Summary
Forty grams of carbohydrate per packet. Real fruit. Informed Sport.
MNSTRY is a Stuttgart fuel brand built around one idea: every unit is 40 g of carb so you can count without a spreadsheet. Gel 40 is the race piece — 60 ml, 2:1 glucose:fructose, maltodextrin plus real fruit, low sodium on most flavours so you can pair it with a saltier drink. We also ran Chew 40 (1:0.8, raspberry), Performance Bar cocoa (2:1) and the Porridge Bar (almond, raisin, bourbon vanilla).
If you want a 22 g supermarket gel, this is the wrong aisle. If you want fewer packets in a 70.3 pocket and flavours that do not taste like perfume, start here.
PROS
– 40 g per unit — fewer packets for 80–120 g/h
– Real fruit in the gels (mango, peach, lemon, apricot)
– 2:1 gels sit well at Olympic / 70.3 intensity
– Chew 40 and Performance Bar give you a solid option when a gel is the last thing you want
– Porridge Bar is the pre-ride / long-easy piece
– Informed Sport on the range
– No artificial sweeteners in the gels we ran
CONS
– Sachets are big. Plan pocket space
– Low sodium on most Gel 40 flavours — you still need a drink with salt
– Porridge Bar is endurance food, not a race-intensity chew
– Price is European premium (~€2.70–€3.00 per gel)
Best For
Athletes who already train the gut and want a 40 g unit they can mix across gel, chew and bar without changing the maths.
Gel 40: 40 g carb, 2:1, 60 ml, ~160 kcal, from ~€2.79
Chew 40 Raspberry: 40 g carb, 1:0.8, 46 g
Performance Bar Cocoa: 40 g carb, 2:1, 60 g
Porridge Bar: 70 g, slower oats / almond / raisin / vanilla
Batch testing: Informed Sport
Initial impressions
One number. Four formats.
MNSTRY’s whole range is built so a coach can say “two units an hour” and mean 80 g whether that is two gels or a gel and a bar. Gel 40 is the original and still the one you buy first. Flavours we had: mango (with real mango), peach, lemon, apricot. All 2:1. All 60 ml.
The sachets look like race kit — matte black, flavour in one colour, 40 G / 2:1 printed large enough to read in a bottle cage. They are longer than a classic 20–25 g gel. That is the trade for doubling the carb.
Chew 40 is the 1:0.8 solid — higher fructose share for athletes already sitting at 100 g/h plus. Performance Bar cocoa is the 2:1 chewable. Porridge Bar is the other job: oats and nuts before the gun, or in the first hours of a long ride when you still want something that feels like food.
FIT
How it sits in a pocket. How it sits in a gut.
Fit for fuel is two things: pack space and stomach.
The gel pack is long. Two in a trisuit pocket is tight; three is a fight. On the bike they live in a bento or jersey better than in a swim-skin. Tear notch is standard. Texture is thinner than a Maurten-style jelly — closer to a classic maltodextrin gel with fruit pulp in the mango.
Gut on the 2:1 gels was quiet at the doses we used (one unit per 25–30 min on a hard session, stacked toward 80 g/h with drink mix). That is the job. Train it first. 40 g in one hit is a lot if you still live on 20 g gels.
Chew 40 is pectin-set, raspberry, easy to portion. Performance Bar is denser — dates and oat flour in the cocoa 2:1 — and wants a few bites, not one inhale. Porridge Bar is a proper 70 g lump. Eat it before the race or in hour one, not at 200 bpm.
Comfort & Performance
Flavours you can repeat. Units you can count.
Taste is why these stay in the rotation. Mango is the one people finish. Peach and apricot are close. Lemon is the reset when everything else starts to taste sweet. None of them have the chemical aftertaste that makes the fourth gel a negotiation.
2:1 Gel 40 is the Olympic / 70.3 workhorse — up to ~90–100 g/h when you pair it with a 2:1 drink. Chew 40 at 1:0.8 is the piece you add when you are already pushing the glucose transporter and want more fructose in the mix. Do not stack 1:0.8 on top of 1:0.8 all day unless you have practised it.
Performance Bar cocoa does the mid-ride job when you are bored of sucking packets. 40 g, 2:1, 200 mg sodium on the current cocoa spec. Low fat, low fibre — that is why it belongs in intensity, not in a hiking snack.
Porridge Bar is the opposite clock. Oats, almond, raisin, bourbon vanilla. Slower. Better on the turbo warm-up or the first 90 minutes of a long brick than at 40 km into a 70.3 bike.
Sodium: most Gel 40 flavours are low salt on purpose so you dose salt in the bottle. Lemon and some others carry more. Read the pack. Do not assume the gel is your electrolyte plan.
Durability
Informed Sport on the gels and chew. Batch-tested. That matters if you race under an anti-doping code.
Sachets survived a jersey pocket and a hot car. Bars crush if you sit on them — pack the Porridge Bar in a hard case if it is going in a run belt.
Once opened, finish the gel. This is not a sip-and-save product.
VERDICT
The 40 g unit is the product. The flavours are why you keep buying it.
We would run Gel 40 as the default race gel and keep Chew 40 plus the Performance Bar in the same box so the session can change format without changing the maths. Porridge Bar stays in the morning pocket. European price. Real fruit. Quiet gut when you have trained it.
If you still gag at 25 g gels, doubling the dose will not fix that. If you already fuel at 80 g/h and hate fake mango, this range is an easy yes.
