New CLIF Bar Giveaway Contest: CLIF Bars, CLIF CRUNCH, CLIF MOJO

Right from the start, I knew this product review would be one of those good news / bad news situations.

It’s good news because the company involved is CLIF Bar, whose products I love and actions I greatly admire. They’ve been generous supporters of my website for a long time now, so I’m always willing to get involved with publicizing any new items or initiatives they need help promoting.

The bad news – for me, at least – is that the first shipment that arrived didn’t have anything I was especially eager to taste. The box contained three varieties of CLIF Bars: a brand new Coconut Chocolate Chip flavor that was introduced this summer, as well as reformulations of two previously existing flavors, Peanut Toffee Buzz and Apricot.

Another dose of CLIF love

See, here’s my problem: I pretty much hate the taste of coconut. Always have. As luck would have it, I’m not a big toffee fan, either. And when it comes to my favorite fruits, I can tell you that apricots fall quite far down the list. It’s fair to say that I have some idiosyncrasies when it comes to food, and this batch of goodies from CLIF Bar just happened to strike all the wrong notes.

My quirky hang-ups turned out to be great news for my family, all of whom were more than happy to step in and assist with this particular round of testing. And this review will prove to be great news for a few of my readers, who will receive a sampler prize pack of all the new products described here – so let’s run down the specs and get to it.

Product photos courtesy CLIF Bar and Company

First up is the new CLIF Bar Coconut Chocolate Chip flavor, which features toasted coconut along with plenty of chocolate chips. This one received unanimous approval from my wife and three kids, and stands out as a somewhat unique flavor in the energy bar category.

Two other CLIF Bars were improvements rather than introductions. As you’d expect from a company of foodies and athletes, the folks at CLIF are driven to continually improve, whether it’s their marathon PRs or the taste and texture of their products. Apparently the Apricot and Peanut Toffee Buzz flavors weren’t quite to their liking, so they enhanced the ingredient list for improved flavor.

The Apricot flavor now features 50 percent more apricots, and has a noticeably more tangy flavor than the old version (yes, I actually tested this one). Peanut Toffee Buzz has more peanut butter and real toffee pieces to enrich the taste; my wife really likes this flavor, although she didn’t have a point of comparison since she had never tried the old version.

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Obviously the folks in the CLIF labs have had a busy summer – because in addition to the new CLIF Bar flavors, they introduced five new flavors of their other popular products.

CLIF CRUNCH is a crunchy granola bar made with organic ingredients, sold in 10-bar boxes on the shelves of many grocery stores. Their new varieties for the summer are Blueberry Crisp and Chocolate Peanut Butter, two flavors borrowed from the regular CLIF Bar lineup that have a unique taste when formulated in granola bar form.

Blueberry Crisp has always been one of my favorite CLIF Bar flavors, but I think I actually like the CRUNCH variety a little bit better. Since the CRUNCH is firmer and more brittle than a regular CLIF bar, it adds a bit more crispness to the Crisp, if that makes sense.

As for the Chocolate Peanut Butter – an offshoot of the Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch CLIF Bar - its taste kind of reminds me of the Butterfinger candy bars I used to like as a kid, except this grownup version is a lot healthier for you. My kids ate these up pretty quickly as well, so they apparently have a fair amount of candy bar appeal as well. (On a related note, my kids have a ton of healthy options that I never enjoyed while growing up; if they don’t grow up eating better than me, it’s my own dang fault as a parent.)

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CLIF MOJO is a trail mix bar that is really unlike any other product on the market. It’s made with 70 percent organic ingredients, has a texture that’s pleasantly crispy yet chewy, and a flavor that’s a delicious combination of sweet and salty. This summer, there are three new flavors of MOJO bars to choose from, one of which is absolutely perfect for camping or late night beach fires.

First up, however, is the new Chocolate Almond Coconut flavor, which I had to pass off to my associate testers. They have toasted coconut, chocolate chunks, and whole roasted almonds, and the kids raved about them after finding them in their lunch boxes one day. The White Chocolate Macadamia flavor is another offshoot off an existing CLIF Bar flavor, with roasted macadamia nuts and soy white chocolate chips. This is another of my favorite CLIF flavors, so I really enjoyed the same taste in MOJO version.

However, far and away the favorite flavor of the whole family from this product sampling group was the MOJO Dipped S’Mores. The “Dipped” part means the bottom layer of the already-awesome MOJO bar is dipped in chocolate, making it even awesomer (yes, that’s the right word). The S’Mores part is almost exactly what the name implies, with chocolate chunks and crunchy graham cookies; the only deviation is soy white chocolate bits in place of marshmallows. If there’s a more perfect flavor for lazy summer nights after active summer days, I can’t think of it.

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So now for the really good news: CLIF has agreed to do a giveaway in conjunction with this review, giving three lucky winners the chance to sample all of the bars mentioned above. If you’re like me and aren’t partial to coconut, trust me, you won’t have any problem finding friends to help you test them. If you happen to love coconut, this prize pack promises to be something fantastic.

Standard entry rules apply for this one: leave a comment below this post to enter by midnight on Friday, and I’ll select three winners at random and announce them before next weekend’s Random Shots of Beauty post. Very big thanks to CLIF Bar and Company for sponsoring this contest, and good luck to everyone!

*Products provided by CLIF Bar and Company
**See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you'd like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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