BEQ | energy of the algarve that can also be eaten

Fig, carob, almond, honey and flower of salt are the ingredients of the 100% natural Querença Energy Bar (BEQ), made from the products of the Algarve barrocal; it comes in two versions, one for athletes, the other for the general public and children.

The Querença Energy Bar (BEQ) came into being through a partnership between the Querença Project and the University of Algarve with the aim of taking young people with university degrees to the interior of the municipality of Loulé to develop new ideas and put the region’s natural resources to good use.

“The idea is to use indigenous products, but also to stimulate dryland cultivation, of figs, carob and almonds,” says Bruno Rodrigues of the Algarve Trail Running Association, one of those in charge of the project, who is happy to see “people from the Algarve’s serra and barrocal regions asking us if we need suppliers. We are contributing to them keeping production going rather than abandoning their land or leaving the fruit on the trees,” he says proudly. The BEQ was developed by the food engineer Romilson Brito and tested on competition athletes, and it has a low level of calories, “100 good calories”.

This Algarve-flavoured snack started being sold last year and, according to Bruno Rodrigues, “the aim is to grow slowly in order to maintain the product’s quality; we do not use almonds from California or figs from Turkey. The exception is puffed rice, which we do not have; we only use Algarve ingredients, and when they run out, we stop production. It’s part of the project. There were people whose crops were almost abandoned and they are reactivating them to supply us; that’s why we call the bars ‘the energy of the Algarve’”.