New from Jelly Belly -- the company that got Ronald Reagan through all those cabinet meetings during the Iran-Contra affair -- is the sweet tooth's answer to Gatorade: Sport Beans. The company has been sponsoring a professional bike racing team for the last few years, and working with those athletes, Jelly Belly has developed a jelly bean that's certifiably good for you. It's fortified with electrolytes, carbohydrates and Vitamins B and C.
The idea, apparently, is to provide athletes an alternative to the nutrition products that bike racers and other endurance types use: sports drinks, like Gatorade, which are sticky; and energy gels, like Gu, which seem just plain gross.
A cool idea, to be sure. But when is somebody going to make an athletic version of Snickers?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-15-2006 @ 11:28AM
tom said...
you must have been kidding the last one....snikers just came out with their marathon bar...and I must say, when I can eat a bar (I bike and can't eat bars while I am spinning) the bars are great. I usually get two before a big ride. one before I get on the bike for energy and one for after to help my legs recover...you can pump a buttload of protein into your body with them. goto: http://www.snickersmarathon.com/home.asp
As for teh jelly belly's ... bicycling reviewed them last month and pretty much panned them. They're expensive, sweet, and hard to get open while moving. (try opening a small bagging and digging out small jelly beans at 20 MPH with one hand.) You're much better off with something like clif blox, if you can't tolerate gu. That being said, if you can tolerate GU, I would highly reccomend it. The sugars and such in it are good, its easy to squeeze the pack into your mouth and if you chase it with gatorade and water you can get the taste out pretty quick. They do taste like poo though (at least compared to real food)
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5-15-2006 @ 11:29AM
Valerie said...
The Snickers Marathon energy bar came out a year or two ago: http://www.snickersmarathon.com/
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5-15-2006 @ 12:17PM
rebecca said...
I don't know why everyone hates GU. I love the stuff! The vanilla tastes like cake batter. I carry it for both biking and skiing...
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5-15-2006 @ 12:37PM
Anne Metz said...
Okay, I put foot in my mouth about the Marathon/Snickers bar. Guess they are one step ahead of me...
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5-15-2006 @ 12:54PM
cybele said...
I reviewed them last October (the orange ones).
I agree that they're probably not the best for competitive biking, but for I far prefer them to GU (I'm not a biker, but a marathon walker) - they're easier to just have a few and then put them away. Turns out atheletes have been popping jelly beans for years anyway - why not pack them with some nutrients?
I agree that the package should be easier to open and of course reclose.
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5-15-2006 @ 5:24PM
John V said...
Consider using a good dog training treat pouch. They snap open and shut and when open stay that way to allow quick one-handed access to the treats. I use Gentle Leader's, but there are others. Just attach the pouch to yourself or the bike, dump the JBs in and you're good to go. Comment 1 talks about access to the JB and I realized dog trainers have the same requirements!
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