Double Black: A Ski Diva Mystery

Saturday, June 24, 2006

The great, completely unscientific energy bars taste test.

Raise your hands -- how many of you like to take energy bars to the slopes?

I'm sitting here with my hands firmly on the keyboard. Not just because I'm typing, either, but because I've never found an energy bar I really liked. To be fair, maybe I just haven't looked hard enough. After all, the concept of energy bars is tremendously appealing. It'd be great to bring something along for a quick snack on the lift.

So I thought I'd do a limited, unscientific taste test. Limited, in that I'm only going to test four bars. And unscientific, because it only involves one taster -- me.

Here's what I found:

Zone Perfect (strawberry yogurt): 210 calories. 15g protein, 21g carbs, 7g fat, 1g fiber. A sweet yogurt coating surrounding a grainy strawberry-flavored interior. Not too bad.

Kashi Go Lean (oatmeal raisin cookie): 280 calories. 13g protein, 49g carbs, 5g fat, 6g fiber. Chewy with a sweet exterior coating. Again, not bad.

Clif Energy Bar (carrot cake): 240 calories. 10g protein, 46g carbs, 4g fat, 5g fiber, 4g fat. Doesn't taste even remotely like carrot cake. In fact, it has a strong cinnamony flavor. No exterior coating. Didn't like this at all.

PowerBar Performance (apple cinnamon): 230 calories. 9g protein, 45g carbs, 2.5g fat, 3g fiber. Flat, sticky, and hard to remove from the foil packaging. Very gummy texture that turns grainy in your mouth. Has a slight apple flavor and a decidedly non-apple aftertaste. Ugh.

Of course, everyone's taste is different; you might like something that I don't, and vice versa. What's your favorite energy bar? List it here. I'll test more in the future.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like the pria bars -- the less-fancy, wafery ones. though they're not very filling, they're satisfying in a kit kat-y kind of way

Anonymous said...

My favorite are the Kashi Go Lean Rolls ... there's a caramel peanut one that is very candy-bar like. Of course, at 200 calories, it practically *is* a candy bar .. but good for an in-between meal boost or breakfast on the run.