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review
Honey Stinger Lemon Waffle£22.49
VERDICT:
Flavoursome snack, just don't expect it to pick you up when you're flagging
Weight:
480g
Contact:
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
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With a plethora of choice when it comes to energy products, it's always a pleasant surprise to come across something different. The Lemon Waffle from Honey Stinger certainly fits the bill.
It is in essence a waffle sandwich filled with a thin layer of honey mixed with a natural lemon flavour. In individual packets they make for a tasty snack as opposed to something to fuel you when you're flagging at the end of a tough ride. The Honey Stinger Lemon Waffle has a subtle lemon flavour and a soft texture which is not a bad combination. They are a satisfying snack whether it be pre or post ride or just when you're hungry.
Another bonus is the ingredients used. Honey Stinger's Waffles are certified as organic in the US and are in the process of being certified as organic in the UK too. All of the individual elements that go into producing the Honey Stinger Lemon Waffles have US organic status. So that's the wheat, palm fruit oil, rice syrup, cane sugar, whole wheat, soy flour, honey, sea salt, soy lecithin, and spices.
From a nutritional information point of view, each Lemon Waffle has 160kcal, 4g fat of which 3g saturates, 22g carbohydrate of which 18g is sugar, 1.1g of fibre and 0.15g of salt.
The flavour that Honey Stinger have created is light, the texture of the waffles is chewy which is why I've quite enjoyed them as an afternoon snack. A little sugar hit and something tasty to chew on. Each box contains 16 waffles wrapped separately for easy transportation but it does mean that each one works out at £1.40 per snack. Not the cheapest but one of the tastier.
Verdict
Flavoursome snack, just don't expect it to pick you up when you're flagging
road.cc test report
Make and model: Honey Stinger Stinger Waffle Lemon
Size tested: 16 waffles - Lemon
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
The Honey Stinger Lemon Waffle is a handy snack sized treat that doesn't assault the taste buds but rather tickles them. The waffles are individually wrapped and soft in texture which makes for easy eating.The hint of lemon in the taste is slightly different but with citrus flavours gaining in popularity, no surprise.
Rate the product for performance:
8/10
This isn't going to get you over the final climb or give you a well needed boost but is a very pleasant afternoon snack or at other times.
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
8/10
The Honey Stinger Lemon Waffles aren't thick so you could easily carry a couple on your ride if you wanted something alternative to stimulate your taste buds or pack in your bag for a post ride snack.
Rate the product for value:
7/10
Working out at £1.40 per waffle this isn't the cheapest option and possibly the only flaw with the Honey Stinger Lemon Waffles.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
As a snack it works a treat but it doesn't offer or do enough to provide the energy boost you'll be looking for on a hard ride.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Flavour and texture are spot on.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
The cost detracts from a tasty snack.
Did you enjoy using the product? Tasty.
Would you consider buying the product? Yes if cheaper.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.
Anything further to say about the product in conclusion?
As a tasty individual snack, the Honey Stinger Lemon Waffle works a treat. Just not enough of a punch to work as an out an out energy product.
About the tester
Age: 45 Height: 178cm Weight: 80kg
I usually ride: Currently riding a Pinnacle Evaporite Three My best bike is: As above
I've been riding for: Under 5 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, commuting, sportives, mtb, Not yet but looking to dip my toe in the world of TT
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35 comments
Have tasted some of these and they are absolutely delicious. That said it wasn't a very scientific test so if the company in the UK that sells these would like to send me a big box of them to test, I would make sue they get the scientific test results sent to them as soon as possible.
That would make my short ride to the packaging place today a 0.3 waffle ride. Could get fiddly.
Lidl's syrup waffles come in a pack of ten for £1.19. I'm taking five with me on the 273k Liege Bastogne Liege sportive tomorrow. Definitely a five waffle ride.
From now on all rides must be measured in waffles.
Well argued sir- unfortunately common sense isn't common and ther will always be somebody that spends double the price for something when they don't need to.
I used to have a friend that wouldn't buy sale items and preferred to by at RRP so he could boast about how much he spent on stuff!
I kinda wish I'd bough one of them while they were still like that. That must be the pinnacle of aspirational waffles.
oh dear oh dear!
...
Honey-Stinger-Lemon-Waffle-2_3.jpg
Well, lately the packaging has been rather dull with a distinct lack of sports babble. I felt much better about eating them when the packaging was thus...
Aah, but do these other waffle products offer self-affirming, sports-savvy blurb on the side of the packet?
How am I to be reassured that what I'm doing will help me 'reach me goals' if my food isn't constantly telling me that it will? How am I even meant to know what 'my goals' are? How can I feel like a Heroic Badass without looking at a picture of a spunky bee with attitude before I eat anything? HOW AM I MEANT TO KNOW WHAT ANYTHING MEANS WITHOUT THAT!?!?!?
I can't help thinking their target market is at the 'sturdier' end of the riding population. Seriously who needs this nonsense? HOW MUCH SUGAR? For a treat yeah but for a sports food? How is this healthy?
I bet the majority of the people that buy this nonsense have got a weeks worth of energy around their midriffs already that they'd quite like to get rid of. Ditching the sugar and getting used to exercising on fat would be much better for them.
@ MattT53 / Tin Pony: I'm not saying the idea of eating a stroopwafel whilst on a bike is a dumb idea - far from it.
What I *am* saying is that paying 5 x the price for what is nutritionally the same thing, readily available from mainstream UK supermarkets and corner shops, is beyond the pale for me.
