Not being one to regularly eat protein bars, I never gave the Clif Builder’s Protein Bar a second glance until a reader wrote in asking for my opinion of it. Somehow Clif Bar read my mind, because not long after, they sent me a couple of these protein bars to sample!

I’ll start by saying the original Clif Bar was the best tasting energy bar I could get as a kid. These days, good tasting energy bars are more common, but Clif is still up in the top ranks. If the Builder’s Bar lives up to its brethren, I’d consider it a success!

So let’s see what this protein bar is all about…

Ingredients and Nutrition Facts

We can start off looking at the ingredients:

[Chocolate Mint] Ingredients: Soy Protein Isolate, Beet Juice Concentrate, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Palm Kernel Oil, Unsweetened Chocolate, Organic Rolled Oats, Cocoa, Organic Soy Protein Concentrate, Organic Sunflower Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Natural Flavors, Organic Dry Roasted Almonds, Rice Starch, Evaporated Cane Juice, Inulin (Chicory Extract), Cocoa Butter, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Organic Oat Fiber, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Red Cabbage Color.

This bar has quite a few ingredients, but for the most part, they are all natural. Few energy bars could be considered more natural or less processed. As with most bars, this isn’t something I’d want to be eating every single day, but nothing scares me off.

Some people might be scared off due to the soy protein, which has gotten some bad press lately, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. (Unless you’re eating these for each meal of the day, every day, and plan to keep that up for years to come.)

Next, the nutrition facts…

Nutrition Facts:

Serving size: 1 bar
Calories 270
Fat 8g
Sodium 230mg
Potassium 200mg
Total Carbs 31g
Dietary Fiber 4g
Sugars 20g
Protein 20g

By the looks of things, we have a fairly balanced bar, pretty high in calories, with a nice mix of protein, carbs, and fat. You get your carbs to refuel your glycogen stores and protein to help rebuild muscles after a workout.

For during your workouts, I’d stick with regular Clif Bars, but the Builder’s Bar could be used for post-ride recovery or even a quick breakfast when you’re super low on time.

Clif rates this bar as “Low Glycemic.” That’s good if you will be eating this bar as a snack.

Clif Builder’s Taste Test

Here is my taste test:

Chocolate Mint

Wow! This smells like Thin Mints cookies from the girl scouts! The taste and texture… are very similar too!

A lot of bars try to pull off this flavor, and they get the scent, and sometimes even the taste. But hardly ever do they get the texture right. Clif Bar did!

It’s a soft bar with crunchy mint cookie bits in it. Kind of like a 3 Musketeers bar maybe, crossed with your standard protein bar (which differs in texture from a typical high-carb, low-protein energy bar.) Basically, this is a really good tasting bar!

Chocolate Chip

A new flavor for 2012, I actually like this one, despite not normally liking chocolate chip bars. This reminds me of some dessert where you make a chocolate chip cookie in a pan (like brownies,) since it has that moist texture and is simply thicker than a normal chocolate chip cookie.

Peanut Butter

Smells kind of like a Reeses peanut butter cup. It doesn’t really taste like a Reeses, but it does remind me of some sort of candy bar. It would be a little bland for a candy bar, but it’s very nice for a protein bar. It’s plenty sweet for my tastes.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It’s a nice chocolate and peanut butter flavor that tastes good, and the texture is nice too – nice and chewy! It was cohesive too, like it was meant to just blend together perfectly.

Crunchy Peanut Butter

A new flavor for 2012, this is a crunchy bar with a sweet peanut butter taste. It’s like peanut butter candy.

Definitely a change from the regular Peanut Butter Builder’s bar – this one is sweeter and it’s pure peanut butter, with no chocolate coating.

Cookies ‘N Cream

Normally a cookies ‘n cream would be my favorite flavor, but I was kind of disappointed with this. Since I loved the other Builder’s Bars, I had high expectations here, and the flavor just wasn’t robust enough.

It’s not a bad flavor, just nowhere near as good as the others.

S’Mores

Another new one for 2012 here…

I love s’mores, but I can’t recall any energy bars that actually pull off the true s’mores flavor. Well, this bar can’t deliver the whole s’mores experience, but it tastes pretty darn good for an energy bar!

This has the potential to become one of my favorite Builder’s bars!

Lemon

After tasting the amazingness of the mint chocolate and peanut butter flavors, I saw a lemon one on the store shelf and had to grab it. Could Clif keep up the amazing flavors? Let’s see…

Well, the lemon flavor is about what I expected. Similar to every other lemon flavored bar out there. I’d rate this flavor “so so.” I’d eat one again if I had to, but I’d never buy one again, nor recommend it (especially after sampling the other flavors.)

Basically, you can’t capture a good lemon flavor in an energy bar like this. And this isn’t sweet like lemon meringue pie. So there’s nothing going for it.

Even the texture was not quite as nice as Mint Chocolate or Peanut Butter. The bottom was crunchier and the top was chewier, which just made things odd rather than cohesive.

