Heard about maurten on the podcast and decided to look them up. Are people really paying $3.50 per gel and $2.50 per sports drink?
What makes it better than leading competitors products that are 1/2 to 1/4 the price or even cheaper?
I am no authority on this but the Maurten drink mix really helped me when I did the Whiskey 50 XC Race. I was able to āstay togetherā much better than I normally do when using just Scratch or something like that. I used Skratch every 3rd bottle and Maurten for the rest of the race. Having food in a bottle āMaurtenā really helped keep my stomach settled. That said, I have had basically the same results with the SIS Beta Fuel and Isotonic Gels. They are almost always on sale and perform really well for me. These āhigh endā nutritional items are generally only used on super long, high priority events such as marathon XC events, 50+ mile gravel grinders, and centuries. If itās just local fun stuff I still use GU Vanilla gels and Skratch drink.
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I tried it for Leadville. I honestly am not a fan of the taste.
It seems that Maurten sits well with some folks that have sensitive stomachs and others that just like it for the performance benefits. I personally donāt really buy the hype and to your point the same benefits can be found with other products or home brews for a fraction of the cost.
It isnāt magic itās just calories in a bottle. If it works for you however it would pretty easy to justify the cost.
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Maurten 320 and SIS Beta Fuel are similar in concept and purpose. Basically, they cram more carb into less water. 80g into 16oz.
Compare this to something like Gu Roctane or Cytomax, which mix about 50g carb into 21 oz.
Whether you need it generally depends on the length of your events.
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The bag of Skratch in my pantry cost me $20 and contains 420g of carbohydrates (20 servings at 21g per serving), or 21g/dollar. Per the website, a box of Maurten 320 contains 1106g of carbs (14 servings at 79g per serving) and costs $48, or 23g/dollar. So unless Iām missing something Maurten is actually cheaper than Skratch. IMO, comparing a āservingā of Maurten at $3.42 with a āservingā of Skratch at $1.00 is misleading.
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I have consumed Maurten in relatively large quantities (1 gel per 45 min + 0.5-1.0 bottle per 60 minutes) during two everesting attempts and three 13+ hour long races over the last two years. Absolutely no stomach issues, and the taste is so neutral that I donāt get the Ā«Shit, I canāt bear the tasteĀ» blues that often occurs with other, fruit/citrus based tastes.
Maurten is expensive, but relative to the efforts one makes to be preparere for serious efforts such as Leadville, Haute Route, Jotunheimen Rundt, everesting attempts, etc., perhaps it is not so bad.
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Does Maurten have electrolytes etc in it though or is it primarily a carb drink? The whole premise of Skratch is that itās a low carb mix. Not arguing, just curious. Iāve taken to adding some maltodextrin to my Skratch mix.
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That makes sense about the people that might easily get upset stomachs. Otherwise I usually use sis go drink at $1 per drink for 40 carbs, and Clif gels purchased in bulk are around .50 cents a gel and I love the flavor of both.
Iām not arguing any side here. Just pointing out that Skratch and the high carb Maurteen/Sis drinks are trying to solve different problems. Skratch is all about hydration. They try to create the fastest and most effective way to get water and electrolytes in your body. They say adding the amount of carbs that they do assists with this goal.
High carb drinks are just that. To get maximum carbs in. They are more of a replacement for food and gels. For price point comparison, it would be more fair to compare to gels/food.
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This. Comparing Skratch and Maurten is comparing Apples and Oranges.
(And I think both are ridiculously expensive. 
)
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Now that weāve gotten that out of the way, can anyone comment on how they actually use Maurten products in the heat outdoors? Do you follow their guidelines (one serving per 500ml, so either 160 or 320 calories) or dilute it? I know they say not to dilute it, but Iām wondering how to get proper hydration on longer rides.
Iām specifically thinking of longer rides offroad, either MTB or gravel. For a really hot two hour ride I would generally fill my 3L pack with Skratch and drink it all, and supplement with solid calories as needed. But even using the Maurten 160 product will put 960 calories in a 3L pack, which is way too much (for me) for two hours. In cooler temps that would be fine, 3L of liquid would be enough for three hours of riding, as would 960 calories. I really like using a pack and no bottles, but it seems to me that dream is dead if using something like Maurten mixed according to their guidelines.
On longer days (century+), Iāve alternated a maurten and then a scratch plus gel/block for both hydration and variety. Has worked great for me, much better than when I used to try to get most calories via gels or foods.
make your own āMaurtenā for fractions of what that costs per bottle;
30g maple syrup
60g maltodextrin powder (amazon from myprotein.com)
Add the amount of sodium you want and you are good to go.
easy peezy
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Is there anything to the whole ānatural hydrogelā thing? It sounds good but also sounds like marketing BS.
Does your body really process this stuff any differently than similar products?
Glad it works for some people but its not for me.
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Some of the higher end nutrition products (ie Maurten, SiS) are great and for a lot of athletes that absolutely have no other options they can be transformative.
Consider that the average rider typically doesnāt explore the extent to which their guts can be trained to digest simple carbohydrate. SGLT1 & GLUT5 upregulate dramaticallyā¦and quickly. As in, over the course of a few weeks. So the dose of carbohydrate that made you queazy 10 days ago might feel ok today if youāve continue to dose your gut in the interim.
If you train your gut a littleā¦well, it wonāt necessarily be BETTER than Maurten. It will probably be about the same performance-wise but leave your wallet a lot fatter.
For instance, I did Longfellow a couple days ago. Consumed 335 cals/hr. All of it was unflavored bubble tea syrup. No gut probs. $1.50 for the whole ride.
There was an article posted on here within the last 6-8mths but for the life of me I cant recall enough about the title to search for it.
The crux of it was that Maurten is no longer a ānewā product, and yet the science they continued to claim never was made available.
The summary of the findings were: The conclusions are once again straightforward: no significant differences between the Maurten group and the control drinks in performance (i.e. the power output in the sprints) or in subjective ratings of GI distress and effort.
edit: found the article - The World's Hottest Sports Drink Faces the Evidence - Outside Online
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what brand and where do you buy your bubble tea? lychee?
Normal people donāt spend that much on training nutrition. Even skratch at $1.00/serving already feels like a lot.
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