I tried the experiment…I’ll save that bottle for my girlfriend’s pancakes.
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I’m curious what you didn’t care for … taste … fueling … stomach upset … all of the above 
It works for me, or at least I think it does. Maybe I’m just not educated enough to know better.
Flavor doesn’t work for me. I didn’t give it a chance to be any other issue, but it’s okay. Not everyone likes everything.
Gotcha. I don’t actually do straight maple syrup. I found this recipe online 3 years ago and have been using it ever since. Everyone who has tried it thinks its delicious. But it is a bit of a pain mixing stiff Nutella into the syrup. A blender on low works pretty well.
3 cups maple syrup
1 cup Nutella
2/3 cup strong coffee
Salt (depending on needs)
That is an interesting recipe…are you just storing that in the fridge once blended? if so, how long does it keep?
I noted above that I have been using some Himalayan Pink Salt to take some of the sweetness out of the syrup and just recently added in a bit of Jot coffee concentrate, as well. Both options ahev worked well for me.
Planning a long gravel ride for Saturday and will be experimenting some more with the Jot / salt / syrup combo in a 5oz. flask.
I keep the maple syrup and Nutella gel in the fridge. I’ve kept it over the winter, so like 4 months no problem. I too don’t like things that are too sweet. This isn’t.
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Been using maple syrup for a couple years now. It settles really well in my stomach and helps me get a little over 100g cho an hour (with gatorade endurance too). I use the energy flasks I found on amazon. They hold about 72g cho and I add a touch of sodium citrate. Fun fact syrup also has some potassium which helps with the electrolyte balance too. I do about half a flask every 45minutes or so, depending on my race nutrition goals.
I’ve done as many as 6 flasks (432g cho, 1980 calories) in a full Ironman in addition to gatorade endurance for fluid, with no gut issues. When doing just pure cycling on hard days I can actually increase how much I use because gut issues are even less when not having to run. But carrying more than 3 or 4 at a time becomes a pain, probably should just use a big bottle at that point.
What flasks are you using? The 5 oz gell flasks, or something else?
I use these, they hold 3.5ish oz. Just soft enough to squeeze but hold firm in my bike or tri bibs. Never had it leak and super easy to pop the top with my teeth. Super easy to clean after.
A cup of Nutella!!? Yikes! While I have no doubt it’s delicious, it’s also got 792 calories from 88g of fat.
The syrup has 220g carbs, and the Nutella has 176, totaling 1580 calories from carbs.
A third of the calories coming from fat does not seem like good ride food to me. Especially for hard efforts.
-Tim
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Thanks Tim, I actually never really paid attention to the fat. Maybe I’ll try the straight maple syrup and see how I get on with it.
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Must be cheaper in the states or something. Just had a look on Amazon and cheapest I can find is £16.50 for a L in the UK. I can get High5 gels for £1.46 per 100g so works out pretty much the same I think. Around 50p per gel or 50p for ~30ml of maple,
That’s true for 90+% of organic products. Its marketing and virtue signaling.
That’s the cheapest gel I’ve ever seen, can you share a link? I did a quick search and only found their 40g gels which are kind of false advertising at 40g weight, but only 23g of carbs. The prices I’m seeing are about the same price as most gels, but maybe EU local pricing is different.
Maple syrup certainly isn’t the cheapest option to get your carbs, but your liter of maple for £16.50 gets you at about £.50/ per 25g serving of carbs (which is close to the carb content of most packaged gels).
£10.99 at Costco
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this!
Interesting, I’m doing the BC Bike Race next week and on various stages they give you free Maple shots, had never thought to substitute them for gels though. I’m on the Torg gels in a flask at the moment, they taste good and go down easy, might stick to them for the race.
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love maple syrup as my primary fuel
then I also like dried mangos and bananas cause it’s filling / makes me not hungry.
the syrup and mangos are pricier than sugar (bananas are pretty cheap) - but i love the taste and there are other health benefits to both of those foods.
note: I also don’t race so this is just for training - so maybe it’s not optimal - just what I like. and these are all fairly easy to eat while riding.
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Who’s tried similar, but with golden syrup rather than maple? Not sure if it’s a thing in the US, but here in the UK we have both. Golden seems to be quite a bit cheaper - Tesco sell a 680g own-brand for £1.65, whereas even cheap maple syrup seems to be at least 4x the price.
On top of that, 100g of GS contains 75g of sugar, vs only 61g for MS. So it comes in at about 20% of the cost of MS per calorie. (I guess this might make it thicker and harder to get out of a nozzle)
A bit of googling suggests to me that the make up is:
GS is 50 / 25 / 25 sucrose/fructose/glucose
MS is 99 / <1 / <1 sucrose/fructose/glucose
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