Customized Nutrition from You Bars March 3

The mass-customization movement is not restricted to product design. Even the food and beverage industry has seen this shift. My main focus for this month is on innovative, new companies setting out to create one-of-kind foods and flavors.

youbar2

Started by a mother and son in Los Angeles, YouBar has been making batches of custom order nutrition bars for over two years. From the YouBar website, you can build your own nutrition bar in ten steps.

You start by choosing a healthy butter base. I decide to go with Almond. (It’s good for my dosha.) Then you select up to three protein powders. I’m 95lbs of not-much-muscle so I’m going all the way with rice, soy, and milk. Next are the nuts and seeds. I don’t like crunch so I’m leaving that blank.

youbar3

As you mix your ingredients, a nutrition facts box updates on your screen. Moving on to fruit, I pick the organic cherries and shredded coconut. I go with clover honey as my sweetener and throw in some cacao nibs as my seasonings. Clearly I’m trying to make this health bar as dessert like as possible.

I finish things up with some oat bran and an All-One Vitamin infusion. I name my YouBar ‘Kristelicious’ and I’m done. But how do I know it will actually be good? YouBar has a little Taste Tester button that reviews your ingredients and makes suggestions for optimizing the flavor and texture of your bar. One box of my bespoke bars costs about $40.

youbar4And if I haven’t sold you, surely these guys can—Hercules eats them! Customize your own nutrition at YouBar.

Posted in Kristen Turner, Mass Customization by Kristen Turner | Comments are off for this post

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7 Responses to “Customized Nutrition from You Bars”

  1. Jon Says:
    March 3rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    I make my own for a fraction of the price… 40$ is mighty expensive but I do see an opportunity in this for health sites to resell “custom products” to their customers though.

    Jon
    http://WoodMarvels.com – Create Unique Memories

  2. Ruth Howard Says:
    March 4th, 2009 at 1:16 am

    Hi I have an educational Food Technology Blog I’d love to use the above ingredients image- in reference to this product idea. How can I get non commercial copyright permission thanks Ruth

  3. Kristen Says:
    March 4th, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    Hi Ruth,
    Each individual ingredient image is at the YouBar website. I just grouped them all together. Go ahead and take it.

    ::Kristen

  4. Linda Says:
    March 5th, 2009 at 2:36 am

    What happened? I love this blog for the deliciously rich assortment of fabulous product design ideas and those that are related to Ponoko’s laser-cutting services. Is Ponoko now somehow involved with food and flavor production?

  5. Kristen Says:
    March 5th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    There will still be plenty of product designs, but the blog isn’t restricted to what’s possible with Ponoko’s services. My articles for the blog attempt to give a wide perspective on anything related to the post-industrial movement. Whether that’s open-source communities, new modes of production, crowd-sourced content, or custom nutrition bars.

    But don’t fear, it will mostly be design.

  6. Linda Says:
    March 5th, 2009 at 9:25 pm

    Thanks for the reply. As long as I know more design is coming, I’ll stick around. And you never know: maybe I’ll find a new passion.

  7. Build an Element Bar « Ponoko – Blog Says:
    February 14th, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    [...] Build a Bar interface is a little different than previously mentioned You Bars; instead of checking the ingredients you drag and drop them. As you build your protein bar, a power [...]