Aconcagua 2009 Expedition

In preparation for my high altitude climb of Mt. Aconcagua at the end of this year, below is my 1st impression of several energy snacks I tried this week…  I will be posting more updates as I evaluate other snacks, and zero in on my favorites…

Edibles:

• Jelly Belly Extreme Sport Beans (Watermelon) – Sour, pretty good, thought I percieve a slight bitterness (caffeine?), and a bit of a chemical aftertaste.  definitely NOT a jolly rancher watermelon flavor.  My Rating - 4/10
• Jelly Belly Extreme Sport Beans (Cherry) – definite bitter flavor, and fake cherry flavor…  very disappointed in the extreme beans… I had high hopes for these as the regular sport beans are tasty.  My rating – 3/10
• Honey Stinger Organic Energy Chews – fruit smoothie – similar consitency as Clif “shot blox” but WAY better taste and a little chewier…  There are 3 “flavors” that I saw – dark red, light red, and orange… orange was definitely citrus flavor, the dark red seemed like a sour cherry, and the light red tasted like hawaiian punch…  These things tasted great, and are mostly organic.  My Rating – 8/10
• Sharkies Fruit Chews – Berry – These were (and are) good.  The flavor was good, and the consistency was pleasant (though not great).  they were a bit less chewy (no rebound) but this might be an advantage when the goal is to get them in your system fast.  My rating – 7/10
• Honey Stinger protein bar – dark chocolate cherry almond – chalky!  extremely dense and somewhat difficult to eat.   The chololate broke off and made a mess, and the bar itself crumbled some… there is no way I would want to eat one of these while in my sleeping bag.  The flavor ironically struck me as a bit artificial “cherry” even though it was real… the crunch of the almonds was a pleasant change from the chalkyness, though there were very few.  I was really disappoineted in this bar… I hope they improve it.  My rating – 4/10

Drinks:

• Accelerade (Lime) – insteresting drink at first… lime is pleasant but the milky whey flavor is a bit to get used to… after a little it tasted OK…  My Rating – 5/10
• Endurox R4 (Orange) – well, since this one has whey protein as well I was hoping for an Orange Julius / creamcicle flavor, and I was disappointed.  The first oddity was how much powder there was to mix into 12 oz of water… then the taste – orangecicle for an instant, then a chemical punch and strong aftertaste that was really unpleasant…  I have taken suppliments in the past like glutamine, creatine, etc… and it was just like taking them, slowly (instead of my preferred pound then flush my mouth with something that tastes good).  My workout prior to the Endurox was tough but not brutal, and I could definitely see having trouble drinking this at altitue or with any slight nausea…  My rating – 3/10.  How well it works with recovery, I will see tomorrow.

Overall – not much luck on the drink side of things… though good old vitalyte (gookinaid) is still at the top of my list, since I’ve been drinking it since I was running in San Diego as a child over 25 years ago (holy smokes, that sounds OLD!).  The honey stinger bar was a disappointment, as were the extreme sport beans (though the regular sport beans I enjoy, and will detail out in a later post)… the sharkies were good, but the honey stinger chews were a huge winner…  I am eyeing the bag of “cherry blosom” chews, but am going to try to wait until next week to try them out.