Rokit Fuel Energy Mix-Final Review

Just a few weeks ago, we offered our impression of Rokit Fuel Cereal Cups, a whole food breakfast cereal that was very tasty, but we suggested you be aware of the nutritional information.  We originally intended to follow that review with this one for Rokit Fuel’s Energy Mix, but our schedule overwhelmed us with preparing for the Palmetto 200, so we’re just catching up now.  Thanks again to the folks at Rokit Fuel for the exciting and tasty samples.

Before we get into the energy mix review, let’s review a few things about Rokit Fuel.

About Rokit Fuel:

Rokit Fuel’s founding is a neat story.  Bernell Taylor, the company founder, made cereal as a gift for his neighbors in December of 2006. The gift recipients soon started calling Bernell asking how to get more of the cereal and when it would be on the market.  Quite a compliment.

March of 2008 was the first time Rokit Fuel was available to the public.  The hot cereal was included in the goodie bags for Canyonlands Half Marathon in Moab.

Rokit Fuel is founded on a pretty simple concept: active people need high quality food.  The cereals and energy mixes are made from natural whole foods, including grains, nuts, seeds, and fruit and natural additives, like bee pollen and herbs.

The ingredients are awesome, but if you didn’t notice, adding the seeds can bump up the fat content a bit.  For Stud Muffin, you’re looking at 12g of fat, or 18% of your DV and for Pumpkin Chocolate it’s 14g or 22% of your DV.  This is significantly less fat than you’d get if you eat out or have bacon and eggs, but it’s worth noting. Rokit Fuel has a response:

We know that criticism of the Holy Grail called the Nutrition Facts Label is tantamount to nutritional heresy.  We’re game.  While Rokit Fuel complies with all regulations of the FDA including the nutrition facts label, we feel there is a simpler and more effective way to determine what you put into your body.  Rather than counting calories, carbs, fat, protein, fiber, sugar and etc, we recommend you count the whole foods in what you eat.  We think you’ll be surprised.  We urge you to enjoy whole foods that enhance health and provide strength, energy, endurance and recovery for a long and active life.

We generally agree with Rokit Fuel here: if you’re the type of person that’s putting whole foods in your body and exercising, you probably don’t need to worry about the fat and calories here.  As their packaging says, “Not for Wussies.”

Those were our thoughts after testing the Cereal Cups and we continue to agree with their statement.  We aren’t obsessive about fat and calories, though we try to put high quality, good food in our bodies.  During our serious training, be it for an endurance run or the next Ironman, we’re cautious to not bulk up on low value calories, but the ingredients in Rokit Fuel provide excellent nutrition.

Review of Rokit Fuel Energy Mix:

Our first thought is, well, this is a slightly odd packaging.  The energy mix is cereal in a pouch.  You’re instructed to add water, milk,  or juice, and then squeeze the resulting mixture out.  Our first shot at this was a mess.  By the second try, we were getting more mix into our mouths than on our faces, so we considered that a win.  By the time we finished the samples, we had the hang of it.  Bottom line, this energy mix is a bit messier and more time consuming to eat than a energy bar, but we think it’s worth it.

As with the cereal cups, we enjoyed Stud Muffin more than the other flavors, though Holy Pinole was a close second.  Stud Muffin has a great balance of sweet and savory.  Pumpkin Chocolate is a no brainer for the chocolate lovers out there, but ended up being a bit too sweet for our tastes.

Most of our testing was done at home, using the energy mix about 20 minutes before heading out for a mid-morning run.  We did pack the energy mix on our bikes twice and used it with water from our bike bottle.  We prefer milk as the liquid, but both samples we used on the bike tasted good with water.  Again, mixing and eating the energy mix required stopping to open the packet, add water, mix it up, and consume.  Not a big deal for training rides or, honestly, for our Ironman or HIM distance races, but not the best choice for sprint to oly distance races.  When using these energy mix packets, we noticed no dips in our energy levels, even as we approached our standard lunch time.  They seemed to provide longer term energy than energy gels and other artificial products.  We feel, though we’re not nutritionists, that the whole and complex foods provided more stable and longer lasting energy for our training needs.

Final Impressions of Rokit Fuel Energy Mix:

We like the Energy Mix for the very same reasons we enjoyed the cereal cups: they taste great, they’re real food, they’re packed with great nutrients and goodies.  We realize they aren’t for everyone though.  If you lead an active life and are careful about what foods you put in your body, you’re going to enjoy these energy mixes.  These energy mixes aren’t designed, nor could we recommend them, for people with more sedentary lifestyles.

In spite of our awareness of the fat and calories, we don’t have any hesitation to recommend these energy mix packets to triathletes and other active people.  They’re full of whole foods, good calories, nuts for fat, and will keep you energized much longer than artificial foods and empty calories.  We found the price to be comparable, or less, than other nutrition bars and these bars feature real ingredients, not processed food.

Bottom line is they taste great, they’re full of healthy ingredients, but a bit messy…