Check This Out – The Honey Stinger Waffle

One of the best benefits of my job is the chance to indulge my inner geek by seeing the latest endurance sports related products to hit the market as well as those that haven’t come out yet. I’m not as big a gear junkie as some people I know but I do love new stuff, especially when it’s something different or just a great improvement to an existing product.

With that in mind I’d like to use this blog as a way to introduce you to some products I really like as well as things that might be coming out soon that you might be interested in. Hopefully, you’ll find these reviews useful and perhaps I can introduce you to some new things that can spice up your running, swimming or cycling.

To start it off, I’m going to expand on something I have already written about on my blog for the San Diego Running Institute, the newest addition to the product line from Honey Stinger.

I started using the Honey Stinger Gels and Chews last year sometime, the natural flavoring had me hooked after the first time I sampled them. For the gels I stick with the Gold and Ginsting and if you like honey, there’s no reason you won’t like these.  The difference between the two is that the Ginsting has caffeine, always nice to save these ones for later in the run. The packaging is a little bigger than some of the other gels out there, so if you don’t use a flask just be prepared when you squeeze the whole thing in your mouth that you’ll get more than you are used to.

The Chews are without question the best tasting entry to the energy gummy market that I have found. I’ve tried just about everything out there from the various companies and none of them come close to matching the flavoring of the Honey Stinger Chews. That is the biggest thing that sets them apart from the competitors out there. While some products can taste chemically or “factory made” (not sure if that makes sense to anyone else but you know when you can almost taste the machinery something was made on…ick), these taste like those natural flavoring gummy candies I loved when I was a kid. Other than the taste, Honey Stinger did a great job with the size and consistency. Nothing worse than a chew that takes up your whole mouth and is too hard to chew!

Anyway, enough of singing the praises of their other products lets get to the newest addition to the line! The Honey Stinger Waffle!!! Yes, I like exclamation points and you will probably get sick of seeing them on this blog (along with poor grammar, terrible punctuation, excessive use of “…”, and unjustified use of parentheses), but these things deserve the exclamation overload. They are THAT good. Now, let me be honest, I haven’t had a chance to use them on a ride or run yet but they taste amazing! Now let’s delve into just what they are.

The Honey Stinger Waffle was a suggestion by new part-owner Lance Armstrong. They are based on the Stroopwafel, or syrup waffle, which originated in the Netherlands. It’s two layers of baked batter with syrup, or in this case honey, between the layers. These are used frequently in Europe by cyclists as they fit easily into a cycling jersey pocket, taste great, and give you the energy and calories you need during long bouts of exercise. Honey Stinger stayed true to these requirements and totally knocked this out of the park. The packaging fits perfectly into a jersey pocket or easily into your running/hiking pack. Like I said the taste is fantastic so they clearly nailed that one and each waffle has a well balanced mix of nutrition.

The only thing that stood out to me about this product compared to the gels and chews is that it’s not Gluten free. Understandable, because of what it is, but just something to know if you have an allergy or any issues with Gluten.

Again, give these things a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Here are the nutritional specs as well as the ingredients:

Nutrition facts:
Calories: 160
Total Fat: 7g
Sat Fat: 3g
Sodium: 55mg
Total Carb: 21g
Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 14g

Ingredients:
Organic Wheat Flour, organic palm fruit oil, organic rice syrup, organic cane sugar, organic honey, organic whole wheat flour, organic soy flour, sea salt, organic soy lecithin, organic spices, baking soda