In Use

I use this bar either as a meal replacement or post-ride snack, rather than eating it during bike rides, so it doesn’t get tested as hard. But there are a couple things to mention.

First, it takes a while to eat this bar! That’s bad for on-bike fuel, but rather pleasant when you’re talking about post-ride snacks!

Second, I feel satiated (satisfied) after eating this bar. I found this bar much more satisfying than the smaller Clif Kid Zbar I tried the other day, and it’s noticeably more filling than typical energy bars in the 200-250 calorie range.

There may be some 400 calorie bars that are more filling than this, but sometimes those are like a rock in your stomach, so I’m plenty happy with the Builder’s Bar.

My final verdict is…

If you get the right flavor ( I know mint chocolate and peanut butter are good,) this is an awesome bar with great taste and texture! It now ranks as my favorite protein bar!

The Clif Builder’s Bar is satisfying to eat and keeps me pretty satiated. I really like this as a convenient protein bar if you need one for a quick snack, meal replacement, or post-ride fuel.

Official website: www.ClifBar.com

Buy online: www.Amazon.com

Kashi’s GO LEAN line of products seems to be never-ending. The latest addition to my Kashi shelf has been this Kashi Chewy Bar, also labeled a High Protein & Fiber Bar.

I like my protein and fiber, although that’s not really why I was excited about this bar; it was the cookies ‘n cream flavor that did it for me! Hopefully it tastes as good as Oreos

But if not, there are still health benefits to fall back on. This “all natural” 290 calorie bar (yeah, it could probably function as a meal replacement bar for dieters) is packed with 13g protein and 6g fiber.

But as I said, I’m more concerned with taste right now. Unfortunately, biting into this gave me nothing more than a bland taste of chocolate and filler. It’s thick and chewy so it does feel like you’re eating something substantial, but the flavor is just too bland and mediocre.

This Kashi GO LEAN protein bar is nowhere near as good as the Met RX protein bar which comes in a scrumptious cookies and cream flavor. That bar is actually a treat!

But this Kashi bar wasn’t a total disappointment. The taste is not actually bad, but it’s just good enough to make them edible.

Considering how I purchased these at a Big Lots department store for about 30 cents each, I can’t complain. I mean, 1/10 of a cent per calorie is a good deal! Even though they aren’t that tasty, I stocked up on an a fairly large supply because they’re still convenient and fairly healthy.

My final verdict is…

The only reason I got these is because they were cheap. At full retail price, I’d never buy these. They’re fairly healthy and everything, but 13g protein really isn’t that much, and they taste like crap.

There are far better tasting options, and most protein bars have 25-35g protein, so choose one of those instead. (Or, if you’re looking for a regular bar from Kashi, try something like the Kashi TLC crunchy bar.)

Official website: kashi.com (Cookies ‘n Cream page)

Are you fed up with paying $2 or more for a protein bar? I sure am, which is why I’ve been making my own energy bars and protein bars for the past five or six years. The recipe changes each time, but (with the help of my mother) I think I found something I can enjoy eating for a long time.

Without further ado, here is our recipe for a maple walnut flavor protein bar:

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups Oat Flour (How to make your own oat flour.)
• 1 cup Honey
• 1 cup Plain Yogurt
• 3 scoops Protein Powder (1 scoop is 28g)
• 2 tbsp Maple Flavor
• 1/4 cup Organic Cane Sugar (optional)
• 1 cup Ground Flax Seed (Gold or Brown)
• 1 cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans

1. Warm the Honey and Maple Flavor.

Warm Honey and Maple Flavor together, either on stove or in microwave. (Now is the time to add the sugar if desired.)

2. Stir in Yogurt.

Add the yogurt to the mix and stir it in.

3. Mix in dry ingredients.

Add Oat Flour, Flax Seed, Protein Powder, and walnuts. Stir.

If the mix seems too wet and sticky, add more Oat Flour.

4. Prep the pan.

Spray a 13″ x 9″ baking pan with non-stick spray. Then sprinkle on a little Oat Flour.

5. Pour mix in pan.

Drop the mix into pan and spread out the best you can. It should be stiff.

6. Smooth out the mix.

Finish pressing flat and smooth with wax paper sprayed with non stick spray. You can sprinkle some Oat Flour on the top also.

(The oat flour on the top and bottom of the bars will prevent them from sticking to your fingers.)

The easiest way to smooth this out is to spray your hands with non-stick spray and then press it down; the wax paper method is used if you don’t want to get your hands messy, or if you don’t want your greasy bike mechanic hands to contaminate the food.

Pressing down with your hand will give you a smoother top, though.

7. Cool bars.

Place pan in freezer for at least 3 to 4 hours before cutting. You can leave it overnight, but you may have to let it sit a while before cutting if it gets too cold.

8. Cut bars.

Cut the bars to whatever size you prefer using a butter knife. You could do bars or bite-size chunks. I like the bites. (Speaking of bites, these tasted quite a bit like the maple walnut flavor of Simbree Energy Bites, but these were more moist/wet.)

