Sick of seeing tiny bitten off bit of gel packets littering the trails Mark Wolff, Director of 32Gi knew he had to come up with a better packaging idea to reduce the amount of rubbish being dropped in rides and races. Sick of seeing tiny bitten off bit of gel packets littering the trails Mark Wolff, Director of 32Gi knew he had to come up with a better packaging idea to reduce the amount of rubbish being dropped in rides and races.
The solution is ingeniously simple, a ridged backed gel sachet with a break point built in down the middle. All you do is take the gel in one hand and break it away from you, by forcing the ends down, eat as you normally would eat a gel and then fold it back upon itself in the other direction, closing up the perforation so that your jersey pocket doesn’t get sticky when you put the used packaging back.
32Gi have dubbed it snap packaging and were quick to patent the design too. It goes a long way to solve one of Full Sus’s perennial bugbears, that of riders littering. Without a tear off strip to drop or, worse, spit out, the snap packaging leaves riders with two options. Drop one large piece of litter, which is easier to find and pick up, but not ideal. (In fact it being one big piece of litter should help you spot riders in the act of littering. And if you do, you have our permission to ram them off their bikes.) The second option is the better one, because it’s one big piece of litter than folds in on itself (I only reiterate it because some riders are clearly afraid of a bit of gel on their kit) and it’s easy just to put back into your pocket.
The environmental pitch out the way, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The 32Gi gel is a brown rice syrup based gel. The reason behind this choice is that the alternative, maltodextrin from corn starch is obtained from Genetically Modified (GMO) corn and 32Gi prides itself on the fact that they are concerned to the health of their consumers and won’t compromise by using any Genetically Modified ingredients in their products. Brown rice syrup has a GI of 98, consists of around 45% maltose, 3% glucose, and 52% maltotriose, and is easy on the digestive system.
I’m personally not a fan of gels (I can’t handle the texture generally), but I found the 32Gi pleasant in texture and flavour. The snap packet is also very easy to use on the go, both on the bike and when running. I preferred the vanilla flavour as it has a more neutral flavour that, in my mind at least, goes down well during sport. The coffee flavour is still pretty nice too, and tastes just like those after dinner coffee sweets.
RRP R18.95 www.32gi.com.
