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Every year, my guy friends and I go on a ski trip. We live in the Northeast, so it’s usually to some dinky mountain where there may or may not be snow. As insurance that we’ll have a good time, we always book a rental place that has at least the following: a pool table, a hot tub (or “man pot,” as we’ve come to call it), a streaming service or well-stocked DVD library, and a full kitchen.
That last part is important, because although many of us are moderately skilled skiers and snowboarders, we are all highly skilled eaters. You can tell this from the snacks we bring: tubs of cheese balls, nori-flavored potato chips, extra-salty pretzels, spicy cheese curls, white cheddar popcorn … and the list continues.
The Clif Bar Coffee Collection
Dark Chocolate Mocha
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Caramel Macchiato
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Vanilla Almond Latte
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Coffee Collection Variety Pack
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None of this stuff is particularly good for us. I realize that. But when you’ve been snowboarding all day (or, okay fine, sitting in a man pot for an extended period of time), you need to replenish. And while we cook “real” food, we snack on all that other stuff.
Yet while late-evening, pre-dinner snacks, abound, there’s another, arguably more important snack category that’s too often overlooked. These are the snacks that precede strenuous activity, which for us is tackling the terrain parks, but for others may be hiking, surfing, kayaking, climbing, mountain biking, parkour, or general horseplay.
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No one ever remembers the mid-morning snacks. Until this year, when someone did—someone named me. This year, I brought Clif Bar’s new Coffee Collection, which had just come out in December. Here’s how our experience with them went down.
“Oh, What Are Those?”
“Those are Clif’s new coffee-flavored bars,” I told my buddy, a coffee fan. I knew his next question.
“So there’s caffeine in them?”
“Yeah, like the same amount as an espresso.”
He looked over each bar: Dark Chocolate Mocha, Caramel Macchiato, Vanilla Almond Latte. Each one has about 250 calories, 9 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, and 65 milligrams of caffeine. I’m not sure if he cared about anything other than the caffeine, at least at first. But you might.
“Oh, These Are Really Good.”
The morning I tore into my first bar (I went with the Vanilla Almond Latte), we were all assembling toward the ski resort, timing it in the hopes that we’d arrive as the slopes first opened. Anyone who has ever tried to motivate a group of dudes to do something at the same time early in the morning knows what a challenging task that is—because there’s always That One Guy.
So I pushed a Dark Chocolate Mocha on That One Guy. I chowed down on my bar, a sweet-and-nutty-and-bitter combo that went down easy, and he followed suit.
“Oh, these are really good,” he said.
“Oh, These Are Hoooooold Onto Your Butts!”
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After eating one of the coffee bars, you have about T-minus 20 minutes before it’s go time. The caffeine boost isn’t the pull-your-hair-out kind you might be used to from energy drinks. Instead, you’re treated to a mellow, sustained hit of energy that can carry you through your next activity until it’s time to power through a tub of cheese balls.
Plus, the roughly 45 grams of carbohydrates provide a lasting source of easily digestible energy for anything the terrain park might throw at you.
The Bottom Line: At our guys’ trip, Clif Bar’s Coffee Collection finally gave some long overdue recognition to the mid-morning snack. But the quick energy boost they provide would be equally great whether you were staring down a mountain of fresh powder or a pile of emails at 3:00 p.m. Clif Bar’s Coffee Collection offers a powerfully nutritious, wildly delicious fuel for any challenge.
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