Dextro Energy orange glucose tablets review: still the pocket standard

Dextro Energy tablets are the glucose product most people in the UK have already tried at some point, usually from a garage forecourt before a driving test. Buying the 24 pack is what changed them from an occasional purchase into something I rely on. There is a pack in the car, one in each coat, one in the running vest and one in the kitchen drawer.

Each pack has 14 tablets and 47g of carbohydrate, so a tablet is about 3.4g of glucose. That gives you fine control over the dose. Three or four tablets is a modest top-up. A whole pack is a serious hit.

The orange flavour

The orange is the one I would recommend if you only buy one. It has the vitamin C added, which Dextro pitches as helping with tiredness and fatigue, and the flavour is a sharp, sherbety orange that cuts through the chalkiness better than the classic plain version. The tablets are pressed dextrose, so they dissolve on the tongue if you let them, or crunch if you are impatient.

Vegan, caffeine free, made in Germany. There is nothing else in them worth mentioning, which is the point.

Where tablets beat liquid

The pack weighs 47g and slides into the coin pocket of a pair of jeans. Nothing leaks, nothing goes off, and if you only need a couple of tablets the rest stay in the wrapper. I have found year-old packs in a jacket and they were fine, if a bit dusty on the outside of the wrapper.

The downside is the chewing. If your mouth is dry or your hands are shaking, a tablet is harder work than a shot. For a diabetic hypo I would keep both formats and reach for the liquid first.

The box

Twenty-four packs arrive in a retail display box, which is more cardboard than you need but stacks neatly on a shelf. The packs are individually wrapped so nothing goes stale. Buying by the box is the only sensible way if you get through them at any rate, and the per-pack cost is a fraction of a forecourt.