If you caught last week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County, you probably noticed that a box of PureFit Nutrition Bars made its way onto the show. In a total surprise to those of us who work in the PureFit office, Real Housewives cast member Tamra Barney showed up at fellow cast member Lynne Curtin’s home with a bottle of wine and a box of Berry Almond Crunch PureFit Nutrition Bars:

Click on the image above or link below to watch a 30-second clip from the show featuring our bars:

PureFit and The Real Housewives of Orange County

As a result of the appearance, our office has been flooded with requests for PureFit Sample Kits. Always happy to oblige, we’ve shipped more PureFit Sample Kits since the episode aired than we did during the entire month of January.

On behalf of everyone here at PureFit, thanks, Tamra, for choosing to share our message with so many people. And for all you other  reality television show cast members, feel free to contact us for your very own supply of “As Seen on TV” nutrition bars!

Have you tried our newest flavor, Granola Crunch? If not, do yourself a favor and order it today from the PureFit store, or ask your local PureFit retailer when they’re going to start carrying it. Available for about three weeks now, PureFit Granola Crunch is already breaking every record we have for the launch of a new flavor.

Briefly… Granola Crunch had its coming out party at last week’s Surf City USA Marathon in Huntington Beach, California. To say it was a hit would be an understatement. Every single person who sampled the bar during the marathon’s Active Lifestyle Expo said it was the best tasting PureFit Bar they’d ever tried. So many people purchased boxes of the bars that we ran out well before the Expo ended on Saturday afternoon.

Early feedback from retailers, fitness clubs, personal trainers, and gyms across the country is the same… they can’t keep the bars in stock because customers are already coming back to buy up their remaining inventory.

For a small company like ours, it’s really gratifying to see people reacting so positively to our newest product. Years of planning go into the creation and launch of each new flavor, and with each new flavor we add to the line of award-winning bars, we strengthen our position as the number one selling wheat- and gluten-free sports nutrition bar available today.

If you’re unsure if you’ll like the new flavor, consider trying it out by ordering the PureFit Sample Kit, which includes one of each flavor, including Granola Crunch.

Image via Wikipedia

PureFit is humbled by the fact that so many grocery stores, gyms, and specialty retailers choose to carry and recommend our bars (over 2,500 at last count). Recently, larger chains have started to take notice, including Costco.

Costco is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world (based on sales volume), and the fifth largest general retailer here in the United States. As of today — June 1, 2009 — we are pleased to announce you can now find PureFit Nutrition Bars at the following Costco locations in Texas:

• Costco Austin: 10401 Research Blvd.; Austin, TX 78759
• Costco Arlington: 600 W. Arbrook; Arlington, TX 76014
• Costco Duncanville: 250 W. Hwy. 67; Duncanville, TX 75137
• Costco El Paso: 6101 Gateway Blvd., West Bldg 3; El Paso TX 79925
• Costco East Plano: 3800 N. Central Expressway; Plano, TX 75074
• Costco Ft. Worth: 5300 Overton Ridge Blvd; Ft. Worth, TX 76132
• Costco Houston: 3836 Richmond Ave.; Houston, TX 77027
• Costco Katy: 1150 Bunker Hill Road; Houston, TX 77055
• Costco Lewisville: 851 Highway 121; Lewisville, TX 75067
• Costco San Antonio: 5611 UTSA Blvd.; San Antonio, TX 78249
• Costco Selma: 15330 IH-35 North; Selma, TX 78154
• Costco Sonterra Park: 1201 N. FM 1604 E.; San Antonio, TX 78232
• Costco South Austin: 4301 W. William Cannon Dr.; Austin, TX 78749
• Costco Southlake: 2601 E. State Hwy. 114; Southlake, TX 76092
• Costco West Plano: 1701 Dallas Parkway; Plano, TX 75093
• Costco Willowbrook: 12405 North Gessner Rd.; Houston, TX 77064

Thanks to Costco and all of our Texas customers for supporting us.

Like many people I know, Florida triathlete Stacy Lane was looking for a healthy nutrition bar when she called our office to inquire about PureFit Nutrition Bars. A few weeks later, Stacy sent me the following message:

Hi Robb,

I wanted to let you know that I received the samples of your Pure Fit Bars and absolutely loved them. A review of your product has been posted on my blog. Thank you again for the samples and for putting such a great product on the market. I will definitely be a loyal customer.

Have a great day!

Stacy Lane

The only thing better than receiving a letter like that is reading the review Stacy posted on her blog:

I have been meaning to tell you guys about the Pure Fit Bars I tried the other day. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the bars because someone (ahem…my hubby) deleted them off of the camera. The bars are all long gone now so just imagine a protein bar in a white wrapper and the words Pure Fit.

