CLIF SHOT BLOK Tropical Punch Review (and Giveaway!)

A couple of administrative notes before we get rolling …

1) Today’s post is another CLIF giveaway, but I’m equally happy to report another philanthropic promotional effort the company is currently conducting. They recently grabbed their 10,000th Facebook fan, and for every new fan they get over the next three months (or 5,000 new fans, whichever comes first), they’ll contribute an additional dollar to their ongoing environmental initiatives through 1% for the Planet. Join CLIF’s Facebook page to help them out. I did it as well – and if you know my feelings about Facebook, you know that’s really saying something about how much I like this company.

2) This Saturday I’ll be running in the Firetrails 50, a classic Northern California ultra which holds a special place in my heart, as I’ll explain in more detail afterward. If you’re on course and see a mid-pack runner shuffling along in a Wilderness Running Company T-shirt and minimalist footwear, feel free to say something encouraging – I’ll probably need it.

Now on to the fun stuff! I’ve already described how my peek inside CLIF headquarters last spring involved a fair amount of secrecy about information I heard and products I saw in various stages of development. For the most part, all of the things we learned were cause for celebration, but there was one bit of news that dismayed me: the cola flavor of CLIF BLOKS had been discontinued. It’s no secret around here that I’m something of a cola junkie, so I immediately felt a pang of sorrow about the loss of my favorite flavor.

(Not only that, but I immediately started hoarding my remaining supply at home, and became WAY too analytical about when to use them; it was like I had to assess whether a particular workout was “cola-worthy” before dipping into the dwindling reserves. Yes, I get far too attached to things sometimes.)

Fortunately, CLIF had a pretty strong new flavor lined up: tropical punch, which I was able to sample on my spring visit, and which I’ve been using in training for the past few weeks. The taste reminds me of the old Hawaiian Punch drink I used to love as a kid, but the sweetness is much more subdued. It’s not quite cola-good, but it’s a pretty strong entry – in fact, I’d probably rank it as my third-favorite BLOK flavor currently offered.

And before you ask, here’s my completely subjective rankings of all eight flavors:

Black Cherry: This flavor rocks: awesome cherry taste, a full shot of caffeine, and best of all, no pit!
Strawberry: I love strawberries; you know this already.
Tropical Punch: Like Hawaiian Punch for grown-ups, plus a half-shot of caffeine
Margarita: For obvious reasons. This flavor also has 3X the sodium of other flavors, like salt on the rim of your glass.
Mountain Berry: Like a berry smoothie, except not frozen … or smooth, for that matter.
Orange: Nothing against this flavor and the one below, but I don’t like gel or block flavors that remind me of old-school Gatorade. Call it a quirk.
Lemon Lime: Ditto.
Cran-Razz: I’m not a big cranberry guy. Just one of those things.

Numbers 1 through 8, top to bottom

As indicated above, the new tropical punch flavor gives you 25mg of caffeine in addition to the calories and electrolytes you need for sustained endurance. CLIF calls this a “half-shot”, equivalent to a half-cup of coffee; two flavors (tropical punch and orange) have the 25mg dose, while black cherry has 50mg. The others are caffeine-free.

Like other CLIF BLOKS, I’ve found the tropical punch flavor fairly easy to chew in relation to other blocks on the market, and they don’t stick to my teeth very much at all while on the run. I use them in combination with energy gels on long training days; the BLOK packets are nice to carry because each one contains the caloric and electrolyte equivalent of two gel packets, and they’re much easier to consume without getting your fingers all sticky. Switching back and forth from BLOKS to gels also helps break the monotony of putting the exact same thing in your system every 40 minutes.

CLIF BLOK love!

Clearly, BLOKS are effective for fueling your long run; that’s exactly what they’re made for. However, another practical benefit was pointed out to me by my wife shortly after our kids got the flu last winter: if you’ve got a kid with an upset stomach who is unable to keep any food down and starts getting progressively weaker from one day to the next because she doesn’t have any appetite, try offering her some CLIF BLOKS. The texture is rapidly digestible, the sodium helps with fluid retention, the calories are enough to provide bare-bones sustenance for a while, and the whole notion of getting to eat something from Dad’s protected stash of goodies is enough to stimulate a hunger drive for a while.

(My wife should really have her own blog, to talk about all the obvious things in life that pass me by, the frustrations of having to point out basic parenting skills to her co-parent, or simply the peculiarities of living with an obsessive-compulsive cola addict. Come to think of it … maybe a wife blog isn’t such a great idea.)

So apparently there’s more than one use for these things … and for a few lucky readers, you’ll get an opportunity to try them however you’d like. Place a comment below, and I’ll randomly pick three winners to receive a sampler box of CLIF BLOKS, which will be heavy on the new tropical punch flavor. Hopefully you’ll get to use them for training rather than sick children, but at least you’ll be prepared for either contingency. Enter the contest by Sunday, October 10 at 5PM PDT, and I’ll announce winners on Sunday night. Good luck!

*Products provided by CLIF Bar and Company

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