Enervit Liquid Gel 60ml

Enervit's Liquid Gel sits somewhere in between a gel and an energy drink, making it more versatile than a lot of products, helped by the resealable pouch.

• Pros: Easy to swallow and digest
• Cons: Tastes quite sweet

The three flavours I tried – Black Cherry with Caffeine, Orange, and Lemon – taste quite sweet and a little 'manufactured', but I found they sat easy on the stomach. The ingredients are gluten-free too.

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A single pouch delivers 112kcal and 28g of carbohydrate, which I found enough to get me out of trouble if the dreaded bonk reared its head for around 45 minutes to an hour of riding.

The Black Cherry with Caffeine contains what Enervit says are high caffeine levels (42mg/100ml), and recommends sticking to just two pouches a ride, or four if it is a really long, drawn out effort.

I suppose it all comes down to how you react to caffeine in the first place. As a big coffee drinker, I could feel the hit if I was running out of fuel but not to the point where it had any adverse effects, even taking two pouches one after the other.

With water being the main ingredient, the gel is really easy to swallow – ideal if you need to fuel in the middle of a race or time-trial and don't have the time to ease off the power.

The screw cap might not be ideal in those competition scenarios, though, rather than just tearing the corner off a sachet with your teeth like most gels, but for more sedate riding it is actually a big bonus. You can take just half the gel, for instance, before replacing the cap and sticking it back in your pocket.

> How to fuel right for sportives and long rides

For a 60ml pouch the £2.85 rrp doesn't seem too extreme, considering that most gel sachets at half that size come in around the £1.50 mark. Torq's 47g Energy Gel is £1.85, for instance.

On the whole, the Liquid Gel pouches are handy to keep in your pocket, and thanks to how easy they are to drink and digest I'd imagine they'll work for most people no matter how hard you are riding.

Verdict

Very easy to swallow and gentle on the stomach