by Matt Weik
I have a really cool neighbor who is into health and fitness and every once in a while, he drops off some samples of things he buys for me to try and to take look at. I opened my mailbox the other day to find packages with the name Shrewd Food on them. What the heck is that? I started reading the packaging and quickly realized that the contents of the individual bags were protein snacks. No surprise if you follow my content – I love protein snack items.
After working for a supplement company for nearly a decade and working out prior to my time with the supplement company (and obviously I’m still deep in the industry), I started to get bored with protein bars and protein shakes years ago. I wanted something different. Something I could actually chew (other than a protein bar). I wanted high-protein snacks. I tried brownies. Cookies. Cereal. Cakes. You name it, I tried it. Many of the items I enjoyed and some of them I swore were dog food and were trying to poison me. Then came these snacks from Shrewd Food.
A High Protein Treat
The products I was given by my neighbor (shout out to Jared Green), were the Protein Crisps from Shrewd Food. Each flavor has around 90 calories, 14g of protein, 3g of fat, 2g of carbohydrates, and 1g of sugar. All things considered, the profile on the Shrewd Food Protein Crisps were a home run. I’m not talking about barely making it over the fence either. I’m talking about knocked the damn ball out of the park.
Pop these little balls in your mouth and be prepared to have your socks blown off (there’s a dirty joke in there somewhere). Each bag of the Shrewd Food Protein Crisps is high in protein, low in carbohydrates, contains no corn syrup, peanuts or tree nuts, nor uses any artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. In all honesty, when I looked at the call-outs on the label as well as the nutrition facts, I was convinced something with this type of profile would taste like cardboard – boy was I wrong!
At the time or writing this article, the Protein Crisps come in five flavors – brickoven pizza, sriracha cheddar, baked cheddar, smokehouse maple, and cookies & cream. No lie, there’s not a bad flavor out of the whole bunch. Obviously, you would need to be hungry for any specific flavor, but none of them will disappoint from a flavor standpoint (at least not from my taste buds).
It should also be noted that Shrewd Food also carries cookies. They come in a chocolate chip flavor as well as oat and berry. I have not tried their cookies (yet), but definitely intend to soon. The cookies are half the protein content of the protein crisps but still sound really good and have a good profile. And if you enjoy eating salads but wanted more protein other than adding something like chicken, they also sell individual bags of parmesan herb protein croutons.
But how do they taste?
This is probably one of the biggest concerns coming from a consumer. If the product tastes like a dog biscuit, no one will ever try a product from their brand ever again. Luckily for Shrewd Food, the flavor profiles are solid. The baked cheddar flavor is like eating a cheese ball, the brickoven pizza actually has an amazing pizza flavor, I could go on and on. Bottom line, they’re delicious.
Is this a product that will fill you up? Eh, probably not. Don’t get me wrong, depending on how hungry you are they certainly could. But at the end of the day, this is a low-calorie snack item and its intent isn’t to compete with all of the meal replacement products out there. This product is meant to go in the convenient high-protein grab-and-go snack category.
My favorite time to eat these protein crisps is at night when cravings hit me like a ton of bricks and they try to talk me into eating something that I would regret later – like an entire cheesecake (I’ve done it, don’t judge me). I grab a bag of these protein crisps and I’m good to go. Baked cheddar flavor is awesome for movies or television, cookies & cream fits the bill when you are looking for something sweet, smokehouse maple gives you the best of both worlds, and the brickoven pizza and sriracha cheddar great for when you are looking for a snack that’s “a little bit different from the norm.”
Would I recommend them? Absolutely. You can purchase them on their website or even over on Amazon. At the time of writing this, I took a peek on Amazon and the price for an eight-pack of the protein crisps was $14.99. In the grand scheme of things, I’d absolutely pay $1.87 for a bag for this product. Under $2 for a healthy and delicious snack that has around 14g of protein? Yes, please! All day long.
Have you ever tried these protein crisps? What are your thoughts? If not, do they sound like something you’d try? Let us know in the comments.
