TESTED: MegaBake Witch Eater Bar
The market is flooded with complex sports nutrition, but stomachs, teeth and tastebuds might tire of the sickly sweet flavours of gels, and the hard work or consistency of heavily processed bars.
The market is flooded with complex sports nutrition, but stomachs, teeth and tastebuds might tire of the sickly sweet flavours of gels, and the hard work or consistency of heavily processed bars. Bananas are the favourite of many, but have their limitations as they really don’t pack well, and don’t respond to heavy landings.
Megabake are based in Brisbane, and ‘Director of Baking’, Brett Ledger has crafted the Witch Eater energy bar over many years, aiming to get something that tastes great, has awesome nutritional value, sits easily in your stomach and has the least processing possible. In his words, “The Witch Eater looks, tastes and satisfies like real food with the performance of a technical product.”
I first saw the Megabake Witch Eater bars in a race bag at a local event. While I’m no data nerd, I was impressed that a compact 70g bar could pack 1110kJ of energy, with 6.9g of protein and 41.7g of carbohydrate. That’s about 2.5 highly processed cheap muesli bars, as a comparison. If you’re concerned about getting the right numbers for what you’re packing, you’ll love the Witch Eater.
You can get all the nutrition you need in all sorts of ways, from drinks, gels, real food, complex combinations of low quality ingredients and E numbers… but the ingredients list here is amazing, as you can recognise everything. Apricots, oats, peanuts, dates, figs, rice flour, chia seeds, dark chocolate… there’s some maltodextrin to help them bind, but essentially the ingredients list reads like a well stocked pantry.
The mix has been designed to offer the right combinations of fast and slow acting carbohydrates, as well as the right amount of fat and protein for satiety and ease of digestion.
What really won me over is how well they worked. One Witch Eater bar was enough fuel in the pockets for a 2-3 hour ride, but it was easy to have another stored if I thought I’d head out a little longer. The wrapper is easy enough to open with gloves, and they break easily enough you can have half now and half later if you preferred. They don’t turn into a sticky mess, and don’t crumble or melt.
Riding and training exclusively with Witch Eaters for a week, I was really happy with them. They’re sweet without being sickly sweet. They’re moist enough to eat even if you’re thirsty, and they didn’t leave me with stomach cramps. Although with such a large amount of dried fruit a binge on the bars might not yield a great response.
Witch Eater bars are vegan, but not yet gluten free. Brett has said he’s working on it, but is yet to find something that works as well as oats! These bars, and the idea behind them, highlight that natural foods with minimal processing still have their place in sports nutrition. Even if you still choose to reach for gels for race day, the Witch Eater bars deserve a place in your backpack due to their great taste, quality, and natural ingredients. They’re currently in some bike shops, but you can also order direct from their website.
Hits: Taste, ingredients, consistency
RRP: $3.50
From: megabakeenergybar.com.au
