I've choked down quite a few energy bars in my life; none of them taste that great. Sometimes I'll eat a few bites before my evening rides to stave off hunger pangs until I'm done with my ride. Otherwise I won't eat them unless I'm going on a three or four hour ride on weekends. The protein in the energy bars helps to keep the muscles from getting fatigued on long rides and also aids in recovery after the ride. One can circumvent the eating of such not-so-tasty foods by using an energy drink with a small amount of protein, such as Accelerade.

My energy bar of choice is PowerBar. Many times I have jokingly called it a PowerTurd. It's basically a block of solidified mush in various flavors such as wild berry, vanilla crisp, chocolate, and peanut butter. None of which are all that tasty, but I like the smooth texture of the bar. They don't make a mess when sitting in my cycling jersey pocket, melting in 90 degreee heat. I used to eat Clif Bars quite a bit, but they tend to get really dry, and it's hard to eat a dried out hunk of ground up oats and soy product.

The local bike shop, Birmingham Bicycle Company, started selling an energy bar that is much more palatable, even delicious. It's called Cup of Gold, and it tastes like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Yummy. It has 11 gms of protein (PowerBars have 10) and generous potassium, sodium, and of course, calories (195). I also found the bar sold at Alabama Outdoors.

The difference is not only in taste, but also price. If you want something to taste good, you probably have to pay more for it. I can get PowerBars for less than a dollar at Wal-Mart or Academy Sports, but Cup of Golds are sold for $1.99 each.

The problem I'm having with Cup of Gold is that it's too good and thus I want to eat it for a snack at times when I don't actually need the protein, potassium, and sodium. A sedentary snack when I'm sitting around on the couch reading or working. So, there's a good side of buying only the poopy tasting energy bars. They're around when you need them. I also found Jelly Belly Sport Beans to be a failed experiment, because those things are so freaking good that I ate them when I was having a sugar fix. I'll stick with the nasty tasting Hammer Gels and GUs since I have no willpower.

Cup of Gold may go the same route of the Sport Bean, since I lack the ability to restrain myself around yummy food.