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ClifBar Review

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clifbar energy bar review
ClifBar
Credit: ClifBar
Price:  $15 List
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Manufacturer:   ClifBar
By Chris McNamara ⋅ Founder and Editor-in-Chief  ⋅  Aug 28, 2012

Our Verdict

Best Buy Meal Replacement Bar Award goes to CLIFBAR!
REASONS TO BUY
Good crunch
Tasty
Organic whole barley
Oats
And rye flakes. A bit sweet and oily in taste tests
REASONS TO AVOID
Sweet and oily in taste tests

$1.50 buys you a 70% organic meal in a bar in twenty flavors with ~ 5 grams protein, sweetened with dried cane syrup, sugar and raisins, quite tasty. Many testers grew up on this bar, and to their credit, Clifbar has reworked their line to include a higher percentage of organic ingredients.

We took liberties in this choosing Clifbar as best buy in this category, because 19 of the 20 flavors have 240 calories; only one met our cutoff point of 250 calories for meal replacement bars. However, 10 calories are more than offset by 75-cent price break to the next higher cost bar.

Our Analysis and Test Results

Caloric Density


At 3.82 Calories/gram Clifbar is not as dense nutrition as ProBar, Kate's or Honey Stinger Protein Bars, but, for the price, a good buy and healthier calories than Big Sur, Olympia Granola Bars, or Goruka Bars.

Taste


Being the standard by which energy bars are judged in the past 2 decades, Clifbars are the act to follow; most OGL testers agreed they are tasty, just not spectacularly so…

Nutrition


70% organic ingredients gives Clifbar good nutrition, with room to grow in the last 30% organic, going GF in the whole line and making the switch to the lowest glycemic index sweeteners.

Energy


Clifbars have room for improvement via the addition of dense nutrition and increasing the calories to this line of bars.

Other Varieties


ClifBars are available in 6 and 12 packs, often at a cheaper price, should you find yourself eating more of a particular flavor. You can also purchase a Variety Pack of 12 that includes 12 different flavors, or a Variety Pack of 24 that includes Chocolate Chip, Crunchy Peanut Butter, and Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch for the chocolate and peanut butter fans out there.

— Chris McNamara
 

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