Clif Mojo: Honey Roasted Peanut

Beware starting this one, as the mix of sweet and salty peanuts definitely means you’ll have to finish it. It’s heavy on the nuts, which means plenty of protein, but also plenty of crunch and chew from the mixture of rice, rice syrup, and bits of pretzel. At 70 percent organic, it’s got some virtue, but mostly, it’s got the taste of peanut butter candy. Great stuff.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Calories: 200
Fat: 10 g
Carbs: 20g
Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 10 g

Zone Perfect Fruitified: Apple Cinnamon

Be it brownie or graham, Zone Perfect has always been able to handle the art of getting bits of titular ingredients into its bars better than the competition, and its Apple Cinnamon flavor is no exception, with tasty – almost juicy – bits of moist apple studding this otherwise pedestrian product. While it’s got nice cinnamon flavor and an easy chew, the bits of soy protein that Zone uses to impart nutritional balance on its products seem to fall into a dusty mix pretty quick in this version. That’s not to say that it’s bad – the bar does well on the virtue scale and would likely be a great pre- or post-workout snack. But the combination of sharp smell and grainy texture does detract from the mix.

Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Calories: 180
Fat: 2 g
Carbs: 27 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 14 g

Luna Bar: Iced Oatmeal Raisin

A funky, chocolate-y undercurrent cuts the legs out from what is supposed to be the equivalent of an oatmeal-raising cookie. With a stiff, mealy chew, we had trouble finishing this bar, what with the lack of raisins and stale taste to the oatmeal, and it left something of an unpleasant aftertaste. Not an artificial one, just an unpleasant one, as if there was too much syrup on our pancakes. Fairly high in calories but with a decent amount of protein, this bar probably does okay in the virtue index, but we wouldn’t want to stick around again to find out.

Rating: 2 of 5 stars

Calories: 180
Fat: 3.5 g
Carbs: 28 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 10 g