If I had a truly sophisticated palate and open mind I wouldn’t even blink when I read that there was cricket flour in my granola bar. But I am unrefined and simple. The idea of a cricket bar makes me simultaneously concerned and curious. For some reason I feel like “slow roasted and milled crickets” could be good.
Called Exo, there are a lot of claims surrounding these protein bars: cricket flour has more protein by dry weight than beef, one bar has 10g of high quality protein, and perhaps most importantly, crickets are a sustainable source of protein with a low environmental impact. Mix in some raw cacao, dates, almond butter and coconut and this sounds like a winner. And so far on Kickstarter it has been. Exo exceeded its $US20,000 goal in three days.
TechCrunch sampled early prototypes and said they were crumbly and crunchy, maybe not sweet enough, but good overall. And most importantly, they couldn’t taste the cricket. I think I would be too intrigued to let cricket bars pass me by, so maybe they’re a green way to make people more cosmopolitan. [TechCrunch]