The Great Clif Bar Showdown

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
For the past few weeks I've been mixing and matching different Clif Bars in an attempt to figure out which ones do the trick on my long rides. I've been taking food with me since Ben got it in my head that I needed to focus more on fun and fitness and consequently dropping pounds. Ironically, one of the "more is less" things I've gotten out of this is that I needed to eat more on the bike to go longer, which ultimately leads to less of me. So far it's working.

Anyway, I currently have 10 flavors with another 8 on the way. I've been putting them through the paces on some rides over the past few weeks and have come up with this order:

1. Cool Mint Chocolate
2. Crunchy Peanut Butter
3. Black Cherry Almond
6. Blueberry Crisp
5. Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch
6. Carrot Cake
7. Peanut Toffee Buzz
8. Chocolate Chip
9. Chocolate Brownie

Unranked: Iced Gingerbread (just got these last night)

Those are the preliminary seedings for my Great Clif Bar Showdown. I don't have a set way in which I'll pit them against each other, so it will be a sort of on-the-fly mix & match as I feel like doing it thing. I'm also looking to come up with the best 2 bar combo and 3 bar combo.

Hopefully this will be somewhat entertaining to someone. Feel free to shout out your opinions, or to put together a little pool on the side to see which one takes the top spot.

I should also mention that before I ride I cut the bars up into 6 pieces, about 40 calories each, and throw them into my jersey pocket so that I can easily grab them on the fly. It also means I don't know exactly which one I'll get when it's time to eat, which I generally do every 15 minutes in the colder weather, a little longer in the warmer weather.

For the sake of completeness, these are the 8 which have not arrived yet:

Apricot
Banana Nut Bread
Chocolate Almond Fudge
Cranberry Apple Cherry
Maple Nut
Oatmeal Raisin Walnut
Pear Apple Strudel
Spiced Pumpkin Pie

There ya go, the Showdown is on.
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
I used to be addicted to the peanut butter Clif bars back in the day when I could eat them :cry:
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
i like the blueberry crisp. it's the only one of those i'll actually eat. although that pear-apple thing sounds decent too.
 

walter

Fourth Party
I stick with the staples, peanut butter crunch, choco. chip something or other and the oatmeal one. Mainly because these are usually the only ones Wawa carries. Im curious to see how some of them taste.

Chow down Skinny!!
 

VanDbtRiver

Well-Known Member
stop n shop has the holiday flavors in stock. picked up a box each of punkin pie and pear apple strudel, have not torn into them yet because of the 6er of nevada celebration ale chillin on the porch. i like carrot cake and blueberry crisp flavors but be warned to chew them softly. ive bit into them on occasion and nearly broke my teeth on some gnarly fiberous granola chunk thing.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I find that the taste of all of these changes significantly as the ride gets longer. Most anything works for an hour. After that things start to change. I find the 2.5-3 hour mark is where they really start to break down, or not. I've taken these up through almost 4.5 hours so far and they do the trick, along with 2 Accel Gels and 3 bottles of Accelerade. Beyond that, or in the summer, I have no idea.
 
G

Greenman

Guest
My fav out of those in order.

Chocolate Brownie
Chocolate Almond Fudge
Black Cherry Almond
Cranberry Apple Cherry
Blueberry Crisp

I want to try that Pear Apple Strudel though.
 

J-7

Active Member
I once found a lemon-poppy Clif Bar, but haven't seen it since. It was just O.K. but it's my favorite because I'm a sucker for anything lemon.
 

743power

Shop: Bicycle Pro
Shop Keep
the pear apple struedel is sooooo good. I eat clif bars everyday and that's my favorite flavor ever.
 

ArmyOfNone

Well-Known Member
Cool Mint and black cherry are at the top of my list. You may find the gingerbread to have similar flavor to the carrot cake. At least that was my experience. Which is good bc I like carrot cake! :D
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Round 1

Nov 14, 2008. 4 hours, 61 miles (no GPS link, didn't turn it on)

A competition between 3 of the classics. The seedings as follows:

1. Crunchy Peanut Butter
2. Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch
3. Chocolate Chip

The temps were warmer on this day which changes the taste of the bars a little bit. The colder temps will tend to lessen the chocolate flavor and the warmer temps will make them softer and chewier, more chocolatey goodness (WTF?), in general. In theory at least.

No matter though, the Chocolate Chip still managed to be the least appealing of the 3, serving only as "a necessary filler" if you will. Not bad, better than passable. But when you get up over that 3 hour mark you tend to need a little more than passable. You want appealing.

On the other 2 I have to admit I couldn't tell the difference by the end. Like the straight Chocolate Chip bar, the chips were more or less non-existent in the taste and these 2 bars were hard to tell apart. The straight Crunchy Peanut Butter may have been a tad more flavorful. Both were good, but neither excellent. They remind me a little bit of Cap'n Crunch, same sorta flavor there. Enjoyable, all in all.

This mix was pretty good but having 2 peanut butter-based bars over 4 hours didn't give me enough variety. I can live with the Chocolate Chip as a filler, the John Paxson of the Chicago Clif Bar Bulls. And the Crunchy Peanut Butter does a good job as either the Jordan or Pippen role. But I need something different with the 3rd bar, maybe a Cool Mint Chocolate or a Blueberry Crisp.

In all, the end seedings stay the same but 2 becomes more of a 1a:

1. Crunchy Peanut Butter
1a. Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch
3. Chocolate Chip

capn.jpg
 
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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Got another shipment today. Now the collection is complete and ready to go:

3044918704_2253b87468.jpg
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Got another shipment today. Now the collection is complete and ready to go:

3044918704_2253b87468.jpg

ok norm, wtf is going on? first you drop $110 at the liquor store on beer now you're cornering the clif bar market? not to mention you've used the words "fun" and "ride" in the same sentence like, i don't know, 25 times in the past week? and...

...oh sh!t.

you found out at work the world is ending.

i have dibs on the chex mix.
 

walter

Fourth Party
ok norm, wtf is going on? first you drop $110 at the liquor store on beer now you're cornering the clif bar market? not to mention you've used the words "fun" and "ride" in the same sentence like, i don't know, 25 times in the past week? and...

...oh sh!t.

you found out at work the world is ending.

i have dibs on the chex mix.


notice the beers in the back ground
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
i sure as sh!t did. that's how i put this whole little game together. it's the only thing that makes sense. i mean think about it: norm is drinking beer. he appears happy. he's having fun on a bike. this is not freaking normal.
 
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