Premier Protein Dark Chocolate Mint Bar: Nutrition & Labelgrade B- (70/100)

The short answer

Premier Protein’s Dark Chocolate Mint bar packs 30g of protein into a single 72g bar — about 41.7g of protein per 100g, the densest protein of any packaged food in our database (USDA FDC 2038520). That’s the whole reason this bar exists, and it earns a perfect A+ on protein density. The overall grade is B- (70/100), held back by the formulation that makes 30g in a chewy mint bar possible: soy protein isolate and whey, bound with palm kernel oil, sweetened with both sugar and sucralose. You’re buying protein quantity, not a clean label.

Why the B-

The grade is an honest split decision. Density carries it; sodium and saturated fat drag it down. There’s no data dishonesty in the formula — the bar genuinely delivers the 30g it advertises — but the engineering needed to hit that number in a soft, mint-chocolate texture (palm kernel oil for structure, gelatin for chew, sucralose to keep sugar in check) is exactly what costs it the ingredient, sat-fat, and sodium points.

What the “Dark Chocolate Mint” flavor actually is

There’s no chocolate shell and no peppermint oil on this label. The chocolate comes from cocoa processed with alkali — Dutched cocoa, listed mid-panel after the palm kernel oil — and the mint rides in on the natural and artificial flavors line. That matters for expectations: this isn’t a thin-mint or peppermint-patty experience built around a coating. The flavor is mixed into the dense protein matrix itself, so it reads as a chocolate-mint protein bar — sweet, fudgy, faintly cooling — rather than a candy. If you want a mint bar that tastes like dessert, this isn’t it; if you want 30g of protein that doesn’t taste like vanilla-again, it does its job.

The 30g comes at a density most foods can’t reach

To see why the A+ on protein density is the headline, put it next to plain chicken: cooked chicken breast is about 31g of protein per 100g, and that’s already a benchmark lean protein. This bar hits 41.7g per 100g — higher than chicken, in a shelf-stable form you eat in 60 seconds. That’s only possible because the protein is isolate, stripped of the water and fat that come with whole food. The same trick is what every high-protein bar uses; it’s also why the ingredient panel reads like a formulation rather than a recipe. The 30g is real and it’s portable — that’s the entire value proposition, and on that single axis nothing in a wrapper beats it by much.

The sodium and fat are the real cost, not the protein

If you only read the front of the package, this looks like a clean win. The back is where the B- comes from. Sodium is a D at 360mg per bar — that’s 500mg per 100g, a lot for a 72g object, and the kind of number that adds up fast if you eat one daily alongside other packaged food. Saturated fat is a C at 5g, almost entirely from the palm kernel oil that gives the bar its set, sliceable texture. Neither is a dealbreaker for an occasional protein hit, but both are reasons this is a supplement-style bar, not an everyday food. The sugar, at 10g, is actually the better-behaved of the trade-offs — sucralose lets Premier hold it to a B- rather than letting it climb.

How it compares

The comparison that matters is RXBAR, the whole-food alternative on the same shelf. Premier delivers 4× the protein per bar, but RXBAR scores higher overall (B+ 82) because its label is five real foods — dates, peanuts, egg whites, strawberries, natural flavor — with no isolate and no sucralose. Note both bars carry the same 10g of sugar; the difference is RXBAR’s is naturally occurring from dates, while Premier’s is added. For a portable 30g protein hit, Premier is hard to beat per unit. For ingredient simplicity, it loses to RXBAR outright. Isolate-based competitors like Quest and Barebells live in the same trade-off zone as Premier — high protein, engineered panel.

Ingredients

Premier Protein Bar protein blend (soy protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate), sugar, glycerin, hydrolyzed gelatin, palm kernel oil, water, cocoa (processed with alkali), inulin, natural and artificial flavors, and 2% or less of: soy lecithin (an emulsifier), tapioca starch, nonfat dry milk, corn syrup, high oleic sunflower oil, salt, and sucralose. (Verbatim from the USDA Branded Foods entry, FDC 2038520.)

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Scope: This page applies specifically to Premier Protein High Protein Bar — Dark Chocolate Mint (2.53 oz (72 g)) · UPC 643843000563. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.