I was sent two packets of Hüma Gel for review, one in each new flavor. Thoughts are always my own.

I reviewed Hüma Gel on my site a year ago, their original two flavors. They recently launched two new flavors: Blueberries and Mangoes. (Yes… there is only one pictured up there. I consumed it before taking a picture. Just picture that one with a yellow package and it says “Mangoes” instead, aiiiight?)

Since I already reviewed Hüma Gel once before, I just want to say the new flavors are tasty. I think I’m going to give Blueberries the edge in these two… but the original Apple Cinnamon is still my favorite in their lineup. Their gels are all natural ingredients; you can actually read the list and understand it, so I feel good about recommending these.

A while ago I started to do some research on “premium gels” and why they cost so much. And well… life got in the way of actually getting it posted. But one of the gels in my premium list was Hüma Gel, and I had reached out to them to get some details about why it costs so much (about $2.25 per packet). Here’s what they had to say:

1. Ingredients. How concerned is the person about the ingredients they consume? I know many athletes aren’t concerned at all (men in particular); they just want something cheap that works. However, for the athlete whose primary concern is health and fitness, ingredients are important. These people are spending hours upon hours of sweat and pain to be healthy, so they want to make sure the ingredients they’re ingesting support that goal rather than detract from it. Huma could save a lot of money by using ingredients like maltodextrin, potassium sorbate, or sodium benzoate…but that’s not what our customers want, so we only use 100% all-natural, real food ingredients whose names you can pronounce. Of course, there are side benefits to only using 100% all-natural, real food ingredients: smooth, easy to swallow consistency, no weird aftertaste, and zero stomach problems!
2. Cutting Edge Performance Research. Some of the energy gel companies have been using basically the same formula for 20+ years. Obviously, the human body doesn’t evolve very quickly, but our understanding of it has grown tremendously. Huma Gel takes the best of past research and combines it with the latest studies to bring you the best performance gel on the market. To top it off, all our citations are publicly available on PubMed for consumers to verify on their own!
3. Great Taste. Seriously. One of our top priorities was great taste, and we cut no corners in making that happen. Having a legitimately great taste is probably the biggest reason we’ve expanded so quickly.

Read their Energy Gel 101 for the science on gels and how to best use them.

A couple other factoids:

Q: Where did the name “Hüma ” come from?
A: Hüma is based on the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. Unfortunately, using “Tarahumara” as a name would have been far too long for our gel package, so we chopped it down to “Hüma ”.

Q: How is Hüma pronounced?
A: Hüma is pronounced “Hoo-mah” (not “Hew-mah”, though German speakers will fight on this one). The umlauts mean absolutely nothing except to make a smiley face. Hüma is happy gel!

Q: Will the fiber content in Hüma gels cause me to do a porta-potty dash?
A: No. Chia constitutes only about 1/8 of the ingredients, which is little enough to not cause GI distress. In fact, Hüma gels have a fantastic history of being stomach-problem free.