Elysium Industries was founded in late 2014, by Matthew W. Shelley, a veteran of Marine Force Recon. It is a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business located in the foothills of Colorado Springs, CO.

The idea for Matt’s bar came after he regularly found himself miles from anywhere, and he needed something substantial to fill his belly. Enter the Elysium Adventure Bar. As an avid explorer and amateur photographer, Matt has a passion for the outdoors.

He also realized, while working on his post-bacc premedical studies and employed as an EMT in a local Emergency Department, that he was less enthused about becoming a medical doctor and wanted to impact the active-lifestyle communities differently.

As a veteran of the Special Operations community he knew what it took to train well, focus smartly and eat right in order to succeed when he was mentally and physically challenged. His experience as a Force Recon Marine, his education in the health and medical fields, and his passion for helping develop people have healthful, active lifestyles gave birth to Elysium Bars.

Matthew put his energy and focus into creating homemade, natural-food bars.

His company is focused on making an energy bar specifically for low to moderate intensity activities.  Different activities put different metabolic demands on the body and I have found it refreshing that a few companies have started chasing the true endurance market by making products with longer burning fuels sources instead of loading them with the traditional carbs (sugar) popular in most energy products.

Elysium Bar gets all the important stuff right with natural REAL ingredients and very little processing.  It uses egg white to provide a complete amino-acid profile to help build and repair muscles and keeps sugar levels low which provides relief from slowly rising cortisol levels.

I found this very helpful with some stomach issues I have during longer runs. The lower sugar levels also allow your body to use fat as the main source of energy also very helpful in the long run as your body stores almost unlimited amounts of fat to burn as energy, and only minimal stores of carbs.

Performance wise this bar performs like it says.  I used it for a couple long runs and had no stomach issues and a very even energy output. It is quite filling which is also a positive for those real long days on the trail and does not melt in the heat.

On the trivial side it was a little chewier than I prefer especially during activity but not a big deal especially since it is designed for the low to moderate intensity activities where you shouldn’t be working too hard anyway. Also I was not a huge fan of the flavor.  To be fair it does openly state in their mission statement that this bar is not overly sweet, which I am fine with, the truth is I really do not like any chocolate flavored energy products.  While this is not a deal breaker I would love to see another flavor created.

Overall I found Elysium Bar to be a great product that is very progressive in chasing a corner of the market that I feel is underrepresented.  If you are looking for a product specifically designed for your low to moderate intensity activities, it is definitely worth a shot as it does a great job of filling you up and providing an even long-lasting energy output.  Due to the texture and taste this is probably not a product I would actively seek out but if it found its way onto the shelf at my local outdoor or running shop It would definitely go in the cart.

PB Dark Chocolate Adventure Bar