I don't mean "hippie" in a pejorative way, just off the bat. It was just what came to mind when I saw "gluten free, no sugar added, non-GMO, soy free, non-dairy, and vegan" printed on the label. And I'm referring to three offerings from the No Cow company, based out of Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. I had the lemon meringue pie, the peanut butter chocolate chip, and the chocolate fudge brownie flavors.
Daniel Katz, the founder of No Cow, is evidently quite the go-getter. One website mentioned that he started his first business at age 12, swapping large electronic devices. Then he started buying and selling cars, even before he was of legal driving age. Next, he bought and sold a house at age 16. Other businesses involved snowplows, reptile-breeding, and energy drinks. He dropped out of college after only 3 months, and then started yet another business. Because he realized he had either a milk allergy, or some kind of lactose intolerance, he was frustrated by a lack of non-dairy protein bars. So he started making his own, for the "D's Naturals" company, begun in 2015 when he was 18. For awhile he was the owner and sole employee of this company, and things were tight enough that he slept on an air mattress in his office, and lived off of canned soup and vegetables. However, gradually his enterprise grew. In 2017 he renamed it "No Cow." In 2018 he garnered investment and capital from two large companies--2X Partners and General Mills. Currently No Cow's sales are reportedly $10,000,000, and can be found in over 14,000 retail stores nationwide. As for its wares, No Cow also makes energy bars and cookies. Aside from what I tried, other flavors of protein bars are chocolate coconut, vanilla caramel, blueberry cobbler, raspberry truffle, mint cacao, carrot cake, and chunky peanut butter. In addition to all the features noted in the opening paragraph, the No Cow products are also soy free, made from sustainably farmed palm oil, and are partially kosher (the bars are, but the cookies aren't yet). The official company website is a bit terse--mostly about the products, ordering info, and recipes, but the blog does have a version of "Jingle Bells" with alternate lyrics, mostly about the joys of non-dairy, gluten free, non-GMO, etc., foods and snacks.
1) No Cow lemon meringue pie bar: Bar was about 4.25 inches by 1.5 inches (about 10.5 cm by 3.25 cm.), had a light brown color, and had a soft texture. Kind of "meh." Some citrus-y bite, but a bit bland. Okay, but not great.
2) No Cow peanut butter chocolate chip bar: Same size and texture as before, but with a dark brown color. Kind of like the lemon meringue pie one. Solid, but not much more. I like peanut butter, so this helped. Slightly better than the lemon meringue pie flavor.
3) No Cow chocolate fudge brownie bar: Same size as others, and also has a dark brown color. Taste was alright--could detect the chocolate and fudge flavors. But not that sweet. (Probably because the whole point was to have less than 1 gram of sugar per bar.) Better than the lemon meringue pie kind, but not as good as the peanut butter chocolate chip. And once again, rather average.
Therefore, while the No Cow bars weren't terrible, I don't think I'll buy these again. I do eat these types of bar regularly, on field work days (they're wonderfully portable), but I think I'll stick to the ones that are lower calorie and have a better taste. And since I'm not lactose-intolerant, or vegan, or anti-soy and gluten, etc., the presence of these factors don't concern me, so I'll go with the bars that I enjoy more. One further tidbit about Mr. Katz. He reportedly arises every morning at 2:30 am., and starts working out immediately. Which sounds bizarre to me--unless he goes to bed every evening at like 6:30 pm.! And even then, that seems hellish to me. (On the other hand, he's worth millions, even though he's been of legal drinking age for only about a year, so maybe he's on to something.)
No comments:
Post a Comment