Review: Organic Honey Stinger Waffles & Energy Chews

So I’ve been on a quest to find the best balance of nourishment during my training runs. As I increase my weekly mileage, I’ve needed to find the perfect recipe of calories, proteins, and liquids to offset what I lose during those hours of exertion. Now while I feel finding the perfect blend of products will be an on-going process for me during the course of this year, I am finding certain ingredients I can tolerate and I plan on using come race day. Some of those ingredients will be Honey Stinger products.

ORGANIC HONEY STINGER WAFFLES

Honey Stinger, based out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has been around since 2002 and makes it their job to provide natural honey based athletic fuel products. I was fortunate enough to get my grubby ginger hands on a box of Organic Stinger Waffles and Fruit Punch Energy Chews. Having read up on their Lance Armstrong inspired waffles (He’s now on the Honey Stinger ownership team), I knew I couldn’t wait until a run to try these bad boys out. I pretty much tore the shipping box wide open the second it arrived to taste these morsels. I was not disappointed. The Organic Stinger Waffles are ridiculously good. I’m not lying when I say that I devoured 4 within the first 2 hours of ownership. Yeah. They’re awesome lil treats that make ginger mouth happy.

A big factor in deciding which products I use during my runs has to do with ingredients. I’m trying to stay away from processed sugars as much as possible. It’s not a long burning fuel and tends to do more harm than good during endurance events. The ingredients in the waffles includes organic cane juice which I’m also trying to stay away from. The good news is that the waffles’ sweetness is organic honey-based and honey is exactly like fruit. While I don’t plan on using these the whole race, I’ll keep one with me as a well deserved treat for my late/post-race nurishment.

These waffles, with their 160 calories, are a nice tool to use when you’re in that stretch of full body shutdown. The sweetness will wake your body up, the sugars will rejuvinate your system, and the carbs will keep your engine running. The only problem I encountered while training with them is their crumbly nature which makes it difficult to eat while running. Also, the blast of sweetness can be a turn-off to some. I do plan on carrying one of these tasty treats with me during the Vancouver marathon come May 1st. I know that once I hit mile 20, I’ll need something full of flavor and tasty to keep me goin all the way to the finish. Thank you, Honey Stinger, for makin a deliciously addictive fitness food! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some waffles to gobble!

LIKED:

• Super tasty!
• Organic ingredients
• Honey-based sugar boost
• Affordable
• Only product like it

DISLIKED

• Ingredients include cane juice
• VERY sweet
• Not the easiest to carry on a run, more suited for a bike kit pocket
• Difficult to eat while running (crumbly!)
• I’m already out of waffles

Taste: 9/10
Does It Work: 8/10
Convenience: 7/10
Price: 8/10

TOTAL: 32/40

ORGANIC ENERGY CHEWS

So, like the waffles, these bad boys taste awesome. But unlike the waffles, I doubt I’ll be carrying a bag of these with me come marathon day. To me, chews are convenient, but are awkward for me to chew while running to be instantly effective. I prefer to get my main source of energy from gels during a long training run or marathon (I’ll have to try out the Honey Stinger honey gels). Gels feel like they are easier to swallow and process rather than the gummy chews which taste good, but have ingredients that don’t seem necessary for in-race fueling (pectine, oil, carnuba wax).

Now where these chews DO excel is in their ability to boost energy before or after a race. I love to get a bag of these tasty nubs into my mouth before medium duration runs and I’ve noticed the benefits throughout my training. The boost helps get me started right away rather than having that first few miles being used as a warm-up. After a race, I enjoy shoving a bag into my gob just to get the energy back up. Love these lil treats.

I do plan on bringing a few bags of these up to Vancouver with me for the race, but I’ll be utilizing them before and after the big run rather than during. I’ll stick to gels and a carb/electrolyte/protein blended drink to give me that necessary nutrition.

LIKED:

• Super tasty!
• Organic ingredients
• Honey-based sugar boost
• Affordable

DISLIKED

• Ingredients include cane juice
• Easy to eat too many 🙂

Taste: 9/10
Does It Work: 8/10
Convenience: 8/10
Price: 8/10

TOTAL: 33/40

Overall, I would highly recommend any of the Honey Stinger products. Go to HoneyStinger.com to find out more information and to purchase your very own delicious organic, honey-based nutrition. You should also follow them on twitter and facebook to get some cool exclusive online deals they only offer their followers!