First Annual Energy Bar Test

Paul, like you, I tend to cruise the grocery store for what hits my fancy when building the next trip’s GORP. Lately, I’ve added banana chips.

I’ll have to try the chocoloate coated espresso beans and Payday bars.

The other ingredient I’ll often add is a teaspoon of salt in the mix. I tend to crave salt when hiking and just like that little bit extra.

GORP is a much more personal thing than I ever realized.

Sunflower seeds can also add nicely to a GORP mix. Also m&m peanuts will give you both peanuts and chocolate that will not melt easily.

My favorite is chocolate chip. I like the Clif bars, too, but Kudos are my favorite – right in between candy and a breakfast cereal bar in sweetness and nutrition.

LaraBars, thank you for posting a clarification on the temperature properties of your product.

Please note that the LaraBar was the second highest rated bar in our tests. It was my personal favorite. I have a number of LaraBars at home waiting to go on my next trip. That being said…

No product is perfect in the eyes of all beholders. The LaraBar had a host of positive comments and only a few negative ones. That is what one would expect from a well received product. I believe by ‘likely to melt’ our commenter (anonymous by test design) meant that the fruit portion would soften with higher temperature. Our highest rated bar got a similar comment ‘likely to crumble outside the package.’

-Alan Dixon
Product Review Director

Has anyone received their free sample Larabars yet? (See the phone number 3 posts previously). When your samples arrive, please post the results of your taste tests :)
The Larabars were my second favorite after Probars. I like to take 1 of each for each backpacking day.

Bought one of the Cherry Larabars at Whole Foods. I picked the flavor at random — I love cherries, but most ‘cherry flavored’ stuff is that nasty artificial flavor that tastes like cough drops.

But the Larabar does have a good, intense, real cherry flavor. Very similar to the flavor of my homemade dried tart cherries, in fact. The overall texture and flavor aren’t bad (sort of a dates-and-nuts flavor), and I don’t think it can freeze very hard in cold weather. IIRC the single bar was about $2.29, and a case of 16 was $30, which makes them about twice the cost of Clif bars. That’s going to limit the number of Larabars for me, anyway. I may end up with the occasional single bar for a different flavor.

Ken

Well after I tried my free LaraBar I bought some more for this last weekend trip. I had the Chocolate Coconut Chew and 3/4 through the bar I bit into something hard. After isolating it, I found it to be a piece of walnut shell. I guess their quality control let that one go through.
Added;
I talked with the people at Humm Foods to advise them of the lot number I had the shell piece. I understand that when they deal with natural foods in bulk, especially items like walnuts, or any shelled item sometimes shell pieces will slip through inspection. They were very responsive and their immediate concern was if I had any dental needs, which I did not.
I have sent them the wrapper and shell piece and they have offered more than replacing the bar. In all honesty I was not expecting their offer, just wanted to advise them of the issue.

I really like alot of the bars put out by Odwalla. Some of them *look* kind of interesting (superfood = compressed road apples) but they taste good and have a solid ingredient base.

Some Odwalla bars always get tossed in along with some Hammer gel and (now) a ProBar or two.

I don’t have the sweet tooth for most of the bars out there. There are two things I really like:
1. BALANCE Energy Crunch Mix. This is a great tasting substitute for gorp – a little healthier too. The Chocolate and Toffee mixes tast good, The Berry Crunch is awful!

2. CLIFF BAR Chocolate Almond Fudge. This is a satisfying brownie like bar. I like the texture, a little of the almond crunch, and the taste – without being overly sweet.

I Consumed 5 Clif Bars/day on 12 day unsupported JMT trip last summer with no problems. they are edible in a wide range of temperatures and I get them for $.79 @ Costco Warehouse Stores. I’d love to know how to obtain them for the previously reported $.50-.60

Regarding water consumption with bars: The human body can only metabolize 7gm of carbohydrate/100ml water(referred to as The 7% Solution). (I don’t know how this applies to protein and fats.) Therefore it should come as no surprise that you have to consume twice as much water with a 400 calorie bar than with a 200 calorie bar. This also means that if you eat over 70gm of carb/liter of water(or put this amt. of carb powder in your water) your body will dehydrate itself attempting to add fluid to your stomach until it’s contents are diluted to 7%.

This is also why I don’t understand gels. They are heavy (because they contain water) and you have to guess how much water to consume with the amount of gel that you have consumed to avoid going over 7%. I pre-measure $.25 baggies of Gatorade and toss one in each quart of water and I have a bottle of 7% solution ready to go. What could be simpler, lighter, cheaper, easier and more accurate?

Most posts here are concerned with taste and calories. But I find that not all calories are created equal.

My family finds that bars that have a significant amount of protein are more satisfying. We each ate two bars every morning for breakfast for 14 days on the Wonderland Trail, one upon waking, the second mid-morning. This kept us going until lunch (on occasion I would have liked a third bar, though).

Bars without significant protein do not keep us going until lunch.

We tried them all: Power bars, Clif bars, Balance bars, Luna, etc, and have a mild preference for Clif bars.