REVIEW: Boomi Bar, Prana Bar

I saw Boomi Bars and Prana Bars on another blog at some point and contacted the company to see if I could try them and review them. One day I arrived home to a package filled with 2 boxes of these bars, one box of Prana bars and one box of Boomi bars. I was so excited!

THE COMPANY
The company is located in California and is family owned and operated. The founde,Graeme Duncan studied philosophy while traveling Europe, India and China and visiting temples. He wanted to create a healthy, environmentally friendly and tasty energy bar. “Our philosophy is that the body is a Temple, and we should only introduce first class healthy foods into this complex but beautiful gift, the human body.” (from the company website)



THE PRODUCT
Boomi Bar
Boomi is sanskrit for EARTH. All of the ingredients are very close to the ground - these contain only fruit, nuts, seeds, grains and honey as the sweetener. They are gluten free (hey you GF Gidget - check these out!) On the back of the bar it says that research shows that honey may help speed up recovery of tired muscles and that honey works to give a pre and post workout boost - great for athletes! Most of the bars contain puffed amaranth (a grain I haven't tried) and dates, some have crisp rice, but the rest of the ingredients are basically what the name of the bar is! Very natural, and these are hand rolled!

The flavors were:
Almond Protein Plus: This was different than the rest - made only with honey, almonds and protein powder. It reminded me of a raw cookie made with nuts and sweetener. It looks kind of weird but was tasty for a protein bar!

Self explanatory:
Apricot Cashew
Cashew Almond
Cranberry Apple - 2nd favorite
Fruit and Nut
Healthy Hazel
Macadamia Paradise
Maple Pecan - my favorite
Perfect Pumpkin - chock full of pumpkin seeds!
Pineapple Ginger
Pistachio Pineapple
Walnut Date
Cashew Protein Plus

Perfect Pumpkin

On the whole, these bars reminded me of lara bars but with more taste and a better texture.
They were fantastic!! Bill also gave them a 5 star rating! (and he is not into this health food stuff). They range from 190 to 260 calories with the ginger pineapple on the lower end and cashew almond on the higher end.





PRANA BAR
In Sanskrit, Prana means vital energy. These bars are organic and made with raw unprocessed fruit and nuts. They look similar to the Boomi Bars but have a few more ingredients such as almond butter, agave nectar and some have goji or acai powder. They were a bit softer. Prana bars are 50-77% raw depending on the bar.
The nuts and seeds require slow cooking which is not a raw process.

The flavors for these bars are:
Apple Pie - probably my favorite of the bunch. Delicious: apple, dates, sweet and yummy!
Apricot Goji - a twist of the two tastes - yum!
Apricot Pumpkin - you could taste and see the pumpkin seeds :) *Bill's favorite
Cashew Almond - a mix of the 2 nuts!
Pear Ginseng - mmm - pear and ginseng, with sesame seeds. An excellent combo.
Coconut Acai - 2nd place, this tasted like an oatmeal cookie.

These were a little bit sweeter than the boomi bars but very similar - like sisters!

We grabbed both of these bars for a snack, breakfast on the go, and post - workout fuel. While the Boomi bars had less ingredients, I preferred the sweeter taste and texture of the Prana bars. I would eat either one of these as part of a healthy day - and found them great post long run and post workout.

WHERE TO FIND THESE
Where can you get these ? The company is sporting a new website here. They have discount pricing for automatic delivery and are currently running a promotion for $5 off online orders, if you use the code WEBSITE. A case of 24 Boomi bars goes for $38.40 on the website, and 24 Prana bars for $40.99. You can find them locally by typing in your zipcode here. Find them on amazon for around the same price (varies by flavor), but save 15% if you have them auto delivered. The prices are comparable to Lara Bars I recommend the variety pack which costs a little bit more, but has all of the flavors. Enjoy!


LOOK out for:
They are coming out with SuperCharger Bars which are the prana bars with antioxidants added in - I can't wait to try these delicious sounding flavors!!

Blueberry Coconut

Goldenberry Goji

Mango Maca

Raspberry Pomegranate