Published September 13, 2026 06:05AM
Eating high-protein is among the most popular specialty diets in America right now, and food manufacturers are cashing in. Walk down the aisles of any grocery or convenience store, and you’ll see everything from bars to milk to breakfast cereal hawking just how much of the stuff it packs in. And while cramming in as much of the stuff as you can is a questionable way to eat, for hikers, skiers, and other outdoor athletes who are looking for quick, shelf-stable ways to get their nutrients, protein-enriched foods have an obvious appeal.
But the nutrition facts label only tells half the story: Your food has to taste good, or at least OK, too, or you’ll be miserable the whole time you’re outside. Backpacker Editor-in-Chief Adam Roy joined up with SKI Senior Editor Jamie Aranoff and headed on a grocery run, snapping up seven of the weirdest high-protein foods at our local supermarket, and put them to the test on camera. Do those protein chips deserve a spot on your next gas station resupply? Watch and find out.
Transcript
Jamie Aranoff: Hey everyone, it’s Jamie Aranoff from SKI and Adam Roy from Backpacker, and we are here today because we are going to do a taste test of some of the craziest protein food and drink we can find to figure out if it’s worth it, if it tastes good, and if it’s good for your adventures in the outdoors. Let’s get into it.
Adam Roy: Whether you’re a hiker, skier, cyclist, or anything else, we all need protein. It allows our bodies to repair damage and build muscle. Skip it, and you may not find yourself making the gains you want. But you can get too much of a good thing. Americans are obsessed with protein, and over the past 10 years, the protein supplements industry has exploded. It’s grown by about 50%, and today we estimate it’s worth $9.4 billion. Step into any grocery store or gas station and you’ll see evidence of that with a wide variety of protein products, some of them kind of unholy. Today we’re going to be trying seven of the strangest ones. Jamie, are you ready to get into it?
Jamie Aranoff: I’m a little nervous, but let’s try it out.
Protein Pints
Adam Roy: All right, here we’ve got Protein Pints. This protein ice cream, high-protein dessert, 30 grams of protein per pint.
Jamie Aranoff: 5 grams of sugar.
Adam Roy: So if you want to eat the whole thing, which is three servings, you will get 30 grams of protein, which is quite a lot. Let’s try this out, let’s crack it open.
Jamie Aranoff: Looks okay.
Adam Roy: Looks okay. Let’s try a bite of this. You know, my first instinct, Jamie, is to say this actually tastes pretty normal.
Jamie Aranoff: Uh-huh.
Adam Roy: I can’t really–
Jamie Aranoff: Does it taste grainy?
Adam Roy: It’s main– it’s not grainy. It’s maybe not as creamy as like a normal pint of ice cream, but–
Jamie Aranoff: What would you rate it out of 5?
Adam Roy: I’d give it a solid 3.
Jamie Aranoff: Okay.
Adam Roy: If you served this to me, I wouldn’t be like, “Wow, this is the best I’ve ever had.” Certainly not like ultra-luxurious, but totally serviceable ice cream. I mean, it’s good grocery store ice cream. I’m going to eat a little more.
Quest Hot and Spicy Tortilla Style Protein Chips and Wilde Protein Chips
Jamie Aranoff: Next up on the taste test, we are going to be trying two different varieties of protein chips.
Adam Roy: And we’re going to be splitting the tasting duties on this one because I’m a vegetarian and Jamie is gluten-free, so let’s crack these open.
Jamie Aranoff: Okay.
Adam Roy: First up we’ve got Quest Tortilla Style Protein Chips, hot and spicy flavored.
Jamie Aranoff: How much protein?
Adam Roy: 19 grams of protein, and I think a serving is a whole bag.
Jamie Aranoff: And for this we have Wilde Protein Chips, 10 grams of protein per serving, and the serving size is 25 chips.
Adam Roy: So it’s worth talking about what the actual blend of protein in these is. This one, the Quest, has protein blend of milk protein isolate, whey protein isolate. Just those two, actually. So it’s milk and whey protein, all dairy.
Jamie Aranoff: And mine is, I believe, antibiotic-free chicken breast.
Adam Roy: That’s the first ingredient?
Jamie Aranoff: That is actually the first ingredient, so–
Adam Roy: If I ate meat, I would feel pretty good about that. That’s like actual, a real thing, not like a bunch of lab-created stuff.
Jamie Aranoff: So this, yeah, it’s chicken breast, and then there are some processed items like tapioca starch, pressed sunflower oil, egg whites, bone broth, so this is definitely going to be a more natural choice, but it is not vegetarian-approved.
Adam Roy: I’ll tell you, it looks like it, too. I don’t think there’s anything natural in this chip. Let’s get a close-up. Yes, this is like bright red dust.
Jamie Aranoff: Mine’s a little circle. All right, cheers.
Adam Roy: Cheers, let’s do it. So, shockingly, the texture isn’t bad on this. I was expecting the texture to be a little off, I guess.
Jamie Aranoff: Yeah.
Adam Roy: This is like crunchy and crispy.
Jamie Aranoff: Mine has, I think my– the issue is not with the texture of mine, but the flavoring. It is just– it just tastes like chicken and maple syrup.
