Flavors Tried: Chocolate Chip Fudge, Birthday Cake
Price: $34.99 for 12 ($2.90 per brownie)
Nutrition: 240 Calories, 8g Fat, 27g Carbs (1g Fiber, 9g Sugar), 15g Protein
When I came across this MRE Brookie from REDCON1, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.
I’m working my way through every protein brownie I can find, and at the time of writing this review, I’ve tried Bowmar Nutrition, Eat Me Guilt Free, and Alpha Prime brownies.
Since I’ve tried all of those so far, my curiosity got the best of me and I needed to see where this MRE Brookie would slot in.
Generally speaking, I’ve found protein brownies to be pretty solid across the board. Some are obviously better than others, but unlike many protein cookies that are out there, all of the brownies have been surprisingly decent.
Most tend to lean more towards the cakey side than the chewy brownie side, but that’s the nature of protein baked goods.
Nutritionally, the MRE Brookie is comparable to every other protein brownie out there. Most tend to have right around 200 calories and 15 grams of protein, which is exactly where this one lands.
Considering the main ingredient is collagen, I am not sure how solid of a protein source this actually is. Since collagen is not a complete protein, it does not offer the same muscle-building benefits that other protein does.
But since this contains a protein blend, there’s really no way to know how much complete protein you are getting, so I’ll just roll with the assumption that it’s got to be less than 15 grams total (likely closer to 10-12 grams).
Regardless of the exact amount of protein in these brownies, we care about two things: taste and texture.
Chocolate Chip Fudge Cookie Review
You can tell right away that this MRE Brookie is going to be very soft. Unlike the Eat Me Guilt Free brownies I tried, it’s immediately clear that this is not going to be dry and cakey.
There’s only one way to describe the texture of this brookie: perfect.
Not only is it extremely soft, but it has the perfect amount of chewiness that you would expect from either a brownie or a blondie.
The brownie portion of the brookie perfectly embodies everything I want in a chewy brownie, and the chocolate chip cookie portion perfectly resembles an actual fresh-baked cookie.
The brookie practically melts in your mouth, and you would never know that there was any protein in it.
If I could change anything about this brookie, it would be to make it slightly less bitter. It lacks the sweetness I look for in a brownie or a cookie, so the bitterness comes through a little bit more than I would like.
Don’t get me wrong, this is still sweet. But if it had more sweetness to it, it would really help cut into that bitterness.
Still, even with the brookie being a tiny bit bitter, the texture and flavor are top-notch. REDCON1 absolutely nailed these.
Birthday Cake Brookie Review
After trying the brownie cookie and dubbing it my favorite protein brownie on the market, I wanted to try MRE’s other flavor: birthday cake.
This one is described as 50% birthday cake blondie and 50% sugar cookie?
Um… yes, please.
When I took this one out of the package, it looked noticeably darker than the original brookie. Maybe it’s a quality control issue, or maybe that’s just the nature of this flavor, but the blondie portion was definitely more well-done than the chocolate chip version.
The texture is still soft, but it’s definitely more dry than the chocolate chip blondie. In fact, the texture reminds me of most other high-protein brownie products I’ve tried. No where near the mind-blowingly perfect texture of the other flavor.
This doesn’t at all resemble the half brownie half cookie texture that Redcon1 captured so perfectly with their other MRE Brookie.
If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t have any idea that there was any cookie portion to this at all.
And while the texture is nothing to write home about, the flavor of this one is shockingly even more disappointing.
There is a very strong artificial flavor to this, giving it a bitterness (especially in the aftertaste) that’s really unpleasant. I ended up eating the whole brookie, but I did not particularly enjoy it because that aftertaste was just too overpowering.
What’s interesting about this product is that I did not think there were sugar substitutes based on the nutrition facts, but the ingredients show Erythritol, Monk Fruit, & Stevia, which must be where that bitterness is coming from.
There are sprinkles in here, so it has some essence of birthday cake, but this is simply a vanilla blondie with some sprinkles in it. And a very average one, at that.
MRE Brookie: Final Thoughts
When I originally conducted this review of the chocolate chip brookie, I gave this product an 8.6 rating. It absolutely blew me away.
I stand by my review that if you want a protein brownie that resembles an actual brownie, I’m not sure you’re ever going to find something better than the chocolate chip MRE Brookie.
Maybe I just got lucky with the one I tried, but it truly blew me away.
And yet, the birthday cake flavor was a huge disappointment, so I’ve had to adjust my overall rating of this product.
Did REDCON1 make a truly delicious protein brownie? Yes, they certainly did with the chocolate chip flavor. I’ll stand by my recommendation of that one, but can tell you with confidence that you should avoid the birthday cake flavor.
