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Mi-Del cookies Vermont Cultured Butter Membrillo quince paste Rudy’s margaritas

You know how it is with energy bars. You keep thinking you’ve found one that really is as chocolaty and gooey as a self-respecting sweet, but with 10 grams of protein and five grams of fiber! Then a couple of weeks go by, your taste buds catch up with your trickery, and you find yourself gnawing glumly on a dense block of funky-tasting, fruit-juice-sweetened sawdust.

The nutritional wonders now in our fleeting good graces are the three new Clif Bar flavors that make up the " Ice Series. " Somewhat more candy-like than most of the original varieties, they’re drizzled with chocolate icing and fortified not just with the usual vitamins and minerals, but with a really important nutrient: caffeine. Orange Chocolate Chill is the tastiest, with a pretty sophisticated flavor combination for something that, if the package design is to be believed, you’re supposed to eat with an ice ax in one hand. There’s also Cool Mint Chocolate and (logically) a coffee-flavored Chocolate Java Avalanche.

Available for $1.19 at Bread & Circus stores.