Buy a pack of 8, pop one or two in a ziplock bag and hey presto! authentic low country carbs while you ride.
If you eat two wafels per ride, and ride about 3 times a week, by purchasing the Daelmans ones instead of the Stinger ones you'll save enough over a year to purchase an entire 105 11-speed groupset.
(Yes, the Stinger ones are 'organic', on their US website, if that matters to you).
Now THAT is my kind of logic.
Right, how many stroopwafels do I need to eat for Dura Ace?
For mechanical DA at around a grand, you're looking at not eating just under 6 Honey Stinger wafels, three times a week, for a year.
So if I instead eat an entire pack of the Daelmans stroopwafels five or six days per week, I will have earned a whole new DA groupset in time for Christmas. T'riffic. I'll tell my other half.
No, it's 18 wafels per week - six per ride. Or 2 1/4 packets, so £4.47 outlay at Tesco's. Just make sure you're putting aside the £20.73 you're saving each time someplace safe, or it'll go on a Magimix or sofa.
Yeah, I bumped up the intake a bit in order to get it in time for Christmas. Also, I just really like stroopwafels.
Or I could use it to buy more stroopwafels, earning me even more money... Ohmigod, have we just discovered the secret to financial perpetual motion? We could all retire happy. (And fat, given all the stroopwafels.)
Having more choice of any nutrition is a good thing, after 3/4 hours in the saddle taste buds can get tired of power bars and gels. Were always keen to try new things for ourselves.
Why wouldn't this be ideal as a mid-ride snack? I've eaten stroopwaffles in road races instead of gels etc and they're perfect - about as much energy and sugar as it's possible to get in that space and actually taste nice. They were being given out at the RvV sportif which was ideal, ate about 7 ...
True, if some suitably cool artisan place down the road was selling them, I'm sure they'd taste amaze balls!
But I do try to eat organic as much as possible; I accept I pay far more money than 'normal'. People are free to think me a mug but it makes me feel good and I'm fortunate in that the extra money is of no consequence to me.
*edit: I haven't actually bought them in the UK but I'm not sure why they would be different from the US. I work in Dallas 3 months a year and they sell them at a Trader Joes down the road - they're definately organic according to the US criteria.
These are delicious. I'd rather pay more for something that tastes great and is organic compared to that crap from tesco that tastes like cardboard.
[COMMENT MADE WITHOUT HAVING TRIED PRODUCT IN QUESTION KLAXON]
I can 100% guarantee the Daelmans wafels don't taste like cardboard -they are so good they're worse than crack*. Can't have them in the house.
FYI Tesco don't *make* the Daelmans wafels. Many other shops stock them, including twee artisanal bijou delicatessens, if that will make them taste better for you
(I hereby retract my previous statement that the Honey Stinger ones aren't organic. For some reason the US website trumpets that they are, but the UK one doesn't. Maybe different definitions of 'organic' betwixt US and UK)
* I assume, based on descriptions of crack addiction, with usual caveats regarding senses of humour, YMMV etc.
The ingredient list looks OK, though there are some differences in what is permitted.
For importing organic food, even if the product itself meets the EU organic standards, there are additional hoops to jump through. I'm guessing that they dosn't want the cost of Defra import authorisation + certification + different packaging info to that shown (they cannot legally make organic claims in EU without being certified and displaying the 'leaf' logo etc correctly).
Tregroes in Ceredigion have been making very similar (gorgeous) toffee waffles for years, they are 18p each in Waitrose. They do milk / plain chocolate covered ones too
Yes you pay more for organic but not that much more!
Honey Stinger selling products at rip-off prices. Not really a surprise for a company part owned by Lance Armstrong.
OTOH, where does this claim to be a energy/sports product?
It's just an individually-wrapped biscuit, surely? And if it's made with organic ingredients, it will necessarily be more expensive.
Their website has as a menu: ENERGY BARS ENERGY CHEWS ENERGY GELS STINGER WAFFLES PROTEIN BARS
and the product description says:
"...Honey Stinger Energy Waffles make a great tasting snack. For years, waffles have been sold throughout Europe and eaten by professional cyclists, so Honey Stinger decided to create its own take on the waffle..."
Now you could read that as a totally innocent statement of fact: 'professional cyclists' no doubt *do* eat waffles. The inference is that - juxtaposed with all the other specifically bike-fuel-related products - that they eat them on a bike for energy. Which, I believe, is bollocks.
It's not organic.
Problem with those Daelmans waffles is they're too tasty. I can't see a pack of them even making it to the end of the driveway if I took those on a ride
Typical load of marketing waffle.
so like daelmans stroopwafels but 8x the price?
***£1.40 PER WAFFLE***
"each Lemon Waffle has 160kcal, 4g fat of which 3g saturates, 22g carbohydrate of which 18g is sugar, 1.1g of fibre and 0.15g of salt."
I call marketing-repackaging-cyclist-as-muggins-BS on this product.
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=284998236 - also available from the Co-Op and many other places.
£1.99 PER EIGHT WAFELS from Tesco. Or, in old money, £0.25 EACH. That's more than a fifth the price of these ones.
But how do they compare, nutritionally?
Per 100g:
Daelmans wafel // Stinger Honey wafel
Energy: 457 calories // 482 calories
Protein: 3.5g // 0g
Carbs: 63g // 67g
Fat: 21g // 23g
In other words, indistinguishable.
If you buy these, you're a mug. Simple.
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