The call came while Nyree Dardarian was driving. The Philadelphia Union forgot to take along Dragon Gels, their favorite sports energy snack, on their 2016 road trip to play the Seattle Sounders.
The players needed a substitute, and they needed it fast, said Garrison Draper, performance director for the Union. So he called Dardarian, who directs Drexel University’s Center for Nutrition & Performance, where a team of staff and students developed Dragon Gels, an energy boost in a soft, sweet square.
Dardarian dashed into a nearby Wawa, raced to the candy aisle, and began looking at nutrition labels for anything that would match the carbohydrate content in the gels, which measure about one inch square and a half-inch thick.