Kendal mint cake

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Profpointy

Legendary Member
We took a load of Kendal mint cake on a caving expedition to Morocco, since the more common caving snacks Mars bars and chocolate would melt in the hot climate (above ground before getting to any caves). It turns out that Kendal mint cake also melts into liquid sugar goo in a hot climate and is equally useless.
 
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Wobbling

Regular
Love Kendal mint cake will guarantee a sugar rush no good for endurance but great for moral .The post on Graham Obree I agree with every word in the new world of quick and slow release carbs for short time trials and the complicated compounds of nutrition to give best results I found his recommendation of a jam sandwich to be the most effective and relatively inexpensive
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
I ate an energy bar that was exactly the same as Kendal Mint Cake (although my friend who makes them rolled his eyes and said it was different) and I had a very rapid bathroom event the next morning, same as you get after eating a bag of jelly babies or Haribos. It's the corn syrup.
 
Location
London
Marzipan. Graeme Obree swears by it, and having taken some on many long distance rides I agree with him :-)
What's the best source of it?
Do you buy battenburg and stuff like that or do you buy it in some sort of raw form from the cookery section?
For ride energy food i generally use my homemade stuff, mix of syrup, oats, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sometimes some ground or chopped nuts. The theory is that it's a mix of slow and fast release stuff. Seems to work.
When younger i did have a sort of reverence for kendal mint cake as if it was somehow magical, a brit gift to the world, probably because a primary school teacher was taking product placement bungs. But, yes, years later i realised that it's just sugar.
 
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Twilkes

Guru
What's the best source of it?
Do you buy battenburg and stuff like that or do you buy it in some sort of raw form from the cookery section?
For ride energy food i generally use my homemade stuff, mix of syrup, oats, oeanut butter, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sometimes some ground or chopped nuts. The theory is that it's a mix of slow and fast release stuff. Seems to work.
When younger i did have a sort of reverence for kendal mint cake as if it was somehow magical, a brit gift to the world, probably because a primary school teacher was taking product placement bungs. But, yes, years later i realised that it's just sugar.

Yes you can buy marzipan blocks in the cookery section - I stumbled upon 500g for 88p so I bought four (!) but it's usually a bit more expensive than that. Ironically you do want the cheap stuff, this one was about 25% almonds and the rest sugars, whereas top quality marzipan is 70% almonds, which might not be enough sugar to make it worthwhile for cycling.
 
Location
London
Yes you can buy marzipan blocks in the cookery section - I stumbled upon 500g for 88p so I bought four (!) but it's usually a bit more expensive than that. Ironically you do want the cheap stuff, this one was about 25% almonds and the rest sugars, whereas top quality marzipan is 70% almonds, which might not be enough sugar to make it worthwhile for cycling.
Many thanks.
Useful info. Happy that amidst some blathering in some parts of cchat this morning i have discovered something useful. Will check out the cookery section of local sainsburys aldi lidl. Last two and last one in particular are the source of most of my homemade snack ingredients.
 
Location
London
I ate an energy bar that was exactly the same as Kendal Mint Cake (although my friend who makes them rolled his eyes and said it was different) and I had a very rapid bathroom event the next morning, same as you get after eating a bag of jelly babies or Haribos. It's the corn syrup.
Did he eat any or was it just stuff he gave to others who he'd decided were eye rolling material? Did you dare ask if it had the same effect on him?
Am always wary of eating stuff which may cause the bowels to kick into life on long bike rides.
 
Location
London
I found his recommendation of a jam sandwich to be the most effective and relatively inexpensive
Have often thought that if i run out of snack on tour the simplest thing would be to pop into a lidl or aldi for some bread and one of their neat small plastic tubs of peanut butter. Easily stored on the bike, far less potentially messy than a jar of jam. Have the idea that if need be i could keep going on this for a couple of days or so as long as i periodically corrected/expanded my diet.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Did he eat any or was it just stuff he gave to others who he'd decided were eye rolling material? Did you dare ask if it had the same effect on him?
Am always wary of eating stuff which may cause the bowels to kick into life on long bike rides.
He makes the brand so of course his is far better than Kendal Mint Cake even though it looked and tasted exactly the same!
 

Twilkes

Guru
Yes you can buy marzipan blocks in the cookery section - I stumbled upon 500g for 88p so I bought four (!) but it's usually a bit more expensive than that. Ironically you do want the cheap stuff, this one was about 25% almonds and the rest sugars, whereas top quality marzipan is 70% almonds, which might not be enough sugar to make it worthwhile for cycling.

As a public health announcement, I should advise that of the six 500g blocks of marzipan I bought, there is now only one left, and I am still to discover its efficacy as a cycling fuel as it was all consumed inside my kitchen, and most of within three feet of the cupboard in which it was stored. :smile:

Be careful out there.
 
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rogerzilla

Legendary Member
KMC is basically sugar. Sugar (sucrose) has a middling GI as your body needs to hydrolyse it into glucose and fructose before it's useful, but this makes you thirsty and you can do better. The oats in a flapjack will keep providing energy for longer.
 

AuroraSaab

Veteran
It might have been mentioned before but Home Bargains sell lovely flapjack for 29p a piece. The almond one is especially nice, but they do cherry, coconut, plain, and choc covered. About 200 plus calories but very scrummy.
 
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