Robb over at Pure Fit sent me a sample package of the bars and they were absolutely amazing! I received four of the bars and I enlisted my sexy man and a couple of friends to help with the taste testing. Pure Fit Bars contain NO dairy, wheat, gluten, artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated oils or trans fat and it was recently named “Nutrition Bar of the Year” by Bike magazine. The texture of the Pure Fit Bars are very similar to a Jay Robb protein bar and the taste is excellent. Let me share with you what one of my review helpers thought:

“I tried the Berry Almond Crunch Pure Fit bar. Now, I am not normally a berry bar head but as I kept on chewing, the taste surpassed my preconceived thoughts. This bar leaves a nice berry taste in your mouth even after you swallow…the berry flavor lingers. I love that this bar has 18 grams of protein and it is very filling and satisfying.”

My other reviewers were just as impressed with these bars and gave it rave reviews. They all asked where they could pick up more of these bars. I have seen these bars at various grocery stores in my area and they also sell them at my gym. I am sure if you look around your local natural foods store you will find them. However, the Pure Fit bars are also available online at http://www.purefit.com. Check them out because they are delicious!

Thanks, Stacy, for trying our bars and writing that review. To learn more about her quest to someday capture the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, visit Stacy’s blog: Eating to Live Love Laugh Tri.

For anyone wondering, unlike some other companies nutrition bars, PureFit Nutrition Bars—which come in four 100% all-natural and wheat- and gluten-free flavors (including Peanut Butter Crunch)—are NOT affected by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent warning about peanut butter.

Background: Recently, the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA)—a peanut processing company and maker of peanut butter for bulk distribution to institutions, food service industries, and private label food companies—in coordination with the FDA, announced a recall of peanut butter produced in its Blakely, Georgia, processing facility because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

While Clif Bar & Company today announced the recall of some of its bars (including: Clif Bar Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch, Clif Bar Crunchy Peanut Butter, Clif Bar Peanut Toffee Buzz, ZBaR Peanut Butter, Clif Builders Peanut Butter, Luna Nutz over Chocolate, Luna Peanut Butter Cookie, and all Clif Mojo Bars), PureFit Nutrition Bars are safe!

PureFit Bars are Safe: PureFit, working cooperatively with the California Department of Public Health and the FDA, has determined that NONE of our products contain any of the suspect lots of recalled peanut butter. In fact, we micro-test every batch of bars before they are released from our manufacturing facility, and in seven-plus years of manufacturing, we have never had a test come back positive for ANYTHING (anything that is besides being the best darn wheat-, gluten-, and dairy-free nutrition bar on the market).

PureFit remains fully committed to the continued testing and monitoring of the quality and freshness of our award-winning nutrition bars. If you have any questions about PureFit Nutrition Bars and the current FDA warning about Salmonella, please contact our office or leave a comment here on the blog. For more information on the salmonella bacteria and the peanut butter recall, please visit the FDA’s Website at http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html#news.

Robb Dorf, Founder & CEO
PureFit Nutrition Bars

Until recently, if you tried to find a PureFit Nutrition Bar north of the border, you were pretty much out of luck. While a lot of Canadian orders were processed through our website and over the phone, you’d have been hard-pressed to find one of our delicious and award-winning bars on the shelves of stores in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary or even Edmonton.

But thanks to a new distribution agreement with Puresource, Canada’s leading natural health products wholesaler and distributor, our retail customers to the north—who just so happen to occupy the largest country in the Western Hemisphere—now have a stable and enthusiastic means of acquiring our bars right in the own back yards (well, relatively speaking… Canada does have some big back yards).

Since its humble beginnings in 1989, Puresource has built a solid infrastructure of talented staff and loyal retail customers. Over time, they’ve become the leading full-service natural product distributor in Canada, with massive distribution centers in Calgary, Montreal and Guelph.

So, the next time you’re jonesin’ for tasty wheat- and gluten-free Nutrition Bars in Canada, don’t be too surprised if you find a PureFit Bar at your local supermarket! And if by chance you don’t, leave a comment here and be sure to include the names of the retail outlets where you’d like to see our bars sold.

For some people, the cost of doing business is being on the road more days than not. If air travel is your business partner, than you are all too aware of the less-than-savory options when it comes to in-flight meals. You also are probably sick of paying five-star restaurant prices for airport fast food.

Do know what I’m talking about? If you answer yes, than consider this: A box of great tasting PureFit bars is smaller than your laptop and weighs less than a soft cover airport novel. Yet inside that package is a virtual survival kit for travelers. All natural, high protein bars are just what the travel doctor ordered when you are on the road, and we’ve got them now in Berry Almond Crunch!

Fifteen bars of travel-ready nutrition come in each box, enough to hold you over on your next business trip for sure. Lest you become over-indulged with one flavor, may I suggest you buy five boxes in an assortment of flavors, and I’ll throw in a sixth box free? That’s 90 wheat and gluten free bars—that should get you across the country a few times. Just go to the online PureFit store now, and start arriving at the other end of your business trip energized and ready for anything. Happy traveling!