man does it taste like a Pop-Tart.
The strawberry filling is exactly what I was hoping for, and the icing on top really brings it home.
If I’m being totally honest, I can taste the erythritol in the aftertaste, but it’s not at all overpowering like with other protein snacks I’ve tried. If you’re sensitive to that flavor, you may notice is a bit more than I do, but it’s not nearly enough to negatively affect the experience for me.
This is a strawberry protein Pop-Tart.
Hot Chocolate Flings Review
I wasn’t sure if this toaster pastry was going to resemble the Hot Fudge Sundae Pop-Tarts, but it became immediately clear that this was going to be much closer to the Chocolate Fudge flavor.
When I broke it open, I was greeted with a chocolate filling very similar to what I expected to find.
PS: No, that’s not mold in the photo. You’re seeing sea salt and a dusting of flour, don’t worry.
In terms of flavor, I love this one. If you enjoy chocolate, there’s really no reason you wouldn’t love this toaster pastry.
It’s definitely denser and chewier than a Pop-Tart, but after trying the first flavor, I knew that’s what I was getting into.
I definitely notice the sugar alcohol in the aftertaste a bit more than the other flavors, but that’s likely a combination of the sugar alcohol combined with the bitterness of the cocoa powder.
While I won’t go as far as saying this is as good as a Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tart, this is a damn good chocolate toaster pastry.
Sticky Cinnamon Flings Review
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts are easily my favorite Pop-Tart flavor. Considering these don’t call out brown sugar at all, I adjusted my expectations so I wouldn’t be disappointed.
When you open this one up, you’re immediately hit with a strong (almost spicy) scent of cinnamon, which is quite different from the Pop-Tart experience. So, I knew to go into this one not expecting my beloved childhood favorite.
To my surprise, the filling resembles a Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tart quite a lot.
In fact, if I just compared the fillings side by side, I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference.
The true difference in this flavor specifically is that the pastry portion has a more distinct flavor than I noticed with the other flavors. Biting into it, I tasted the almond flour much more than the other pastries, which is surprising to me considering the filling seems quite generous.
Still, the filling is absolutely perfect and it has an awesome chew to it just like a Pop-Tart. This one’s a winner.
The Toaster Test
What’s a toaster pastry if you can’t actually toast it? This is one area where the Tasty Pastry falls incredibly short- you can’t toast them!
When you heat these up, the experience goes from great to incredible.
All you have to do is pop these into the toaster for 45 seconds (you can also microwave them) and the filling becomes warm & gooey while the icing remains hard and crispy.
When I tried to heat up the Tasty Pastry, it melted all over and became a real mess.
When I heated up Flings, they tasted just like Pop-Tarts right out of the toaster. If you enjoy your toaster pastries warmed up, you’ll lose your mind over these.
The Freeze Test
Call me crazy, but I really enjoy Pop-Tarts straight out of the freezer. Don’t know it till you try it!
But since Flings are a low-carb, high-protein version, I was expecting them to freeze rock hard.
To my surprise, these are absolutely incredible frozen. I was able to bite right into these after removing them from the freezer, which is equal parts surprising and pleasing.
There’s a chewiness to them when frozen (I’d almost describe it as tacky), but there’s something about it that I really love.
Plus, when they’re frozen, any aftertaste I previously tasted from the sugar alcohol is completely eliminated.
I froze half of the pastries I received and I enjoyed them as late-night snacks throughout the week. I can confidently say that this was my favorite way to enjoy these pastries.
Conclusion: Finally A True Protein Pop-Tart
Flings was able to replicate a Pop-Tart and turn it into a high-protein, low-carb treat, and I am amazed.
While these may not perfectly mimic the original Pop-Tarts, they come close. It’s important to remember that there are some trade-offs when dealing with high-protein snacks.
These are a little denser and chewier than Pop-Tarts, but other than that, the experience is truly like eating a Pop-Tart.
The filling is delicious, there’s a nice hard icing on the outside, and they can be eaten toasted OR frozen.
In hindsight, it seems incredibly silly that there are protein “toaster pastries” out there that you can’t actually toast.
Flings is changing that, and I am here for it.
While they may not be as impressive from a macro standpoint as the Tasty Pastry, these blow them out of the water in terms of resembling an actual Pop-Tart.
Buy them and give them a try. You won’t regret it.
