Around Interbike, there’s always plenty of snacks, drinks, gels, chews and “other” to help us get through the show. The big brands usually have a new flavor or something, and this year was no different, but my favorite find was a new brand called Pocket Fuel.
The product has everything going for it -flavor, portability, nutrition- but what I really liked best is that it’s made from real food. They’re dairy/gluten free and vegan, too. Flavors include various chocolate combinations, banana blueberry, coconut cherry, espresso, chia-goji-honey, and more. All of them use a nut butter base, usually almonds but some with peanuts or hazelnuts, which makes them actually filling. We’ve all been on rides where even two or three gels just won’t curb some hunger pains…these seem more likely to do the trick.
The last best part is that they’re available in refillable 1.8oz and 3oz tubes. How, exactly, you’ll get them cleaned out I don’t know, but they’ll offer large refill containers soon.
More go fast stuff to put in your mouth past the break…
Along the same lines, we’re pretty stoked to see PowerBar getting into the “real food” game. Their new Performance Energy Blends are made mostly from real fruit with electrolytes and a few other things added. It’s a start, but they’re not available/shown on PowerBar’s website yet.
Also not shown on their site yet are two new flavors of their original PowerGel: Orange Dream and Pomegranate Blueberry Acai.
Allen Lim’s Skratch Labs sports drink added a Pineapple flavor and has updated their packaging with large, resealable bags.
Following the surprise introduction of their gel earlier this year, Louis Garneau has expanded their nutrition line with the LG1 sports drink. Flavors are Orange and Punch, both tasted pretty decent, and both have basically what you’d expect from a sports drink:
The key differentiator for this one seems to be a pretty high dose of electrolytes. If you’re a frequent cramper or tend to crust your helmet straps in salt, might be worth a try.
Honey Stinger’s Energy Bars get a new formula this month to be a bit more flavorful. The revised version launches with a new Blueberry, and, as current stock sells through, the existing flavors will get updated, too.
They’ve also added a grocery sized organic wildflower honey from Brazil. It’ll be exclusive to Whole Foods at first, then roll out to other retailers. It’s comes from Brazil because they source it from a remote hive so they can trace it directly and ensure the origin. If you follow honey related news, you know there are some real issues with dilution and source verification among mass produced brands. Suggested retail is just $6.95, which is actually really, really competitive if not better than most mass market brands. Oh, and it’s delicious!
H2O Overdrive, which is one of the more unique beverages out there with no sugar and a healthy dose of caffeine, has up to this point only been available as a ready-to-drink beverage. Having been in the beverage industry for years, I can tell you this: That makes it a) expensive and b) hard to ship. The solution is a powdered drink mix that translates the formula pretty closely and makes it more convenient to store and mix your own as needed. It’ll come in a very large resealable bag as well as single serve packets. The latter will ship to retailers in the round canisters, which they can sell as-is or as individual packs.
Last but not least, Cytomax has reformulated their Grape flavor to remove the caffeine and tone down the flavor profile a bit. It’s milder in every way.
As an aside, virtually all of these brands have expressed interest in sampling through SchwagBox, too! If you haven’t checked that out yet, click the link on get on the mailing list for a VIP invite to join in November.
