CycleryNorth81

Do you make your own "Gatorade" electrolyte drink? Is it as good or better than the store bought stuff? Wanna share your recipe??

CrowSeph

Recipe? umh?
To be honest i never tried any but thats sound very interesting.
subbed

subgrade

Tap water, pinch of salt, pinch of sugar. Or a few spoonful of pickle juice if there is some at hand.

I once filled up my water bottle with whiskey and cola (not when riding, the bottle happened to be around and was just the lightest and most practical container at that moment) - after that I could still feel the taste in the water for several weeks

Sy Reene

Gatorade is basically Kool Aid with salt and potassium added. Probably not hard to figure out a recipe with a packet or so of your favorite flavor kool aid, some sugar (and/or some maltodextrin instead), some salt, and some salt substitute (which uses potassium instead of sodium).

The challenge may more be though to mix this stuff altogether for bulk canister storage, in a way where all the ingredients are uniformly distributed, so that scooping out some for a single serving has the correct balance of the 4-5 ingredients.

VegasTriker

It was not a great innovation no matter they hype. Look up "warm blooded Ringer's solution" a concoction used in biology labs for more than a century. It has the same chemistry as the fluid in tissue. Add sugar and flavoring and you have Gatorade. It's no wonder Pepsico bought the rights to make it. Take 3 cents worth of salts, sugar, and flavoring and sell a quart of it for a dollar. Hard to lose money on that.

shelbyfv

It's pretty cheap to buy the powder in a tub. I add salt in hot weather. Probably more choice of flavor if you concoct your own.

rseeker

Morton Lite Salt might be a good ingredient. I use it instead of table salt because it's less sodium and more potassium. According to the label, 1/4 teaspoon has 290mg sodium and 350mg potassium.

Clipped_in

Costco sells a large can of Gatorade Glacier Blast flavor powder for $10. That's pretty hard to beat. It is a seasonal product. They only sell it during the warmer months (at least where I live where we have winter).

CycleryNorth81

Here is a link to a sports drink that is very similar to the "G" formula. Recipe #1 is very close to replicating the commercial sports drink. It consist of Kool aide, sugar, Morton lite salt (sodium chloride, potassium chloride) and water. It probably cost pennies to make.

Recipes for Homemade Sports Drinks

Sy Reene

True.. but a hassle to make each time you want to fill a couple water bottles, and as I previously noted, premixing larger batch has the question of mixing all of the dry ingredients uniformly throughout.

A 3.3lb container of gatorade makes about 40 water bottles and I bought one for $7.50. Comes to about $.20 per bottle

CycleryNorth81

My calculations comes out to 5cents per 8 ounce serving. Who say I cannot make enough for 100 water bottles once I know the proportions?

UniChris

You can, but it's probably simpler if you make it in bottle or week size batches. A whole tub of the premade powder tends to get clumpy once opened.

A while back I picked up a cheap little .01 gram scale, I'd probably find some light plastic pan (or even fold one from paper) and tare the scale with that, weigh out the salts first, and then do the sugars there for a small batch, or with measuring cups for a larger one.

Remember to take into account the difference between the weight of potassium vs potassium chloride, same for sodium. Or you can look up the amount in volume measures like a teaspoon/tablespoon. I'd be tempted to keep it in a wire-latch mason jar (hmm, might actually go get one and transfer my tub of gatorade to it).

If I was going to do it, it would probably be to end up with something more like what I get by putting a nuun tablet in a bottle of mixed or purchased gatorade, rather than just duplicating the purchased tub. Might have to find some kool aid or something and try it, especially on a ride where I'll be going by a water source/bathroom anyway making pouring a bad experiment down the drain and starting over with the usual again an option.

noimagination

No recipe per se, just add lemon juice, sugar and salt to water bottle. Mix, adjust to taste. Stronger when you feel it's necessary, weaker when you mainly just want to flavor your water. No need to over-complicate things.

I suppose you could add other flavors for variety (orange, vanilla? coffee?). There are plenty of flavor concentrates out there.

CycleryNorth81

Recipe#1 in the link is actually very simple.
120 grams Sugar + 4.2 grams Mortin Lite salt +1,875.8 grams water = 2,000 grams sports drink (regular size pitcher)
Subtract from 1,875.8 grams water if adding flavoring. Packet will tell you weight of product to subtract
Morton Lite salt is sodium chloride and potassium chloride. It is not elemental sodium or potassium
Wire latch mason jar is a great idea

Sy Reene

You can.. but tricky to keep 4-5 different powders evenly mixed together in the proportions you want over time.. finer/denser grains will settle, etc.

A standard bike water bottle is typically 22ozs.. so your calculations equate to roughly 13 cents per bike bottle (vs Gatorade powder coming in at 20 cents). If this is worth it to you then by all means give it a shot.

CycleryNorth81

Who said I have to premix the powder? I can make a pitcher when I want one.

Sy Reene

You did.. unless you were talking about making 100 bottles worth of liquid -- which would be kinda insane unless you're working a large bike event and want to fill up eg. 10 gallon dispensers for the participants?

CycleryNorth81

You are right. I am going to make 100 bottles worth.
You happy now?

Sy Reene

ecstatic.. make 100 bottles worth, make just a pitcher. enjoy whatever you decide. for flavor, try the Kool Aid Blue Raspberry Lemonade Twist

Darth Lefty 

I looked at this, because I wanted something with a lower glycemic index. What I wound up doing instead of making my own was buying HEED.

CycleryNorth81

I now understand why smart people hate idiots.

CycleryNorth81

The formula used 120 grams of sugar per 2000 gram drink. You can lower the sugar to a level that suites you (ie 90grams sugar/2000 gram drink).

Darth Lefty 

I didn’t need less sugar. I needed slower sugar.

Slightspeed

Back in the 60s, we raced in the pre-Gatorade days. I used to carry tea mixed with honey in my bottle on longer rides, water on shorter training days. We used old school metal bottles, and I had a double handle bar rack, one for water and one for tea and honey. On a longer rides it seemed lukewarm tea and honey worked better for me than luke warm water.


On shorter rides I used the second bottle cage to carry a spare tubular tire,

autonomy

Bingo. I was sick of drinking plain water and ran out of Nuun tablets, and then wife invited me for an unexpected ride together (the bike kind, people!). Looked up a recipe online quickly, just that - salt, sugar, lemon juice - exceeded my expectations in being refreshing.

Colorful 'drink powders'? Hell no.