Another Interbike in the books, fueled in large part by whatever snacks, bars, samples and other sugary treats we could maw on while running from booth to booth. CarboRocket had their new Rocket Red drink mix for pre-race and pre-workout. It’s a mix of powdered red fruits, like cherry and pomegranate, but the main boost comes from beet juice powder to help get blood flowing to the muscles.
Click to enlarge any image for ingredients. The product to its right are their electrolyte capsules, just grab what you need from the bag and get riding.
Their new Re+Hab recovery drink comes in a couple interesting flavors – chocolate coconut and vanilla pear. I sampled the choco one and it’s very light and tasty.
Quick, guess who makes this. Don’t scroll down. Hint: You used to have to make this stuff yourself.
It’s Skratch Labs, and apparently people have bugged them enough to make a ready to eat bar so they didn’t have to use the cookbook. The first ingredients on all three are nut and/or seed butters, putting fat and protein higher on the gram count than sugar. And they use coconut sugar as a binding agent, a more natural option than syrups and stuff used in some other products. They have a sweet (chocolate chips and almonds), semi-sweet (cherries & pistachios) and savory (miso ginger, which is still a little sweet). Retail should be around $2.65 each.
Their hydration drink mix gets two new flavors – Strawberries and Passionfruit – and bumps up its sodium content up by 10% to more closely match what we sweat out. The recovery drink mix adds probiotics (1 billion cultures!) to improve digestion. Lastly, the energy chews will soon come in a Matcha Green Tea flavor.
Tailwind Nutrition didn’t have anything new, but we’re throwing them in here in case you hadn’t heard of ’em. They make a more calorically dense product with higher carb counts to provide fuel for longer efforts, not just hydration. Available in single serve packets (which shows off how much more there is per serving compared to the thinner single serve pouches from Skratch, OSMO, etc.), and two multi-serving pouch sizes.
Honey Stinger launched new multi-serving energy gels.
GU tempted us with their new gluten-free Coconut waffle, shown alongside other recent additions Gingerade, Campfire S’mores and Hot Chocolate.
The S’mores flavor is also available as a gel, along with a brand new Toasted Marshmallow flavor. Yes, it’s as good as you’d think.
Their Roctane energy drink mix now comes in a new Lemon Berry (think, strawberry/raspberry lemonade) flavor.
Generation uCan thinks their modified corn starch makes a better carb than glucose or sucrose because it doesn’t act like sugar in the gut, providing more sustained release.
Clif Bar added three new Nut Butter Filled flavors, all of which were delicious – Caramel Chocolate Peanut Butter, Blueberry Almond Butter, and Banana Chocolate Peanut Butter.
They also added Salted Watermelon to their Bloks energy chew lineup.
Bolero was situated directly next to another beverage company, but I didn’t sample any of the massive assortment of flavors. Why? because it’s nothing more than flavors (natural and artificial) with artificial sweeteners. Of all the flavors shown, only one adds electrolytes, and the rep said that too many electrolytes can dehydrate you. I haven’t looked into that yet, but just considering it’s basically only adding chemicals to my otherwise perfectly fine water, I would pass. But that’s just me, including it here so you can decide for yourself.
Mule Bar is one of the few Euro nutrition brands that’s hopping the pond, and they’re doing it with their whole foods-based bars and agave syrup-based energy gels. The gels come in large multi-serving containers as well as 1-2 serving tubes that can be washed out and refilled…reducing waste, which is nice, but you’ll need to see if the fructose-heavy agave works for you during exercise.
RxBar is another one that’s using whole foods. The ingredients are listed on the front of the pouch, letting you know exactly what’s in it. They’re OK tasting, a little chewy/hard, but if you’re trying to keep your diet clean, it’s hard to beat these. They’ve got a new Pumpkin Spice seasonal flavor (not shown) on their website.
Noosh is an Almond Butter based “gel” that’s got a few things added, like oat bran, DHA Omega 3 and chocolate, depending on flavor, to keep it from separating and make it more delicious and healthy.
Personally, I wish they’d remove the safflower oil from the original flavor, but they’re both creamy and delicious. Available in 20 packs for $20.
OK, you know you were waiting to see what in the world Krispy Kreme would bring to the table, but it was Jelly Belly that brought Krispy Kreme to your jersey. No, they’re not part of the Sport Beans collection with electrolytes, but if you’re needing a sugar fix on the ride, you’d be hard pressed to find something more delicious. And then, you know, make you want to stop at an actual Krispy Kreme aprés ride. Just throw the bag in your jersey pocket and they’ll be Hot ‘n’ Fresh. Well, hot anyway.
