Sans Meal Bar Review - Can it replace a meal?

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Recently, I took Sans Meal Bar up on an offer to pay $3 in shipping and get two of their meal bars for free. I figured what-the-heck because I’ve been looking for a bar that could be a meal. If it was good, it might work on some of my paddling trips as a good replacement for crackers, cheese and summer sausage or crackers and peanut butter and jelly or wraps and tuna. While, I do like variety on a trip, it wouldn’t bother me to not have that variety for simplicity. Also, it’s seemed like a good and inexpensive way to add a Sans Meal Bar review to PaddlingLight. :)

Each Sans Bar weighs 3 ounces and has about 390 calories per bar. The weight is right in there for my target calories to weight ratio. I like to try and carry about 2,500 to 3,000 calories per day distributed in food weighing 1.5 to 1.75 pounds of food per day on solo trips under two weeks (see this old article on How Much Food Should You Pack). Sans Bars are slightly more calorically dense than Clif Bars, which is my go-to bar. My favorite Clif Bar is the Crunchy Peanut Butter. It gives you 260 calories for 2.4 ounces.

Anyway, I got the bars and my kid and I split one on a summer adventure. He’s five and doesn’t like to eat anything. As an example, on our BWCAW trips, he eats peanut butter and jelly or honey bagel for lunch and dinner, because he won’t eat anything else. He like the Sans Bar. So, if this were his Sans Meal Bar review, he’d give a thumbs up. I ate the other one as a replacement meal. I thought they were fine. They weren’t outstanding, but basically on par with other bars in the category.

The cost is a bit of a stumbling block for me. If you buy from Amazon, which is the best deal that I’ve found, they run $3.75 a piece in a box of 12 (or $45 for a box of 12). Clif Bars run $1.19 in a 16 bar variety pack ($19 total). Maybe the ingredients and caloric density are worth it for the Sans Bar. I really don’t know how to evaluate that for you because it has so much to do with personal nutrition goals. Sans Bars are probably closer to a Pro Bar than a Clif Bar. Pro Bars run $30 for a variety pack of 12 on Amazon or $2.50 per bar.

Overall, not bad and on par. If you are looking for a meal replacement bar, you should give them a try. You might like them.

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