In 2023, I reviewed Flings Toaster Pastries and was genuinely impressed. They managed to create a protein-packed version of Pop-Tarts that actually tasted good and maintained the key elements that make Pop-Tarts so nostalgic.
A lot of people are familiar with Tasty Pastries, which I think are good, but don’t quite hit the same Pop-Tart notes you’d hope for. For me, Flings did everything that Tasty Pastries don’t.
Fast forward to 2025, and Flings has completely reformulated their product. Unfortunately, this is one of those rare cases where a reformulation has made a product significantly worse.
I was a big fan of the original formula, so I was excited to try the updated version, which seemed to be very similar on the surface.
The new Flings still clock in at 180 calories with 10 grams of protein, whereas the previous version contained 150 calories and 10 grams of protein. The rest of the macros are very similar, with the fiber and sugar alcohol/substitute remaining the same.
For a protein snack, 10 grams of protein isn’t particularly impressive. The original version had the same macros, but the taste and texture made up for it. With the new formula, I can’t say the same.
The Texture – From Pop-Tart to Squishy Mess
One of the standout features of the original Flings was their texture. They had that signature Pop-Tart snap to the icing and a pastry that actually resembled the real thing.
The new formula has completely abandoned this winning approach. The icing is now tacky instead of crisp, and the pastry itself is squishy and soft. It truly does seem like they were aiming to do something similar to Tasty Pastries, but I’m not exactly sure why.
If you squeeze the edge of the pastry, it completely flattens – nothing like the pie crust texture you’d expect from a toaster pastry. This is more like a chewy protein bar disguised as a Pop-Tart rather than a true pie crust-like texture.
The Flings Flavors
Sticky Cinnamon
The new Cinnamon flavor smells like artificial sweetener with a hint of cinnamon. If you’ve ever made any recipes at home and created a cinnamon sugar mixture with sugar substitute, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Overall, the pastry is dry and has an extremely bitter flavor that almost tastes burnt.
Without the proper crumbly texture or snap of the icing, the entire experience feels off. The original had a nice balance of sweetness and cinnamon, but this new version misses the mark completely.
Hot Chocolate
This flavor somewhat captures the essence of a Hot Fudge Pop-Tart, which is what I was hoping for, but it’s accompanied by that same bitter aftertaste that’s hard to ignore.
I’ll chalk it up to the sugar alcohol they are using, but unlike some products where the aftertaste is present but not overpowering, this one is tough to ignore.
The squishy nature of the pastry makes it feel more like a chewy chocolate protein bar rather than a toaster pastry. The original version did have some chewiness to it, and there was a little bit of an aftertaste, but I was left feeling very impressed by the rich chocolate flavor.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same this time around.
Oozy Blueberry
This was the chewiest of all the flavors I tried. It reminds me of protein bar filling or chewy cookie dough, which is not what I want in a toaster pastry.
The blueberry filling is decent and doesn’t have the same bitter aftertaste as the other flavors, but it absolutely does not eat like a Pop-Tart.
If they had shaped this like a protein bar instead of marketing it as a toaster pastry, expectations might be better aligned with reality, but the tacky nature of these just doesn’t work.
What Went Wrong?
One of the highlights of the original Flings was how well they performed when toasted or frozen. The original version could actually be toasted (unlike some competitors) and tasted amazing frozen.
The new version remains tacky and chewy even when frozen, losing that satisfying texture contrast that made the original so enjoyable as a cold treat.
It feels like Flings may have reformulated to be more like Legendary Foods’ Tasty Pastries, which are more cakey but have great flavor overall. In doing so, they abandoned what made them unique in the first place.
The original Flings, while not perfect, hit all the right notes if you loved Pop-Tarts but needed a low-carb option. They stood out by focusing on texture and experience rather than just trying to pack in protein.
Considering these are nearly 200 calories with only 10 grams of protein, the macros aren’t impressive enough for me to justify them as a protein snack anymore. The original formula made up for this with a true Pop-Tart experience, but the new version fails to deliver.
It’s really a shame, because I’m rooting for this company and want to see them succeed in what’s still a (mostly) untapped market. But right now, the new formula is a huge miss for me.
I hate to sound ungrateful, because Flings was kind enough to send me product to review, but I am always going to be 100% honest in my assessment.
I hope I’m in the minority and people love this product, but for anyone who enjoyed the original formula, prepare to be disappointed. For me, this is a classic case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