The finished product:

Mmm mmm, they’re really good! Let’s eat!

There’s no shortage of energy bars these days, but with the way some of them taste, I always welcome new varieties. So I was happy to give a warm welcome to the big sample pack of Detour energy bars I got a couple weeks ago. (Because 1, they were free, and 2, they are supposed to taste like candy bars.)

That’s the pile of them on the left, and there are two of each flavor, consisting of chocolate peanut butter, chocolate chip cookie, lemon yogurt, dark chocolate raspberry, and more!

But it doesn’t stop there. Along with the flavors, you get to choose from Biker, Runner, and Core Strength formulations. The bars are similar but each has a few special ingredients based on your chosen activity.

Let’s take a look at the individual bars…

Detour Runner Bar

The Biker and Runner bars are quite similar in taste and ingredients, but the Runner bar contains MicroLactin, which has been found to improve joint health and function. Any runner knows about sore joints from constant pounding, so I think the MicroLactin is a great idea.

Ingredients vary by flavor, but the main ingredients are whey protein crisps (whey protein concentrate and rice flour.) Then you might find fructose, corn syrup solids, corn syrup, and/or sugar for the sweetener. Then you hit the other stuff, like palm kernel oil, partially defatted peanut flour, inulin, and other stuff.

I can’t give you a detailed examination of those ingredients, but I will say that Detour went out of their way to find odd ingredients!

That will all add up to about 200 calories, 25g of carbs, and 12g of protein per bar.

Detour Biker Bar

The Biker Bar is very similar to the Runner Bar in taste and ingredients, but instead of MicroLactin, the Biker Bar is made with Rhodiola to help improve muscle stamina and recovery. It is also claimed to help speed cardiovascular and muscle recovery-time after you ride. I thought that was pretty cool, too, because I’ve written about Rhodiola Rosea before.

And with the main ingredient still being whey protein crisps, you’re getting about 200 calories, 25-30g carbohydrates, and 12g protein in each bar.

Detour Core Strength Bar

Here’s where things change… the Detour Core Strength bar. The taste and consistency is quite a bit different from the Biker and Runner bars. It’s made with a greater variety of protein for a total of 15g protein in each bar, and it contains ribose for the maintenance of ATP. (Anyone who remembers high school chemistry class should know that ribose is a big part of our DNA and RNA, and that ATP is a primary energy source for your body.)

Unfortunately, you pay a price for all these muscle-building and recovery benefits, and that’s in the taste. The Core Strength bars have kind of the ‘standard protein bar’ taste. They’re not bad, they just aren’t good.

Now let’s do a taste test…

The Taste Test

The first one I tried was a chocolate peanut butter flavor and it was awesome and amazing! It was just like eating a Butterfinger candy bar!

Next up was a caramel peanut Core Strength bar, but it was a little bland though. It was also kind of chewy and reminded me of a Tiger’s Milk energy bar with a little less flavor. Edible, but not great.

So I went back to the Biker bars and tried raspberry dark chocolate – the texture was consistent with the looks, which is like a chewy granola bar full of rice crisps. It was a good texture, but the taste was better – just like I opened up a box of chocolates with raspberry filling. Seriously! (Since I got these around Christmas, I was able to do the exact comparison!)

Chocolate chip cookie. This has the oats/granola/rice crisps taste and texture, with chocolate chips, giving it the essence of a chocolate chip cookie. It’s certainly not the same as eating a fresh chocolate chip cookie, but the taste is still pretty good. (Definitely better than most other bars that have a chocolate chip cookie flavor.)

Toffee almond – As expected, this bar tasted quite a bit like a Heath candy bar (the English toffee one.) The consistency was like a granola bar, but it had that great flavor. It’s some good stuff, especially with the almonds in there.

Chocolate caramel – This is another Core Strength bar. This one looks like a 3 Musketeers bar on the inside… however, it still has that bland taste, and it’s kind of hard to bite into. But at least this time it has some of that fluffy chocolate flavor like a 3 Musketeers would.

Last but not least – lemon yogurt. This has a nice lemon taste and reminds me of a Powerbar Pria bar, based on the texture and yogurt coating. It’s great if you aren’t a fan of chocolate.

My final verdict is…

The “Biker” and “Runner” bars taste great in most every flavor. I guess I’d compare them to Clif bars, although they are more like a chewy granola bar with the taste of a candy bar.

I plan to keep eating these, possibly replacing Clif bars with them (at least to get more variety.) However, I’ll stick with Powerbars for on-bike use. Why? These Detour bars have a chocolate coating on at least one side, and that will melt in your jersey pocket, and then you’re peeling back a wrapper with melted chocolate all over the place. It gets on your gloves, handlebar tape, etc, and it’s not pretty.

But as far as taste goes, this is one of the best bars you can buy!

I’m certainly not a fan of the “core strength” bars though. While they don’t taste terrible, they’re not very good, and I’ve had some good protein bars.

Company website: www.detourbar.com

Where to buy: www.amazon.com