Review: CLIF Blueberry Crisp Bar

I've nailed through a ton of CLIF bars on this blog in previous reviews, so it always surprises me when I see a flavor pop up that I've never tried before, it always comes as a surprise to me.  That was definitely the case when I saw this CLIF Blueberry Crisp Bar laying on the shelves of my local Kroger with a price of $1.00.  The bar itself is the classic CLIF weight of 2.4 ounces and has 250 calories and ten grams of protein.

Visually, this looks like any classic CLIF bar.  Oat mixed with date puree, etc.  Where this one differed most is that it had a very strong scent of blueberries, so there was no mistaking that the namesake of the bar would be fully represented, at least from a presentation standpoint.  The rest of the mix also included some dried blueberries and also some almonds and soy crisps for crunch (the crisp portion of the name), as well as some other fruit purees (apples, etc.) to amp up the sweetness a bit.  While certainly not the most attractive looking bar, it certainly was packing a lot of punch to it with ingredients, thus making the tagline of this being an energy bar quite appropriate.

As with all CLIF bars, this bar was chewy and moderately dry because of the oats in the energy mix.  Because of the soy crisps and almonds, there was a bit of crunch/crisp and graininess in the bar as well due to each of them.  The soy crisps provided a hollow, airy crunch and the almonds provided a hard crunch when they were actually encountered.  Outside of that crunch, neither of those components provided any sort of flavor, but having had countless CLIF bars before as I have, that came as no surprise to me.  The real test of this bar was the blueberry flavor and the best way I can think of describing it was acceptable.  It was more tangy than sweet and definitely tasted like blueberry with a slightly acidic aftertaste (from the apple puree), but outside of that, there was nothing particularly notable about that flavor.  It was pretty much as I would have expected.

Buy It or Fly By It?  This was the definition of a boring flavor, but is often the case with boring flavors, that is perfectly acceptable because despite its boring characteristics, it still provided an edible and suitably tasting snack.  For that reason, it gets a BUY IT rating.  I know I basically said that the only thing this bar has going for it is that it is not repulsive, but hey, sometimes you'll take whatever you can get.

BUY IT!!