Adam Roy: So I think I’ve been– oh, my goodness. Somewhere in a warehouse, there’s a bag labeled artificial hot and spicy flavoring that, you know, I think they poured it on these chips.
Jamie Aranoff: Can I try one?
Adam Roy: Yeah, you can try one.
Jamie Aranoff: I hate the color.
Adam Roy: This is like if you ever tried a Dorito and you were like, or a Hot Cheeto and you were like, “This tastes– this tastes too natural. I need something a little more lab-created. I want something that a mad scientist made to like– that like– that like the Joker is going to pour in Gotham’s water supply.” That’s what they put on these chips.
Jamie Aranoff: This has never seen nature.
Adam Roy: This has never seen nature.
Jamie Aranoff: And never will. I’m going to give these a 2.5 out of 10. The texture’s good. The ingredients are on the better side, but the flavor is very strange.
Adam Roy: Shockingly, going by the ingredients, these are more natural than you would think. Hot sauce is aged cayenne red peppers, vinegar, salt, garlic, cheddar cheese powder. So like, I think maybe what they need to do is like work on that flavoring blend a little bit.
Jamie Aranoff: Work on the coloring.
Adam Roy: Work on the coloring, too. I mean like, you know, the visual on something impacts how it tastes, too. I would give this– are we rating out of 5 or 10?
Jamie Aranoff: Yeah, 5.
Adam Roy: Out of 5? I’d give this a– I don’t know, I’d give this a 2. I can’t.
Jamie Aranoff: You’re eating it, though.
Adam Roy: I’m eating it. I’m– I’m a damaged person. I don’t know what to tell you. Give me food, I’ll eat it.
Genius Gourmet Sparkling Protein and SkyPop Protein Soda
Jamie Aranoff: Well, Adam, after those delicious chips, it’s time for a nice, cool, refreshing beverage. What do you have for us?
Adam Roy: I have SkyPop Protein Soda, root beer flavor. So it is made with whey protein isolate, they say natural flavors, fruit and vegetable juice for color, sucralose, and mushroom extract to protect quality. This is a protein soda, it’s got some whey protein in it.
Jamie Aranoff: And I have [Genius Gourmet] Sparkling Protein 30 grams of protein, zero sugar, and the main protein source is whey protein, but there’s also bovine collagen peptides, L-malic acid, and some citric acid, and a couple other things that probably you shouldn’t be consuming on a regular basis.
Adam Roy: Bovine peptides. Man, they sprung for this one. All right.
Jamie Aranoff: Cheers. Oh, my goodness.
Adam Roy: Oh, my god. How’s the smell?
Jamie Aranoff: It smells unnatural.
Adam Roy: This smells like root beer. It actually doesn’t smell too bad.
Jamie Aranoff: I am actually thrilled to report that this is not neon blue.
Adam Roy: This looks a little cloudier than I like my root beer to look. I’m going to hold it up to the camera here.
Jamie Aranoff: Yeah, I mean that looks also a little cloudy.
Adam Roy: So you can kind of tell that there’s something in here that’s inhibiting the clarity of it. It’s protein. All right, cheers. Let me smell it. I don’t like that.
Jamie Aranoff: Mine is really sweet.
Adam Roy: I do not like this.
Jamie Aranoff: Mine is– it tastes really sweet and really unnatural, not to say that a zero sugar blue raspberry lemonade would ever taste natural, but this is, not my favorite.
Adam Roy: This is not bad.
Jamie Aranoff: I don’t– I disagree with you.
Adam Roy: Mine has three times the amount of protein.
Jamie Aranoff: Yeah, you’re going to get swole by the end of this video. You’re going to be like ripped.
Adam Roy: This has root beer flavoring in it, I will give it that. The problem is I think the sweetener in it is giving me some off flavors. So the sweetener in here is sucralose, and that– some companies do a good job of masking that kind of artificial sweetener. This one did not. You can– you can taste that in it. It like dominates the flavor.
Jamie Aranoff: The texture is off, too. It’s like almost like sits in the back of your mouth for a second too long, which kind of like, I guess is that grainy protein texture?
Adam Roy: Yeah, you can definitely feel there’s a little bit of like a coating on your tongue when you drink it.
Jamie Aranoff: I’m going to personally give mine a 1.5 out of 5. If you are on a thru-hike or in the backcountry and desperate for protein, I do think that the 30 grams is a good amount to just get you through whatever you need to. I don’t think that this is a good thing you should normally be drinking, and the taste is not something I would return to.
Adam Roy: I can’t recommend it. This is 1 out of 5 for me. I think if I needed protein on a thru-hike and this was all I had, I’d probably kill and eat a lizard.
Legendary Cinnamon-Flavored Protein Sweet Roll
Adam Roy: Legendary Cinnamon-Flavored Protein Sweet Roll.
Jamie Aranoff: I’ve seen these actually pretty often in gas stations, and as a skier, this could be something you could easily stick in a pocket. I like that it’s individually wrapped. 20 grams of protein, 5 grams of carbs, so not the best balance if you do need that energy, but it is gluten-free, so that’s good.
