If you're weary from all the holiday hullabaloo and a little shaky from that new starvation diet, you might reach for a high-protein energy bar.

You might - unless you're a member of the Taste Team. In a blind sampling of seven chocolate-peanut butter flavored energy bars (we thought chocolate-peanut butter was a can't-miss flavor), the Taste Team found very little to like. The panel of eight grudgingly gave the Gen Soy Xtreme Peanut Butter Fix Bar (99 cents) an average 4.5 score out of possible 10, describing it as "crispy" with "less aftertaste."

The Xtreme bar packs only 9 grams of protein (plus 200 calories and 8 grams of fat). If you're looking for more nutrition, maybe you should grab the Zone Perfect Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bar ($1.49) (16 grams protein; 210 calories; 7 grams fat), which finished a close second in the taste test.

The Promax Chocolate-Peanut Crunch Bar ($1.59) has even more protein (20 grams) and less fat (6 grams). But the team rated it last for flavor, saying it tasted "medicinal," "artificial" and "like cardboard."

Chuck Martin