While watching the Disc Golf Pro Tour, I kept seeing signs for “Thunderbird.”
Now I know that Innova makes a very popular fairway driver called the Thunderbird, but, that didn’t look like their logo, and why would they be advertising a specific disc mold?
After seeing a commercial, I realized that Thunderbird is a brand of healthy “real food” snack bars, and that their marketing efforts are targeting disc golfers. What disc golfer doesn’t eat some kind of snack bar during long tournament rounds?
Thunderbird advertises that these snack bars are healthy and made of real ingredients. Thunderbirds are made of “superfoods” and are paleo, non GMO, gluten-free, vegan, dairy free, and have no added sugar!
They also claim that they taste good. But do they?
That’s where I’ve gone ahead and purchased for different Thunderbird Bars from Infinite Discs so that I can share my opinion as a non biased reviewer who gets no financial benefit from saying they taste good. Here are my individual Thunderbird bar reviews in the order that I tried them out.
Day 1 -Almond Apricot Vanilla
Now I love apricots. As a kid I grew up with an Apricot tree in my backyard. We would dehydrate those suckers and they would last for months of delicious snacking.
I also enjoy almonds, they are a good nut, but in my opinion nuts do not always add to the satisfaction of all snacks. When it comes to candy bars, Snickers are always the last ones picked by me out of the snack pack.
The other ingredients in the Almont Apricot Vanilla bar include Vanilla Extract, Hemp Seeds, and Himalayan Pink Salt. Not sure if any of those are super foods that will give me super powers to throw discs better, or just ingredients to help the bar taste better.
The verdict is…. this bar tastes pretty good. Visually, the Almond Apricot bar was not the most appealing and reminded me a little bit too much of dog poo. My first bite was taken with some hesitancy, but after getting used to the texture and eliminating the dog doo doo image from my mind, this was a good and very satisfying snack.
Now in terms of taste, it’s definitely not as satisfying as a candy bar. But, when you consider the fact that you’re putting good natural ingredients into your body instead of refined processed sugars, it really is pretty good.
I give the Almond Apricot Vanilla Thunderbird bar a taste rating of 4 out of 5.
Day 2 – Texas Maple Pecan, the Paige Pierce Bar
Like the Almond Apricot Vanilla, the Texas Maple Pecan bar is not the most visually appealing piece of food I’ve ever sampled.
This bar has a lot of nuts, and so is quite crumbly. If you don’t like Pecan’s, you are likely not going to like the Texas Maple Pecan. Like other health foods bars with dates, the Maple Pecan sticks to your teeth. You may want to consider having a toothbrush after eating it.
This is a satisfying bar and when eating it I feel that I’m putting good food into my body. It’s not a low calorie snack, and the small 1.7oz bar contains 250 calories. The ingredients include Pecans, Dates, Himalayan Pink Salt, Maple Extract and Cinnamon.
I give the Texas Maple Pecan bar a taste rating of 3/5. I sampled this bar right at lunch time when I was hungry and ready for a meal. It’s good, but not anything you’re going to crave because of its taste. Because of my hunger at the time of writing this review, I did crave the next bite to satisfy my need for hunger.
Day 3 – Pecan Goji Pistachio
Now, I know what Pecan’s and Pistachios are, but Goji is a new one to me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this real food bar.
As the name implies, there are a lot of nuts with this one. After opening the package I could quickly tell that this bar does not hold together quite as well as the others. My Pecan Goji pistachio immediately crumbled in half.
My first bite was of a pistachio. Delicious.
In my second bite I got what I believe is a big Goji berry. Obviously dried or dehydrated and my initial impression was that it tasted like fruit cake – kind of gross, but strangely satisfying.
My third bite yielded a completely different taste that didn’t have any big nut or berry chunks and was just good. I could tell there is a lot of Dates in this bar, and sure enough the very first ingredient is actually dates so you can expect more of that stick-to-your-teeth feel.
The official ingredients of this bar are: Dates, Pecans, Almonds, Pistachios, Himalayan Pink Salt, Goji Berries, and Dried Goldenberries.
The disadvantage of this bar compared to the others I have tried is just how crumbly it is. When eating the Pecan Goji Pistachio you’re going to want to eat it over a plate, in the outdoors, or on the course — just not over your computer keyboard as you type up a review. There is a good chance that you will also have to pick up all of the crumbs to eat separately as you don’t want to waste anything from a snack bar this expensive.
In terms of overall taste I’ll give the Pecan Goji Pistachio a 3.5 out of 5 rating. It’s good, I’d say better than the Texas Pecan, but not quite as good as the Almond Apricot Vanilla.
Day 4 – Chocolate Cherry Almond
I saved my last, and what I was hoping to be the most delicious Thunderbird real food bar, the Chocolate Cherry Almond, for last.
Like most people, I love chocolate, so this should be great right? I like cherries, almonds are one of the best tasting nuts, it should be a winning flavor for sure. Before opening I checked the ingredients. Even though the first ingredient in the name is chocolate, cacao is actually the fifth ingredient. The ingredients in this bar go: dates, almonds, cherries, cashews, cacao, and Himalayan Pink Salt.
What is Himalayan Pink Salt? All four bars I’ve tried have it. Is it just a fancy way of saying “salt” to sound more exotic?
I looked it up, and it is basically just salt, it contains 98% sodium chloride. But it does come from the Punjab region of Pakistan near the Himalayas. It might offer additional health benefits over regular salt because it has a tiny percentage of trace minerals, lower sodium, and is “more natural”
Upon opening the package I realized that this isn’t a milk chocolate covered candy bar. Like the other Thunderbird bars, it looks like a nutritious snack rather than a treat.
I took my first bite and… was kind of disappointed.
Not that it tastes bad, it just doesn’t taste very good if you are expecting a candy bar like taste.
I took a few more bites, some getting large chunks of dates that were pretty good. Like some of the other bars, each bite is a slightly different taste sensation.
When all is said and done, I’ll give the Chocolate Cherry Almond bar a rating of 3/5. It’s good, but just don’t plan on the taste of a candy bar.
Overall, Thunderbird bars are a pretty good snack. These are made of real ingredients here in Texas. If you like disc golf, you might as well support the companies that support it by buying some as your next disc golf snack.
