New flavors of Nuun

My favorite hydration supplement is Nuun. I have been using their tablets for more than a year, and have enjoyed the not-too-sweet flavors, and the mild effervescence on many a bike ride.

At the Outdoor Retailer Winter show, Nuun introduced five new flavors to their existing lineup of Lime, Tri-Berry, Orange (formerly known as Orange-Ginger), Kona Cola, Citrus Fruit and Banananuun:

Fruit Punch: a fruit medley with a Nuun twist. Subtle berry and fruit notes hydrate with that clean Nuun finish

Strawberry Lemonade: ideal for hydrating under that hot sun, this flavor finds the perfect balance between a sweet strawberry and an ice-cold lemonade - minus the sugary mess

Tropical: an orchestra of mango, pineapple and coconut flavors flirt with the palate while hydrating the body

Grape: the Nuun interpretation of grape - subtle and smooth. It's crisp like white grapes and packed with electrolytes

Lemon Tea: the satisfying palate of tea, mixed with the just right amount of lemon and sweet. A refreshing alternative to high calorie drinks, it’s chock full of balanced electrolytes and offers a nice little zing of caffeine

(descriptions courtesy of Nuun)

They had the new flavors available to sample, and my favorite out of the new flavors was the Grape, followed by Tropical and Strawberry Lemonade. I should mention that Lemon Tea is the first Nuun to include caffeine

Nuun is expecting to release the new flavors some time next month.

You can find their existing flavors at bike shops almost everywhere, or online at http://www.nuun.com/

photo courtesy of Nuun

Food Friday - Outdoor Retailer edition

Today's Food Friday is a special Outdoor Retailer edition.

As you know from Wednesday's post, I spent the day wandering the aisles of the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market searching for cycling-related goodies to bring to you, dear readers. Here are a couple of the food-related findings..

Nuun was there giving out samples of their hydration tablets. I grabbed a bottle of banana flavored Nuun (my favorite so far!) to keep me well hydrated during my wanderings. They said that they are working on some new flavors for 2011, but they wouldn't give any hints. based on what I've tried, I can't wait.

In a clever marketing gimmick, they placed "color charts" above the urinals in the men's restrooms (no pictures, I did not want to be branded as "creepy" and risk being escorted off the premises by security) with clear being well hydrated and dark brownish yellow as severely dehydrated. It then instructed the reader to visit the Nuun booth if they fall outside of the "normal" category to take care of their hydration needs.

I did not take this off the wall of the restroom. The fine folks at Nuun gave mea card similar to the cards that they put up in the restrooms

I also visited the GU booth.

Sorry, crappy picture.

They were sampling their new flavor of GU Chomps - watermelon. My review: Yummy! it was a light flavor that wouldn't be overpowering when you are out on the bike or running. They also had a new flavor of their GU Brew recovery drink which I didn't try (whey protein). There will be a new flavor of gel coming out for 2011, to determine what it will be, they were having a "contest" between three flavors, you could sample the flavors, and vote on which one you liked best. Cherry Lime, Pina Colada, and Fruit Punch. I liked the Pina Colada the best, and didn't care for Fruit Punch. Let's hope that flavor makes the cut.

One last food-related offering for today's post. I met a friend, Martha, at the expo and we were going to meet another friend, David, for lunch at Charlie Chow's, a downtown restaurant that was about 5 blocks away from the Salt Palace expo center. Instead of driving (I took trax into town, and didn't have a car available), or walking. We took advantage of the "Park n Pedal" program that was available to show attendees. Electra bikes had provided a fleet of their cruiser bikes that could be checked out for riding around town. I chose a 3 speed cruiser with a coaster brake. I haven't ridden on a bike with a coaster brake since I was in elementary school. I probably looked like I had never ridden a bike the way I was having trouble stopping (I could stop fine, just at inappropriate times, and rather abruptly) and starting. It was still great fun riding an upright cruiser bike around downtown.

Yeah, I know.  No helmet.  (photo courtesy of Martha Van Inwegen)

Our "rides" for the afternoon.

Good food awaits through this portal. One must only pull (hard) to enter.

If you do happen to go to Charlie Chow's(you should), I highly recommend the Dragon Grill, a "Mongolian BBQ" style all-you-can-eat buffet where you put your noodles, vegetables, tofu and sauce in a bowl, and the chef will add your meat (or not!) and cook it up for you. Delicious, and extremely filling!  Our waiter, Dave, was great!

Stay tuned, more reviews from Outdoor Retailer to come!

Food Friday: Nuun product review

I need to make a correction to one of my previous Food Friday posts. I was talking about adding some salt to energy drinks, I made a mistake calling them energy drinks, I should have called them sports drinks, or - to make it roll of the tongue a little more awkwardly - electrolyte replacement drinks. Energy drinks bring to mind those cans you buy at the convenience store that have enough caffeine and other stuff to keep an elephant awake for days.

Excuse me miss, there seems to be a mistake. I believe I ordered the large cappuccino. Hello?!

Today we have a product review.

The main problem I have with most sports drinks is how sweet they are. They taste great when you are first starting out, but after mile 70 or so, the sickly sweetness is almost overpowering and you can hardly choke it down - let alone keep it down.

Nuun to the rescue!

Nuun makes an electrolyte replacement tab you add to your bottle of water. It's sugar-free, and has a light, refreshing taste that you won't be sick of down the road. Each tab has 360 mg of sodium to replace what you have been sweating out for the past several miles. Nuun comes in several flavors: Orange-Ginger, Tri-Berry, Banana, Kona Cola, Citrus fruit, Lemon+Lime. They also sell mixed tubes of mixed fruit (Lemon+Lime, Citrus, Tri-Berry) and tropical mix (Orange-Ginger, Lemon+Lime, Banana). Each tube contains 12 tabs - enough for 1.5 gallons of water. To use it, just drop one tab in your water bottle, wait 2 minutes, drink and stay hydrated.

I was skeptical at first. I have tried other "add-ins" that are supposed to enhance your water, and found that they tasted absolutely nasty. Nuun is different. I've only tried the Orange-Ginger, Banana and Tri-Berry but they taste really good (especially the Banana - my favorite so-far). Part of the sodium is in the form of sodium-bicarbonate, so they fizz (kind of like Alka-seltzer) when you drop it into your bottle. This can be a fun feature if you are using one of the Camelback Podium bottles, as the release of the gas from the bicarbonate will build up and cause the leak proof valve to sputter and squeak as it tries to escape.

The flavor is distinct, but subtle. It doesn't overpower, and doesn't develop that sickly-sweet nastiness. the fizzing is much milder than that from your typical carbonated soda, and I actually found it refreshing.

I have heard of people mixing flavors by breaking tabs in half and combining them (like Lemon+lime Kola). Haven't tried that yet, but I plan on giving that a try once I get more Nuun.

Overall impressions: Nuun rocks! I have a century ride coming up tomorrow, and I plan to have Nuun in both bottles.

You can find Nuun at almost every bike shop on the planet - at least at every one in my little corner of the world (according to a friend in Florida, no bike shops have it, or have ever heard of it down there). Or you can order it online directly from http://www.nuun.com/. the cost is around $6 for a tube of 12 tabs, which will fill 12 bottles.