Adam Roy: So I’ve– I actually have a confession to make, which is I fairly regularly eat these. I don’t know if I like them or not, but I do eat them. Not a tremendously appetizing-looking product, but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt because it is– but there’s not like a ton of coloring on the sides, you know, like–
Jamie Aranoff: Honestly, I prefer– you know what? You know what? That’s fair.
Adam Roy: That is– that’s pretty–
Jamie Aranoff: That’s pretty. We’re going to accept that. That looks like there might be real cinnamon in this.
Adam Roy: Okay. And what is the source?
Jamie Aranoff: What is the protein source? It is micellar casein and collagen peptides.
Adam Roy: Oh, you might have to eat this one.
Jamie Aranoff: Oh, no. Have you been eating these?
Adam Roy: I have been eating these.
Jamie Aranoff: Learn something new every day. All right, cheers. It is not– it is the probably my favorite thing I’ve tried so far. It’s the least offensive food. It by no means tastes natural. To me, this is just a different version of an ultra-processed bar. It’s just sort of, you know, instead of it being cinnamon-flavored, it looks like a cinnamon bun. I don’t ever think that this should be a replacement for real food, but I think that this is probably a good option if you do need fast protein and some carbs and have dietary restrictions.
Adam Roy: And I will give it this, it’s less dense than a protein bar, but it’s like dense enough that it’s probably not going to get crushed in your pocket. So it could work, you know? It could work for you. It’s not– it’s not totally offensive.
Jamie Aranoff: Yeah, I’m going to give this a– did I give anything a 3.5 yet? This is my 3.5. It’s not perfect, but it definitely is better than some of the other things we’ve tried.
Oroweat Honey Oat Protein Bread
Adam Roy: So here we have our last protein food here. This is Oroweat Honey Oat Protein Bread. How does bread become high protein? Well, the answer is you add in a protein blend of soy protein isolate, pea protein isolate, protein isolate from canola, whey protein concentrate, and it looks like wheat gluten, which, believe it or not, is actually a kind of protein.
Jamie Aranoff: Interesting. I can’t have gluten, so Adam’s going to take this one. You’re just going raw? Not going to toast it or anything?
Adam Roy: We don’t have a toaster here. The texture definitely out of the bag, the texture of this slice is definitely a little bit different. It’s not totally different, but you can feel the density compared to most sandwich bread. Like if you like–
Jamie Aranoff: But it actually could be good for the backcountry, because it’s going to stay a little bit more intact.
Adam Roy: Yeah, and you actually notice if you like squish this, it bounces back. That is a consequence of the high gluten in the bread. Tear a piece here and try it. This does have the initial bite of like a challah bread or a brioche. The problem is once you bite through challah bread or a brioche, it stays bitten, and this really bounces back. I like a chewy bread. This is beyond the chewy I like.
Jamie Aranoff: Would you use it, though, if you needed a lot of protein, on like a PB&J?
Adam Roy: I– I would. I would prefer not to, to be honest. I think given the choice, I would probably increase the protein in the filling and try it. This– this is fine. I wouldn’t– I wouldn’t say this is giving me what I want out of bread. I’m having to– I’m having to really work at this to chew it through. I mean, if you take a big bite of this, you’re really going to get a jaw workout. Yeah, that’s not terrible. I would give this a 3. It’s pretty gummy, honestly. I mean–
Jamie Aranoff: You’re still chewing that first piece.
Adam Roy: I am still– I’m still chewing the first piece. You’re going to like– you’re going to give your jaw a workout. You might have jaw muscles by the end of this.
Jamie Aranoff: So, Adam, what have we learned today?
Adam Roy: Well, we’ve learned, among other things, that texture is a big problem with protein-enriched foods, not an insurmountable one. Quest, these chips had a good texture. I’m not super sure about the flavor.
Jamie Aranoff: These also had a pretty good texture, also not sure about the flavor.
Adam Roy: It– it can be an issue if you’re trying to eat for enjoyment, though. Look at the bread here and we’ll look at my protein soda, which was like, left a little more of a coating in my mouth than I would have liked. But, Jamie, is there a reason to eat protein-enriched foods? I mean, for some people there must be, but for the general public?
Jamie Aranoff: Absolutely not. I think this just goes back to basic nutrition. The best ways to get protein are from natural sources or, you know, your animal proteins, your plant-based proteins, like your tofu or tempeh, and you probably do not need enriched protein. However, if you are really going out into the backcountry and in desperate need of protein and maybe can’t get those first sources, I wouldn’t go out and buy protein soda, but I do think getting it in other ways, perhaps your traditional protein bar or something like this, is probably going to set you up for success so you’re not going to bonk and you’re not going to go weak or anything like that.
Adam Roy: If you want to learn how nutrition can help you become better at your sport and live a healthier life, you can go to backpacker.com, skimag.com, outsideonline.com, or any of the other Outside Network sites where we’ve spoken with experts, including dietitians, about their views on how athletes should fuel. Until next time, I’m Backpacker Editor-in-Chief Adam Roy.
Jamie Aranoff: And I’m Senior Editor for SKI, Jamie Aranoff. Thanks for watching.
