First Annual Energy Bar Test

As far as I am concerned, the best bars are good old fashioned “candy bars”. Perhaps this article could benefit from a control: a snickers, mars, or maybe cadbury milk chocolate for us to get everything calibrated.

I personally am unable to eat more than one “energy bar” a day but I can put away a fine multiple of that in good chocolate bars.

I am by no means a nutrition freak, but I’m not a fan of candybars. Just don’t like the taste and/or chocolate.

I, do however, love Cliff/Luna bars. Plenty of flavors to choose from and I can get them from Big Lots for $0.50-$0.60 each. I guess they are not “natural” so they don’t qualify for this report.

Cliff Bars get my vote. Plenty of variety and high quality taste. Throw in a few Snicker’s Marathon’s for extra-good flavor and that provides me with plenty of energy on short and long trips.

Boomi Bars,any flavor.
Clif Bars new Builder’s 20g protein,
peanut butter flavor, break them into pieces and ration those, will last you for miles. Any dark chocolate over 70%
chocolate from chocosphere.com.

I pretty consistently choke down one clif bar a day on a trip. For a longer trip and consistent high-mileage days (e.g. 20+ mpd), maybe two a day and a gel or two.

Probably the biggest thing I look for in a “food bar” is that it should not break teeth at low temperatures and not require a spoon to eat on a warm day. Clif bars do that, and come in enough flavors to ensure variety and I generally am happy with the flavors. Actually, the peanut butter flavor reminds me of homemade granola bars.

The caffeinated bars are great when you roll out of bed early and skip brewing up, and also on a midafternoon when you still have nine miles to go to make camp, or at the start of a 3000′ climb.

I’m neither proud nor consistent, though, and have consumed tiger’s milk bars, odwalla bars, snicker’s bars, various granola bars, bear valley “pemmican” bars (although they have this aftertaste that makes me think of paint thinner).

A local bakery here makes “date bars” which are outrageously dense, and probably have about fifteen hundred calories. They also sometimes sell “granola bars” which are also quite tasty. These don’t keep as well as the commercially packaged bars, but they are so much more tasty that it is often worth the trouble.

I’ve experimented with the various “gels” over the last few years, and found they are great for quicker energy (the Clif Bar buzz seems to take about twenty minutes to kick in, and lasts 2-3 hours) and for making you thirsty enough to drink more water. Supposedly they are good electrolyte replacers as well, and that can be important if you are drinking four or five liters of water a day. My big gripe about the gel products is the packaging is awkward. I’d rather see the stuff in a tube with a cap (like toothpaste, pesto mix, or wasabi) and I could just take a hit off the tube when the urge strikes. A tube that held the equivalent of 3-4 gel packages would seem to be about right. My guess is that it would also be cheaper to package them this way, and since the gels are so outrageously expensive that is no small thing.

Several years ago my son and I hiked the John Muir Trail. I realized on the second day that we needed a bit more food. At the Tuolome Meadows store I bought enough Power Bars for us to share through the trip, (one each day.) We began stopping for a morning break each day at about 10:30, carefully cutting a Power Bar in half, and doing our best to keep hydrated. We stopped again for lunch around 2:30, and then camped at about 6:00 or 6:30. The Power Bars made a huge difference! We remained very satisfied and full through the rest of the incredibly memorable trip. I was very surprised! I can’t wait to do it again!!

I can’t believe that you ommitted Bear Valley Pemmican bars. I consider them easily the best choice for backpacking trips. They contain 100% natural ingredients and come in four varieties. For example, the “carob cocoa” flavor contains “Malted corn and barley, nonfat milk, soy flour, honey, almonds, raisins, oats, soy oil ,sunflower seeds, cocoa, wheat bran, carob.”
Each bar is 3.75 oz and 410 – 440 calories (depending on flavor) with a good balance between protein, fat, and carbs plus vitamins.

I just did a stare-and-compare between the Snickers Marathon Energy Bar and the Snickers Candy Bar. Listing the percentage of Daily Value (DV) based on a 2000 calorie diet. The energy bar has many vitamins and minerals listed that the candy bar does not. The candy bar tastes better (probably because of the doubled fat and sugars), but offers minimul or no information on nutritional value. I have tasted worse energy bars than the Snickers.
I believe an earlier post stated something like ‘I’d rather eat the candy bar and take a multi-vitamin’, which is not too far off if taste is a concern. Then you have to add the weight of the vitamins in addition to the heavier candy bar!
I think the energy bar packs better than the candy bar and it doesn’t melt like the candy bar so they last longer in the pack.
I usually get these type bars by the case for the scouting event (you find they will eat just about anything). With the kids, they also tend to eat the candy bars on the first day rather than spread them out for the duration of the trip. In the past, I have bought the PowerBar (regular and harvest), the Gold Bars and the Snickers bars. I guess I will have to try Tigers Milk next.

“Daily hobbit meals include Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon,
Afternoon Tea and Supper, supplemented with plenty of snacks in between. …”

Middle Earth had lembas we have clif bars

Generally, I’ve found that “lunch” on a hike is whatever is consumed between the time I leave camp in the morning and when I set the pack down for the last time and pitch the tarp. If I’m not walking, I’m most likely feeding.

Thanks for the pointers on larger-size “gel” products. I also discovered that Clif sells “big shots” (16-serving jugs of clif gel) but only in the razz and mocha flavors.

Now if only you could have a y-valve for a hydration system, so I could switch between gel and water…

Sorry, I was being funny about the weight of the Snickers bar and vitamins combination. Of the two bars I compared, the candy bar weighed 3 grams more than the energy bar and you really would need a multi-vitamin to make up the difference between the two.

I rarely eat candy bars EXCEPT on the trail and then I take Payday. They don’t melt and are darn near indestructible. Don’t even need to bring the wrapper…unwrap ’em and drop ’em into the gorp bag. They have a bit of salt which I crave on a hot hike and list at 145calories/ounce.