OTE Nutrition

I recently happened upon a nutrition company called OTE. I forget how. Anyway I was taken with their packaging and the fact they include a soya protein recovery mix in their range as well as a whey one, for the true die-hard vegetarians out there.

The packaging for the range is pretty nifty. All the powders and gels come in sachets with rip tops, as is quite often the case with these sorts of things, the difference being that you get a choice of two tear tabs giving you a smaller opening for small necked bottles or to allow you to sip a gel, and a bigger opening to allow you to gulp the gel or for wide neck bottles. This appeals to me. No more drink mix powder spilt all over the worktop! I've tried both options with the gel and found sipping it easier, but it's good to have the choice. I also found the gel sachets easy to open even with sweaty hands.

I've tried the gels on runs of 10 miles and over as this is when I would normally use them. I took one on each occasion at around 6-7 miles and certainly noticed them helping. They didn't upset my stomach and I rather enjoyed the consistency; not too sticky or thick and fluid enough that I didn't feel the need to take it with water, as I have done with some others I've tried in the past. I'm not sure why I keep trying orange gels, I really don't like the flavour all that much. I know it's all synthetic but these taste the most synthetic to my pallet. I really enjoyed the lemon lime though, it's got a nice freshness to it and the pineapple caffeine gel did amazing things for my energy levels in the latter third of my last long run. Tastes pretty nice too! I like these just as much as the nectar fuel gels I currently use and will likely mix and match them.

I used the recovery drinks after my longer runs and made them up in my shaker bottle with 300ml water. It mixes well, leaving no clumps, but I did find the Soya Protein had a bit of a powdery taste which the Whey Protein did not. They're not quite as thick or as satisfying as the For Goodness Shakes chocolate drinks I usually use but otherwise they perform just as well.

The energy drinks are probably my least favourite products in the range. They mix really easily to give a smooth drink but I found they had quite a soft taste, as opposed to something like Lucozade which I find a bit sharper and cuts through my thirst, these didn't do much to quench it even though they certainly helped my energy levels. Blackcurrant was my least favourite, with orange coming in second and vanilla first, which was the exact opposite of what I expected from these. I think the consistency suits the vanilla well and it makes a change from fruity drinks.

You can try a gel for free when you sign up to their newsletter. Just click here and follow the instructions. They also do a starter pack for £20 including all the products I've tried here plus a sports bottle.