Energy/Carb vs. Electrolyte Drinks, Bars, Gels, etc.

I recently just about ran out of "energy drink" stuff, as well as bars and gels. I've recently been using Camelbak's Elixer and really liking it. I spent this past winter trying out various things (about a 8 products in all), and Elixer was the overall winner. I've known about Nuun as well, so now that I was about to go buy more stuff, I took a look at both, and asked friends if they'd tried them. Nobody had tried both, and I think nobody had even tried any of the tablet (Camelbak or Nuun) kinds. First, I will note right off, both the Camelbak and Nuun products are electrolyte only drink tablets, as compared to say Powerbar Energy, which has carbs as well (and is my general favorite of the carb drink powders). But, one of the things that came up in discussion was cost. Apparently some backpacking magazine said the Nuun stuff was expensive. Well, I checked, and in fact, it is FAR cheaper than any of the others! Here's what I found and wrote back to friends:

I was just over at REI, and picked up both some more Camelbak Elixer, plus some Nuun. I got both the original lemon/lime Elixer, plus the new orange one, and then a citrus Nuun. But, the reviewer is way off on price aspect, unless you use a sort of more complex comparison. For example:

• Powerbar energy drink, at Colorado Cyclist's sale price of $18/25 (16 oz per) servings => $0.72/serving
• Nuun tube of 12 tablets, 16 oz serving per tablet, at $5.20/tube => $0.43/serving
• Camelbak tube of 12 tablets, at $8/tube => $0.66/serving

Now, technically, Camelbak says 24oz serving per tablet, which is perfect, because that's how I do it: one tablet per large water bottle (and that seems to work well for 4 tabs per 100oz bladder), so that changes things to add 50% more cost, if you want to be fair, to the others, making it per serving costs of:

• Powerbar drink: $1.08
• Nuun: $0.65
• Camelbak: $0.66

The reason I said above that a more complex comparison would be, that the Camelbak and Nuun ones are basically just electrolytes, no carbs, whereas the Powerbar/Gatorade/etc have carbs. Interestingly, I used to never touch solid food on rides, even pretty big rides in the 4+ hour range (once they got say 6 hour ish, then we'd be carrying lunch). But these days, I've found that I really do much better on taking on "food" of some sort. "real" foods, like PB&J sandwich work great, but for speed, the Clif Mojo bars are my hands down favorites. Not too sweet, but great mix of carb and protein and they taste fucking awesome (yes, fucking awesome). I use gels too, but the Mojos just really create a great mix I think when combined with these electrolyte drinks.

So, granted, this comparison has nothing to do with effectiveness, but I've found that the Elixer has worked really well for me.