Summary
Three jobs. Three formats. Same German brand.
Goat Bar is the everyday oat-and-egg-white snack — 14 g protein, 11 g oats, dates and honey, no sugar alcohols. Hydroload is the hypotonic bottle: carbs plus a five-electrolyte matrix in a pink grapefruit sachet. Perfect NRGY is the race gel — 20 g dual-carb (dextrose + dextrin), no fructose, 188 mg sodium, coconut water, 40 ml and thin enough to drink.
This is not a 40 g unit system. The gel is a 20 g hit; you need three an hour if you want 60 g. The bar is food, not a 70.3 chew. Used for what each one is, the pack works.
PROS
– Goat Bar tastes like food. Short ingredient list. 14 g protein
– Perfect NRGY is thin, vegan, fructose-free — easy on a sensitive gut
– 188 mg sodium in the gel is actually useful
– Hydroload covers drink-mix hydration without a sweet bomb
– Three flavours on the bar, two on the gel, grapefruit on the sachet
CONS
– Gel is 20 g. Three packets an hour for 60 g — pocket maths adds up
– No fructose in the gel, so you will not stack to 100 g/h from this range alone
– Goat Bar has fibre and fat. Pre-ride or recovery, not mid-threshold
– Hydroload sachets are another wrapper in the kit bag
Best For
Athletes who want a clean everyday bar, a hypotonic bottle and a light gel that does not need a water chaser.
Goat Bar: 55 g | 14 g protein | ~20–22 g carb | ~6–8 g fat | vegetarian
Perfect NRGY: 40 ml | 20 g carb | 188 mg sodium | vegan | ~€2.49
Hydroload: 25 g sachet | up to 18 g carb | Na, K, Mg, Ca, Cl | pink grapefruit
Initial impressions
Gym brand, endurance kit
ESN is better known for shakes than triathlon pockets. The endurance line is the interesting bit: Perfect NRGY and Hydroload are built for sessions, Goat Bar is built for the hours around them.
Goat Bar packs like a muesli bar. Salty peanut lists two egg whites, 15 peanuts, one date, dark choc, honey. Apple cinnamon is eggs, almonds, date, honey, apple, raisin. Berries is egg whites, almonds, date, berries, cashew, honey. All claim 14 g protein and 11 g oats. Texture in the hand is porridge-in-a-wrapper, not a soft gym bar.
Perfect NRGY sachets are slim 40 ml sticks. Lemon ginger and green apple. “Duo Carb Matrix / Coconut Water / Sodium” printed on the front. Hydroload is a foil sachet, 25 g, pink grapefruit, one serving.
FIT
Pocket, bottle, gut
Goat Bar fits a jersey pocket. It does not vanish. Eat it before the session or on an easy spin. Fibre at 5 g and fat at 6–8 g is why it is not a race chew.
Perfect NRGY is the opposite. Thin hydro gel. Tear, drink, no paste on the teeth. No water required. That is the design. Three an hour is the brand line for 60 g. Do that on a long ride and you are carrying nine packets for three hours. Plan the bento.
Hydroload wants 450 ml of cold water per sachet. Hypotonic on purpose — fluid first, 18 g carb second. Grapefruit is sharp. Fine in a bottle, not a flavour you hide in a coffee.
Gut: no fructose in the gel is the selling point for athletes who lose the argument with 2:1 mixes. It also caps how high you can go. Pair Hydroload plus gels for 50–60 g/h. For 90–120 g/h you still need another carb source.
Comfort & Performance
Bar for the day. Gel for the session. Drink for the sweat.
Goat Bar is the product you finish. Salty peanut is the one we reached for. Apple cinnamon is breakfast. Berries is the sweet one. Egg-white protein plus oats holds you through a morning without the sugar-alcohol chew of a typical 20 g protein bar. Use it after a swim, in the car to the lake, not at 180 bpm.
Perfect NRGY does the mid-session job. 20 g is a small unit, which is kinder if you have not trained 40 g hits. Lemon ginger has a kick. Green apple is cleaner. Sodium at 188 mg per gel is the useful number — most light gels forget salt. Coconut water powder is the potassium/magnesium line. Thin consistency is why you can take it on the run without a sip of water.
Hydroload is the bottle. Five electrolytes, modest carb, hypotonic. Pink grapefruit stays interesting past the first 500 ml. Use it on the turbo and on warm outdoor rides when plain water is not enough and a 60 g mix is too much.
Together: bar before, Hydroload on the bike, gel every 20 minutes if you are targeting 60 g/h. That is a coherent short-course / hybrid plan. It is not a long-course 120 g/h system.
Durability
Bars survive a kit bag. Gels and Hydroload sachets are standard foil — do not leave them on a hot dash.
ESN batches are lab-tested on the brand’s own line. Perfect NRGY says “tested for athletes” on pack. Check current batch testing if you race under a code.
VERDICT
Buy the Goat Bar for the week. Buy Perfect NRGY if you want a thin, fructose-free gel with real sodium. Buy Hydroload for the bottle.
We would keep all three in the drawer. We would not try to build a full Ironman fuel plan from 20 g gels alone. Used as a snack plus a short-course fuel kit, ESN is an easy recommend.
