Hi TR Forum Community - long time TR user, first time contributor.
I’m currently studying a Masters Degree part time, and I currently have an assignment relating to product research, and I’ve chosen to look at drink mixes used in endurance sport, particularly noting the (relatively) recent recommendations around high carb fueling, and the limited, high-cost drink mix options out there that meet this need.
What are your gripes with the readily available drink mixes we tend to buy? Would love to hear your views. Areas I am looking to explore are:
Carb content (are they typically too high? too low?)
Carb mix/ratio
Electrolyte content (amount? what electrolytes? just Sodium, or Magnesium and Potassium as well?)
Other ingredients? (caffeine? Beta Alanine? Aminos? others?)
Flavour and taste profile (unflavoured? too sweet?)
Ease of mixing?
Packaging - size/volume (i.e. single serve or bulk?), Bag or Container?
Cost?
Please feel free to share your views and opinions. Once I’ve gathered some info I’ll share a summary of what our community sees as the issues with current offerings.
My biggest gripe is that so many of them are stuck at one servings per bag option, with no option for more at a lower cost/gram of carbs. Secondary gripe, but still kind of related, is cost/gram of carb.
I primarily use Fluid because they’re more affordable, and have up to 54 servings per bag.
My gripe would be cost per carb for what should be a simple sugar and salt mix. I am willing to pay a premium for the convenience of not having to purchase the individual ingredients and measure myself, but not 4 to 5x the cost.
Make it simple, no mystery, unproven or space age ingredients. Light or no flavoring, and cheap. Label it with clear options of different carbs per hour.
Home brew with table sugar, maltodextrine, sucrose, table salt, sodium citrate and citric acid. I like to tinker a bit, but in general I aim at 40-70 grams of sugar per bottle (short to long endurance and intense days). Also, I find I drink more than a bottle per hour on intense days, so I hit 100 per hour without much effort.
Edit: just wanted to add that my preference for home brew is driven by food sensitivities and bad reactions to flavorings and colors. Lower cost is a plus, obviously, but it took me a while to find a gut friendly-er source of carbs. To think that I finished 2 IM and 2-3 1/2 IM mostly on cliff bars and some electrolytes back in the day is pretty amazing for me today.
This. So I make my own for a third the price of Gu Roctane. Pretty similar. Got a sampler from Fluid and loved it, visiting them next week and plan to buy some and support their small biz.
Cost, extra crap that isn’t needed, lack of clarity on percentages of glucose / fructose.
Hence, I buy sodium citrate, Maltodextrin, and Fructose powder and mix my own. Cheaper, and you get the exact mix you want and that works best for you.
My main gripe is cost, which is why I mix my own. You are buying a bag of sugar + salt + flavoring, and paying way too much for this.
Flow is $45 for 948grams
Almost all of that is just sugar, which is less than $2/kg.
Like the others above, I mix my own. It simple and far cheaper.
To add a gripe that others haven’t mentioned, so many flavors out there have a degree of tartness that I don’t like. I like my mix to be purely sweet. The tartness gets to my stomach, especially if I’m trying to put multiple recommended servings into a bottle. The flavor can become very intense. I’m talking to you Scratch, Gatorade, etc. I realize not everyone agrees with me here, but if brands could just make a flavor or two that aren’t tangy, I think it would be great, and it would mean I could drink the pre-made mix at aid stations without getting a sour stomach.
I make a 500g (+) of mix and simply add 40-70g per bottle depending on what I am doing any particular day.
For the mix:
-250g table sugar
-125g maltodextrine
-125g dextrose (the combination of malto and dextrose seems easier on my belly than any of them alone)
-1 tsp salt
-2 tsp sodium citrate
-5 g citric acid (just added this last week and I like it. It is also easier to push more mix down when it gets hot outside).
If I want sweet I’ll use 1 scoop of Hammer Cherry bomb. Then as many scoops of the Hammer unflavored as needed. Add some salt and I’m good to go. I can’t stand any of the fruity punch flavored mixes. As for Gatorade I use the new cucumber flavor half and half with water.
Great info, thank you! I agree that single serve options push the price up to be too expensive for routine training use. I haven’t come across Fluid before so will check them out.
Thank you! Agree that convenience and accessibility are an option to provide value, but there is a limit to what is a fair price to pay for this. By way of example, in NZ we’re typically looking a $7-$10 per serve for the various high carb options currently available.
Thank you, the ‘baseline’ mix I’m looking to start with looks similar to what you are recommending. I have found some dehydrated lemon juice powder that I think might be useful for adding a little flavour without sweetness, so I’m looking forward to experimenting with that.
