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He got off his bike, leant it against the wall of the house and went into the pub. The first Tour de France winner Maurice Garin ordered cheese, sausage, baguette and a bottle of red wine to regain his strength - during the race! German pilots in the Second World War popped "Scho-Ka-Kola", a caffeinated chocolate, into their mouths to see more clearly and react more quickly. And athletes in the 1950s had to eat dates, sultanas and nuts or bite into apples and bananas to boost their blood sugar.
Energy bars? Not a chance!
Energy bars did not yet exist. It was only with the advent of space travel and the race to the moon that the need for compact, high-energy food increased. The US astronauts needed a quick, concentrated supply of calories in a handy format - and the American scientists set to work. But their developments remained under lock and key: top secret!
At that time, only the granola bar was available to the public. It consisted of pressed rolled oats, nuts, fruit and honey. Or you could buy chocolate bars in handy sizes like Milkyway, Mars or Nuts - made from peanuts, caramel and milk chocolate as a concentrated load of simple sugars.
Experiment in the shared kitchen
That wasn't enough for long-distance runner Brian Maxwell. When his blood sugar dropped so low during a marathon that he had to abandon the race, the Englishman devised his own energy bar. Together with his girlfriend, nutritionist Jennifer Biddulph, Maxwell experimented in his own kitchen in 1983 on an easily digestible bar with lots of energy. The first real energy bar was born!
In 1986, the two took out a loan of more than 50,000 dollars and founded Powerbar in 1986, based in Glendale, California. Powerbar became internationally known (initially only in the chocolate flavour) through racing bike star Lance Armstrong, whom Powerbar sponsored.
Sticky, chewy, sweet
The original Powerbar - a sticky, viscous mass reminiscent of window kit - was what people in the 1980s thought of as high-tech food for astronauts and professional athletes. This was also in keeping with the spirit of the times and was the reason for Powerbar's success. Tricky: when cold, the Powerbar became so tough that it pulled teeth. Bite off? Almost impossible!
The flat bar was shrink-wrapped in gold foil with a striking logo (brick-red lettering on an egg-yolk yellow background). The subsequent advertising campaign was also very much in tune with the zeitgeist of the 1990s: In reference to the evolution of Homo Sapiens, a banana straightens up and becomes a power bar.
In the years that followed, sales rose to absurd levels. What started as an experiment in the kitchen became a global success - in 2000, Maxwell sold his company to food giant Nestlé for 375 million dollars!
The flood of bars: the supermarket shelves are bending
It was not until the early 1990s that the first competing products came onto the market. First and foremost: Clifbar, also from California. Many more followed. Today, the shelves are bursting with flavours. There are low-carb bars, protein bars, regeneration bars, vegan bars, gels, drops - in all flavours. The recipes for classic e-bars are all very similar. They contain little fat, some protein and lots of carbohydrates, pressed into a handy block weighing around 50 grams.
Irony of fate: Powerbar founder Maxwell died of a heart attack at the age of 51, just a few years after selling his company. But honour to whom honour is due: It is thanks to Brian Maxwell and his inventive spirit in the home kitchen that we can now top up our energy stores so quickly - by reaching into our jersey pocket.
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Dimitri Lehner
Editor
