Australian Hiker

Rating

Clif Shot Bloks Review

While energy chews and energy blocks are more often considered in the realms of endurance sports like running and cycling, my reason for reviewing this type of product on a hiking website is that I’m in the process of planning a long distance thru hike with consecutive days of big distances. From monitoring myself over the past few years on how my body reacts to big days on the trail, there are days where I can burn around 8000+ calories. So sometimes I just need an energy boost and products such as these come in handy.

I recently reviewed the GU Energy Chews and in trying this product from Clif I expected there to be a high degree of similarity between the two products with only taste separating them. What I found was while these two products are very similar, there is a difference that means I am likely to use both on a long hike for different reasons.

The Clif Shot Bloks can best be described as large soft jubes. That’s what they look like and in many respects it’s what they taste like as well. The three flavours I tried were Margarita, Mountain Berry and Tropical Punch.

Margarita

He said: Lemon taste with a bit of salt.
She said: More sour than lemon.

Given this flavour contains three times the sodium it explains the saltiness and would be good in hot conditions where you are loosing mineral salts through sweating

Mountain Berry

He said: A bit non descriptive but definitely a berry taste.
She said: Subtle and my favourite, not plastic tasting like some others.

Tropical Punch

He said: Definitly a tropical flavour, stronger than the others in taste.
She said: Tropical and would be OK in small doses

This one contains 25mg of caffeine for that extra energy boost.

The 60 gram packets contain 10 servings but each individual jube is considered a serving as opposed to the GU product which calls a serving multiple jubes.

As I get up at 4:30am each morning and have done for over 20 years, I tend to hit a wall in the afternoon at work and will usually go for something like chocolate but I tried these as an alternative. What I found with these products from my own personal experience is they don’t provide the degree of energy hit that the GU Energy Chews do but instead provide a longer slower burn of energy. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you are trying to achieve.

In consuming this product over a period of days I also didn’t find any adverse digestive responses which is something I wanted to confirm before committing these to a hike. Having said that this should be something you test out and see what your response would be. One slight negative is that they are a bit stickier than the GU product but this is the only real issue.

So would I use this product? The answer is yes but on days when I’m just trying to maintain my energy rather than seeking a boost. For the days when I need an instant hit I would opt for the GU product.

Listen to podcast episode 057 Nutrition on the trail for additional information on supplements and hiking.

We Like

• A range of flavours
• Relatively lightweight
• Gradual and sustained energy response

We Don't Like

• Too easy to eat the whole packet
• Compared to the GU product these are a bit stickier

Best Uses

• All outdoor activities where you need an quick, sustained energy hit

Buy One

You can purchase Cliff Shot Bloks from Snowys or from  Wildfire Sports

Disclosure:  We may earn a small commission, at no additional expense to you, if you click through and make a purchase. Please note that our affiliations do not influence, in any way, the independence of our reviews. If we don’t like a product, you’ll hear about it from us!

If you have used the Cliff Shot Bloks or if you have questions, we’d like to hear from you. Post your comment or question below

Investment

AUD $7.22 RRP /packet

Other Versions

Cliff Shot Bloks Energy Chews

• Margarita
• Mountain Berry
• Tropical Punch
• Orange
• Strawberry
• Black Cherry

Clif also do energy gels

Cliff Shot Bloks

• Margarita
• Mountain Berry
• Tropical Punch

Clif Shot Bloks open packets showing the individual chews

Disclaimer

This review was done with product purchased from a retail store by Australian Hiker

Shares

Related articles