ERG! Choco-Cherry Bar

Tastemaker

By Lynda Wheatley | Oct. 30, 2021

Whether you’re an endurance athlete or an unapologetically lazy person when it comes to packing yourself a lunch, you either know — or should get to know — ERG! Bars. The calorie-dense, pocket-sized bars are cold-pressed, minimally processed bars are worlds apart from the gooey, chewy mass-produced bricks you’re used to.

That might be because they’re made right here in our backyard, using simple ingredients that you can spell, like apples, cherries, dates, and blueberries. Bonus: ERG! doesn’t use any corn syrup or processed sugars — only honey made by Sleeping Bear Farms’ bees.

As for the taste, let’s say it’s like comparing apples to paste. ERG!’s 12 inspired flavor combos — Apple Ginger, Apricot P’Butter, Sunflower Fig, and Lemon Blueberry among them — are actually as good as they sound and, we suspect, will go even farther under the new ownership and imagination of world traveler Matt Dykema. The Great Lakes Culinary Institute grad, whose resume boasts some of NoMi’s top kitchens (The Boathouse, Lulu's, The Good Bowl, 9 Bean Rows, The Cook's House … ), recently purchased ERG! from visionary founders Dennis and Katy Bean-Larson.

While we anxiously await whatever he dreams up next, we plan to sate ourselves for the long haul with our hands-down favorite: the ERG! Choco-Cherry bar. PMS- and picky-toddler approved, this lazy lunch tastes like dessert. Decadent and delish. Find one at your favorite local market or coffee shop (Leland Mercantile, Buritts, Anderson's Market, Oryana, Tom's, Olesons, and Cuppa Joe are just a few) or go full bore with a variety pack of 12 bars at www.erg–bar.com.