Energy bars that emphasize carbs have come a long way and actually taste good, even when you have to eat them for an extended period of time. Protein bars, in a sense, have also come a long way. Instead of tasting like unwiped ass, they now taste like an ass that has, indeed, been wiped, if not actually thoroughly cleaned.
So it is with some reservations that we award Denali Approved status to Clif Builder's Max protein bars. When we first ate one, in the comfort of our own home, we thought they weren't too bad. But after just a couple of days on Denali this season, we were absolutely not looking forward to them, and after a week it was gag reflex suppression time to rim one down.
This is not just Clif's fault: every protein bar we've ever eaten has had this effect. So applying the relative ass-wiping percentage scale to the Builder's Max, take the square root, carry the two, a little long division and viola, they are about as good as they get. Which we freely admit is not saying much.
What you do get is 380 calories in a 3.7 ounce bar, almost 100 calories per ounce. That's 30g of protein from what Clif calls TriBuild, a fancy way of saying they combine whey, soy and casein. We trust Clif products for wholesome ingredients, and the weight and bulk of the packaging is negligible, so you don't have to worry about re-packaging for a long trip like Denali. Grab whatever flavor you want, they all pretty much taste the same, with a slight edge to the mint one. That's all we've got to say about that.
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