Tested : Pete’s Outdoor Provisions Energy Bars Review.

·Wednesday 28 July 2021

Outdoor Provisions’ Energy Bars aim to provide small, light and not dusty trail food in a mix of classic cake flavours.

Pete has been putting Outdoor Provisions’ Bara Brith, Parkin, Kendal Mint Cake and Cherry Bakewell Energy Bars to the test, to see if they can provide something other than the usual intestine-mangling energy options we’ve become used to of late.

Key features:

No Refined Sugars
Vegan
Source of Fibre
Balanced Energy Release
176 kcals
Compostable packaging
45g
£1.90 each
Shop.OutdoorProvisions.co.uk

Discount code WIDEOPEN15 gets 15% off all bars and butters until Sunday at midnight (01/08/21).

We’ve all been there. Picked up some questionable ‘energy’ items from a supermarket ahead of a few big rides, only to find your insides kicking up a fuss midway round your route.

Outdoor Provisions have tried to go the other way with their Energy Bars, with the ingredient list being firstly all-natural, vegan and with no refined sugar, plus a texture that isn’t either somewhere between dust or clay while you’re trying to wheeze air through it as it seals your jaw shut.

Each bar weighs in at 45g and contains 740KJ of energy, 176KCAL, 6.5G of fat and 24G of carbs. They’re available individually or as multi-packs with the option of a helpful subscription setup where OutdoorProvision can keep sending you bars every 14 days, 30 days, 60 days or 90 days.

As a Welshman with a long history of demolishing loaves of Bara Brith, that was the first one to go. It’s not far off spot on, although I think it needs more dried fruit and honey to be on the money. Choc Kendal Mint Cake doesn’t really do it for me, but the other two are solid additions to the range, and you’ll no doubt find one to your taste.

Crucially, they do the job of fuelling you well, and making you feel like you’ve actually eaten some food, rather than some 3D-printed aberration that is going to liquefy your intestines. They don’t take up much room, or add to much weight to your pack, and the tough, yet compostable packing means you can leave a couple in your bag to save you in an emergency.

What do we think?

Outdoor Provisions have achieved what they set out to do by creating a tasty, fuel-rich set of bars that will keep you going without giving you any nasty sugar spikes or an upset tum tum. They might not be cheap, but neither is toilet paper!