# Homemade sports drink



## I'm Dave (May 12, 2016)

Curious as to who makes their own drink "mix".
This year I've been mixing 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt with a squirt of Lemon and Lime juice to 1 large water bottle of water. Taste good and seems to be working.

Most energy drink mixes are essentially the same thing from what I can tell except they are way, WAY more expensive than my little mixture.

I also quit buying gels and have been using Welches brand fruit gummies. 80 calories per bag (roughly the same as a gel pak) has about the right amount of carbs and cheap by comparison.


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## Arebee (Sep 13, 2012)

I'm Dave said:


> Curious as to who makes their own drink "mix".
> This year I've been mixing 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt with a squirt of Lemon and Lime juice to 1 large water bottle of water. Taste good and seems to be working.
> 
> Most energy drink mixes are essentially the same thing from what I can tell except they are way, WAY more expensive than my little mixture.
> ...


I have mixed this up from time to time. Started using it when I had a few bouts with muscle cramps. It really didn't make a difference with the cramps, since it was probably a situation where I just wasn't drinking enough of anything. When it gets really warm out, I move back to straight water. The sugar and salt seems to make me more thirsty.


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## LONO100 (Jan 10, 2012)

I've been making my own sports drink for years now and it's pretty similar to yours. it's basically a strawberry lemonade with some salt in it and all it is is of water, some sliced lemons, sometimes some sliced strawberries, a dash of salt, a teaspoon of sugar and toss it in the fridge. i dont have any exact measurements, i make it to taste, and it beats drinking straight water after you have sweated all the salt out of your body after a long ride, or even after a workout at the gym.


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## RockyMntMonkey (Dec 13, 2015)

My "ghetto gatoraide" recipe goes as follows:
1/2 bottle of fruit juice (I like apple or cherry) fill the rest of bottle with water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon of mortons lite salt which is half NaCl and half KCl 
Optional: 1/4-1/2 caffeine pill (50-100mg)

As for my gel replacement I've started taking dates along since they are full-o-sugar and quite yummy!


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

I used to build my own for quite some time but I'm brain-farting on the specific measurement. There is a several year old thread here that had the mix. It was Lime Juice, quality unprocessed Sea Salt, Pure Honey, and Water. Some guys were buying and adding caffeine to the elixer. After quite some time as my riding frequency increased, it became more of a pain to build it and it's highly perishable even when left in bulk in the refrigerator. Also, the acidity of the lime/lemon juice could be a bit problematic on the gut some days. I quit making it and just started using Tailwind Nutrition. 100 calories per scoop along with all the necessary electrolytes in high quality form. I usually run the caffeinated form. Buying it in 50 serving bulk bag, it takes 30 seconds to mix and is well cheaper than any of the crappy, sugary "gatorade" type sports drink when mixed as a 200 calorie, 24oz portion, it's a $1.53 and can replace the need for gels.


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## peter85 (Mar 7, 2017)

If you want to get really dorky, you should get yourself a couple of kilos of dextrose to go with the table sugar (sucrose). Fructose, the sugar in fruit and also 50% of sucrose, can only be processed by the liver and so isn't the best thing to use as a single ingredient or even major ingredient in a drink. I think Skratch ahd Osmo both use large amounts of dextrose with a bit of sucrose - dextrose has the added advantage of being less sweet than sucrose. If you can find some powdered, freeze dried fruits, you could do a pretty nice rip off of high end sports drinks.

That said - where I live these fruit juice syrups are popular in all sorts of flavors. Their first ingredient is usually glucose syrup, then some fructo-glucose syrup and then some flavor. I usually make a weak mix of that and toss in a pinch of table salt. I'm sure it's not as good as Skratch, Osmo, etc, but I hope I'm getting like 80% there... and the big bonus is I can just buy it at the normal grocery store.


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## dave54 (Jul 1, 2003)

Beer, with a bourbon chaser.


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