Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Review: CLIF Builder's Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar


My comprehensive review of all things protein, including CLIF bars, leads me to the CLIF Builder's Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar.  I picked this one up with a buy one get one coupon at Meijer and it factored out to about $1.67 for the bar with the coupon.  The hard numbers on this protein bar include a weight of 2.4 ounces (pretty much CLIF standard), 270 calories and twenty grams of protein.  For you natural lovers out there, this one's entirely natural as well.




Since this protein bar's name pretty much describes it, there aren't a whole lot of shocks when you visually look at this one.  It's got chocolate and it's got peanut butter.  Since it is a protein bar, it has a base of the obligatory rice crisp mix where all the protein rich products are mixed in.  That rice crisp mix is then topped with a thick layer of hardened peanut butter and then the entire bar is encased with a thick layer of chocolate.  That's about it.  There's nothing cute or surprising about this bar...it is what it is.

In terms of taste, the "it is what it is" premise kind of carries through, although not in a positive way.  The rice crisp base layer is about what you'd expect as it adds a necessary crunch to the bar, but not really any flavor.  Unfortunately, the rice crisp was the best part about the bar.  The peanut butter, which was not only hard, was lacking any sort of flavor whatsoever.  It wasn't sweet, creamy, nutty or anything.  Basically it was a flat and bland representation of peanut butter.  In addition to that, it was moderately gummy too.  Just nasty.  Flat and bland are the best ways I can think of to describe the chocolate too.  It lacked any sort of sweetness in the flavor and basically it just existed and that is not a positive thing.

Buy It or Fly By It?  When you use the words flat and bland twice to describe the flavor of a product, you can pretty much guess that this is going to get a FLY BY IT rating.  While chocolate and peanut butter are wonderful flavors on their own and usually work well together, CLIF completely failed on this one and made a bar that lacks any sort of redeeming quality whatsoever.

FLY BY IT!!

7 comments:

  1. It is funny how Cliff can have so many "winners" and then they create this mess. I avoid the "builders" bars and stick to the Cliff originals. THe PB Toffee Buzz flavor is newer and is a great addition to the lineup.

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  2. Personally I like the fact that these aren't overly sweet, unlike almost all the other protein bars I've tried.

    In fact my wife and kids ate most of my last box of them on me, so I'm gonna have to pick up 2 or 3 boxes at BJ's

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  3. Peanut butter is my favorite Builder's bar. Try it, it may be yours as well. It's funny that the Crazy Food Dude's opinion of this bar is so different from mine.

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  4. Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth! The CRAZY food dude is certainly entitled to his BUT there is nothing flat or bland about the builder bars unless you're used to eating snickers everyday. I've experienced far too many excessively chewy bars with cardboard after taste not to mention the short story of big words on the warning label. The builder bar makes an excellent snack right after the gym or between meals. As an active physique competitor, I give Cliff builder bars my full recommendation.

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  5. You are totally wrong about this protein bar. Nothing compares - they are awesome! My kids eat them like candy bars!

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  6. I've tried many protein bars and these are the best. I love the fact that they do not contain sugar alcohols in them. Try the chocolate mint one. You won't be disappointed!

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  7. Just took one and the bar is wonderful. Not too sweet as other bars. I felt like taking a complete meal

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