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Gu Energy Gel Review

By Dave Roberts   

on November 21, 2012    No ratings yet.

Posted in Fitness and Nutrition, Outdoor Gear ReviewsCycling, mnom mnom, running, trail running

Gu Energy Gel Review

Gu are better known for their puddings than sports nutrition (at least to me they are), and what I do know is that their puddings are some of the best pre-packaged sweets known to man. With such a tasty pedigree, I had high expectations as well as plentiful drool even before trying them out. Apparently, they’ve been at it since 1991, and have a full range of sports nutrition – here.

Usually, energy gels are fruity and refreshing. The Chocolate Outrage is certainly not fruity, and I expected it to leave me needing a drink after eating. On tasting, it still wasn’t fruity, but it didn’t leave you wanting a drink as you would after eating chocolate. What it did leave me wanting more of was of the chocolaty, lovely gooey gel as well as a bit of a caffeine fix. Thumbs up for that flavour – it might even be useful on a wild camp if you wanted a no messing pudding after your meal, but you’d need a couple.

The Vanilla Bean was a mystery. I wasn’t sure if it would be some sort of white chocolate or something totally different. It turned out to be the latter, the closest to vanilla ice cream you’ll get without actually eating ice cream. It looked rather like snot (sorry) but so long as you squeeze it straight in then that shouldn’t be a problem. Again, there’s a bit of caffeine in this flavour.

Finally, I really don’t like Lemon flavoured anything much. I’ve thrown yellow Jelly Babies in the bin rather than eat them before today, so I knew if I didn’t like this one that I wasn’t able to give it a fair review. There was no need to worry however as it hardly tasted of lemon at all, and was sweet rather than sour. There was no caffeine in this one, but I was on the home stretch by then and it was getting late in the evening so it was hardly needed.

What did we think of the GU gels? We loved ’em! Why have boring orange gels when you can suck chocolate from a pouch! These feel like a real treat on a long run, and I was just upset that I’d eaten the chocolate one first! Next time, I’ll leave it as something to aim for at the 10 or 15km point of a long run.

Flavours available: Lemon Sublime*, Strawberry Banana, Jet Blackberry, Chocolate Outrage*, Vanilla Bean*, Espresso Love, Mandarin Orange, Mint Chocolate, Tri Berry and Peanut Butter. (* reviewed by Mud and Routes)

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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