The Five Best Energy Bars

Energy bars play a number of roles in an athlete's life. Sometimes we reach for them during hard workouts, sometimes as on-the-go meal replacements, and sometimes simply because we're out of vitamin-infused gummy bears and need to convince ourselves we've chosen a snack with nutrients.

Click here for Top 5 Energy Bars — And One We'll Never Touch Again Slideshow

But these days there are so many different energy bar varieties that the choosy athlete finds herself at a crossroads: Which portable power choice will give me the most energy without tasting like a chemical spill?

In the interest of science, I assembled a crack team of energy-starved guinea pigs for a blind taste test to separate the power wheat from the power chaff. We dove deep into the catalogues of Clif and Larabar to see which bars taste like mouthwatering cake, and which bars you'd bribe a dog to bury in the backyard.

Out of a 15-bar sampling of top sellers, here are our Top 5 Energy Bars — and the one bar whose name we dare not speak (but we're A-OK with writing it out).

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