Skratch Labs Fruit Drops Blueberry

The Skratch Labs Fruit Drops are something a little different in the world of cycling nutrition – and if you are sick of shot blocks, gels and bars, these might be just the sweets to pack into your back pocket on your next ride. The blueberry-flavoured drops we tested proved easy to consume when I was riding, and they have a sweet but not sickly taste to them. Though I wasn't quite such a fan of the packaging, which I didn't find the easiest to handle.

The Skratch Labs Fruit drops are essentially candy gumdrops made of sugar and pectin (a soluble fibre that's found in fruits) that are designed to offer you energy on longer or higher-intensity rides. Their look isn't dissimilar to that of some drop-shaped sweets you might find in your supermarket's confectionary aisle, but Skratch Labs says these chews are not like others.

The brand claims they were created for those rides when you're 'going hard and the best thing to keep you going is a steady source of carbohydrates that won't destroy your stomach or gut'. Skratch Labs also says they're free of any unnecessary ingredients and that they come in easy-to-palate flavours. Real fruit is used as an ingredient, and each drop is covered in a dusting of granulated sugar and sour powder for function and taste.

Unlike liquid gels, the drops' chewy texture allows them to held up in the stomach. As they slowly digest, they gradually release their carbs to give you the energy you need when you're riding.

There are four flavours available: orange, raspberry, sour cherry (with caffeine) and the blueberry I tested. The ingredients vary slightly based on the flavour with some featuring sodium and some not. The blueberry drops are made from sugar, glucose syrup, water, pectin, blueberry, citric acid, blueberry juice concentrate, lactic acid and green tea extract.

Each 50g pouch provides you with 38g of carbohydrates, and according to the packaging this constitutes two servings. Skratch Labs recommends that you 'try eating one serving per half hour of exercise to start' – or one pouch per hour. This is pretty much what I'd follow with any on-the-bike nutrition, as on a harder ride, I'd happily consume 80g or even more carbs per hour – or two pouches of Fruit Drops.

Could I eat two packs of these per hour? Yes, absolutely. Both their taste and texture strongly resemble those of sweets, but they are not overly sweet, and the blueberry flavour was so good I struggled to not snack on them unnecessarily. The drops themselves are not sticky, which is good because it's easy to have them one at a time (each pouch has about 10 of them) or to chuck them all in at once – whatever your preference. I can also say I had no digestive problems when consuming nothing but these when I was riding.

My only real criticism is the packaging. It's not that it's bad per se, but to open it you need to tear the package – which can leave you with a torn section. When you're riding, you really want something that's easy to handle with one hand, which isn't the case with these.

Once you have opened the package, you're left with the possibility of the torn section becoming roadside litter and an open package with drops bouncing around inside it. On the road, they do stay inside the package long enough for you to consume them, but on gravel, I mourned a few that bounced out and onto the trail – a little bonus winter nutrition for sweet-toothed wildlife...

Value

You can get the fruit drops as individual pouches or as a box of 10 for £24.95. When bought in bulk, this means each pouch costs £2.49, and for that, you get 38g of carbs.

By comparison, the SIS Beta Fuel Dual Source Energy Chews provide 190kcal and 46g of carbs per package. Liam really liked them for their taste and their easy-to-digest nature. They're £2.20 per pop or cheaper if you buy in bulk,

Perhaps the most well-known chews, the Clif Shot Bloks top the list with each 60g stick containing 48g of carbs, around 24g of which are sugars. They retail at about £3 per pack, or £2.70 if you buy in bulk, and Dave found them a very tasty treat.

And for the sake of comparison... Haribo Starmix gives you about 38g of carbs per 50g (23g of sugars) and will cost you just £1.25 for a 175g package. They do seem to feature more ingredients than the Skratch Labs Fruit Drops and you don't get added sodium or caffeine.

Conclusion

The Skratch Labs Fruit Drops contain pleasingly few ingredients, they're not the most expensive energy product around and I enjoyed riding them on long rides – but I did find the packaging a bit of a let-down, even more so for gravel and off-road riding.

Verdict

Great tasting chew option for on-the-bike nutrition – but in a hard-to-handle packaging