I was first introduced to stroopwafels from some good friends from the Netherlands whom I meet every September at the WHPSC. They are a double layer of wafers with a caramel based filling between. They are meant to be eaten with a hot beverage; you can warm them up by placing them on top of a cup of tea as shown.
After my encounter with stroopwafels in Nevada, I soon discovered that they were also available in Canada, although they didn’t taste quite as good as the genuine Dutch article.
Then over the past few years, I noticed that several sport nutrition companies started selling them individually packaged. I was curious to see how all these products compared, so I took a closer look at the nutritional labels.
Here are the four brands that I am comparing, clockwise from upper left:
- “Jumbo” (I don’t know if this is a brand) labeled “with butter), hand carried from the Netherlands via Nevada.
- Double Dutch, a Canadian brand available at No Frills and Metro.
- Daelmans, imported from the Netherlands and bought at Denningers. I can’t remember how much it was, but when I go back to Denningers, I’ll update the post.
- näak, which I assume to be representative of similar products from other sport nutrition companies (such as Stinger).
Here are the nutritional labels.
This is a summary table. All the columns to the right of “kcal per wafer” are listed per 100 g weight.
So what is the bottom line here?
- All of they are similar in terms of the number of calories per wafer.
- Perhaps the most interesting thing is to compare the first two, since they are available locally. You will see that the nutritional content is very similar. You could argue that the näak has more sodium and other trace minerals, but this is nothing that can’t be compensated for by a single multivitamin and/or some electrolyte. Of course the cost difference between these two is huge. You are basically paying for the individual packaging.
- The two dutch sourced wafers do not bother to list the trace minerals.
- In terms of taste, I’d say that the Jumbo wafers from my friends come out at the top. The taste is definitely more buttery than the others, perhaps because they are “mit roomboter”.
- The Double Dutch ones are probably the worst, but if are looking at them from the viewpoint of food as fuel on a bike ride, they are perfectly fine, and a nice break from energy gels and the like.
For me, I’ll pack some double dutch on my next long ride, and I’ll save the dutch ones for peaceful mornings at home.
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