Taste test: Readers review Science in Sport drinks, bars & chews

We asked five road.cc readers to use a selection of cycling nutrition products for a week. Here's what they had to say about the Science in Sport range.

Our tasters were recruited from Team road.cc. We asked Kirsty Diggory, Steve Hanna, Steve Swindells, Ian Upham, and Simon Tuck to score Science in Sport gels, bars and chews out of five for for taste, ease of use, performance and value. Here are the averages of their ratings: 

Note: Our tasters rated vaue for money based on RRP, but SiS products can be found heavily discounted — the prices below reflect that.

We also asked for their comments on their favourites. Here's some of what they said:

Simon Tuck: The SiS Rego protein is a big favourite of mine, so creamy and easy to mix. The only product of theirs I've tasted so far that I'm happy to pay the brand premium, and I'm really tight!

Steve Hanna: The SIS recovery drink has to be one of the worst tasting drinks I have ever had the misfortune to consume.

Steve Swindells: The SIS Go Hydro + Caffeine tabs (cola flavoured) were close behind the Honey Stinger Energy Bar as my favourite. It was a strange sensation tasting cola whilst riding as I associate it with a treat, but the flavour was not overpowering and made a really refreshing change. Performance wise they are probably no different to any tabs that I've had, but they were much tastier.

The other SIS products I was much less impressed with as they were overpowering with flavour, particularly the blackcurrant energy powder.

Kirsty Diggory: Having used SIS products for some years these products will fall straight in line with long-standing products.

Ian commented on each product individually, so his thoughts are below.

Go Energy drink — £15.85 for 1.6kg

Ian Upham: Very nice tasting, just like Ribena. Stupidly large packaging, but very nice tasting.

Rego Rapid Recovery — £23.39 for 1.6kg

Ian Upham: The vanilla flavour really did not sit well with me. That's strange considering I love vanilla ice cream, but as a drink, it made me feel sick. I couldn’t finish it.

Go Hydro and Caffeine — £4.99 for 20 tabs

Ian Upham: I did not like this. Why would you make a product taste like flat Coke? I genuinely do not know a single person who likes flat Coke. Would you drink fizzy tea?

Go Isotonic Energy Gel Box of 30 x 60ml — £20.99

Ian Upham: The Tropical flavour gel is very nice. I know the taste of “Tropical” is very generic but I guess it fits the description. It tasted nice, easy to eat and as it states, I did not need a drink afterwards. The packaging was a little hard to open and that the gel was very sticky, as they all are.

Go Energy Bar Box of 24 x 65g — £18.49

Ian Upham: The Cherry Vanilla flavour bar I tried was surprisingly hard to eat. Almost too chewy. Made up of what looks like rice and goo. The flavour wasn’t to my liking either.