storing and using powdered drink mixes

[will sawyer]

I've been musing on the idea of incorporating more "liquid calories" into my hiking diet. I've read a few threads about what mixes people use/make, and I'll be making my own when I figure out exactly what I want. This is for 12+ hour days of hiking/running. I would have two types for two uses:

1. as an on the trail snack replacement. I usually have a mostly nut gorp and every 4-5 miles stop and have a handful with water. I would replace this with something more carb based, with some protein. It seems the easiest thing to do is have two bottles, one for water, and one for a concentrated mix of this, and take a slurp of it every now and then. So I envision using an entire bottle per day (I'm thinking 20oz poland spring bottle).

2. With dinner "recovery" mix, more proteins and fats than the previous. I would be using much less of this per day.

So the two issues I can think of are storing the powder, and mixing it properly. Pouring into a small mouthed bottle like a platy or poland spring would also be troublesome. I know most people just use ziploc bags, but I think something better could be found. Some ideas that I have had, that may help someone, or maybe someone can help me:

1. fill a bottle full of hiking powder for each day. Leave a bit of space for water, pour water in the night before, and try to mix, letting it set overnight might help. But likely it would be impossible to get a good consistency with this method. You would also have a few extra bottles, but they are pretty light and could serve a later purpose.

2. for storing a large amount of powder that you want to use incrementally, like my use with dinner. I recall pastry bags (for squeezing icing on cakes and things) having interchangeable tips, and maybe you could find one with a secure closing. The bag could be filled and tied off, and then you could pour powder out the tip.

3. for making a drink, could make "tea bags" of the powder, and then fish them back out when done, of find something that dissolves and just toss it into the bottle.

Any of the chefs on here know more about pastry bags?

[Hiking Malto]

I make up "300 calorie packs" individually flavored and stored in small zipper bags. The negative to this is that I've had a couple open up. The positve is that I can mix/match flavors throughout the day. I mix it in a 32 oz. gatoraid bottle and add whatever water is nessesary to get the concentration I want.

For 300 calories I need about 8 oz. of water to make it drinkable. You may have better luck but a 20 oz. bottle sounds challenging. There are wide mouth 20 oz, I think it's vitamin water if that helps.

A couple of challenges when it comes to protein. First, it made the malto taste like $%$%. Second, it was open tough to get it to dissolve. If you solve either of these please let us know. For my PCT trip I'm doing malto, flavoring and electrolytes in the mix and dealing with my protein separate with foods like nuts. On my TRT trip I had to hold my nose just to drink it. Hopefully you will have better luck.

Let us know how your experimenting goes.

[Greg Mihalik]

"The negative to this is that I've had a couple open up."

After closing the ziploc bag, tape it shut, over and down both flaps.
When it's time to mix bite/cut off a corner to pour it in.

I add about an inch of water to the bottle, add all the powder, add water till 2/3 full, shake like crazy, and then top off. I usually end up lump free.

[Walter Carrington]

Something I use to make smoothies at home is Trader Joe's Soy Protein powder (quick dissolve), milk and fruit in a blender. I've been experimenting with a version for camping that mixes powdered milk, TJ Soy Protein powder plus a little sugar. If the powder is mixed before adding water, it'll mix up OK in a shaken bottle. Even in a blender the soy powder doesn't dissolve — it's a suspension and if you let it sit long enough it'll get sort of disgusting, perhaps shaking again will help. I don't think it'll keep a long time once it's mixed with water; warm weather could lead to bacterial growth. The powder should keep for a long time in zip lock bags (months at least). With any of these drinks that form a suspension rather than actually dissolving I think that just mixing with water just what you will immediately drink works best.

A variation that might actually taste really good would be to add freeze dried strawberry that you've powdered in a blender. Mix it all together and add to water when you want some. Some other dehydrated or freeze dried fruits might be good, I think dried fruit that you can grind to a powder would work best.

[Anonymous]

"A couple of challenges when it comes to protein. First, it made the malto taste like $%$%. Second, it was open tough to get it to dissolve. If you solve either of these please let us know."

Have you tried whey protein, Greg? It dissolves as easily as powdered milk, IME. No surprise there, given it is derived from milk. It is often flavored with either vanilla or chocolate, which also masks any adverse flavor, although I have no trouble personally with the plain variety, finding it pretty much neutral. It is very high quality protein, rated by many sources I have read down through the years as slightly better than soy protein. There is a lot of literature about it out on the Net, if you are interested.

[drowning in spam]

The first thing I would suggest is to get rid of your water bottle. You can dilute your powdered drinks more if you need more hydration.

Trying to save weight on a frequently used drink bottle is not worth it. I use that thing dozens of times per day, and that's not an area that I want to be a hassle. The only bottle I'd use is exactly like the bottle below and not any other type of mix bottle. The wide mouth of this bottle makes it easy to make a shake, the lid stays tight even if it's full and tumbles around the back of a car, it doesn't leak–it just works. If you must try to save weight, get the smaller bottle.

I don't like the idea of mixing a drink for the entire day. Even though it may not go bad, I don't like the way it tastes after a few hours.

With the wide bottle, it's easy enough to use the 1/3rd cup scoop that comes with protein powders…although windy days are still a challenge.

If you really want serving size bags, you might be able to get some custom protein manufacturers to do this for you for a fee. I bet the Protein Factory would do it since they already use smaller bags for their sampler packs. You might also want to get your powdered drinks from there. I've found that there's a big difference in mixability between cheap and high quality powders and even the cheapest bulk stuff from Protein Factory mixes pretty well.

As far as getting the drink mixed properly, all I do is pour the powder in, followed by water, shake a bit and then walk. After 15 minutes it's thoroughly mixed.

[will sawyer]

Greg G – thanks for the warning about protein.

Greg M – thats how I would do it with a bag, but having less bags and being able to re-seal it easily would be handy, hence the pastry bag idea.

Walter – I was also thinking about powdering dried fruit, mainly banana for potassium.

Eugene and Tom – Thank you for the protein suggestions. I see those bottles everywhere given that I live in a dorm with more than a few people trying to "get big" so I am familiar with them.

heck, if this mixing stuff is so hard, why not just eat the powder and then drink the water? It'll mix eventually.

Thanks,
Will

[Brendan Lammers]

I use various protein powders just as a supplement, and the best one I've used is Muscle Milk. For one, it's the best tasting (I like Banana Creme). But the most important thing for you is that it actually mixes easily. I try to get other protein powders to mix with just a spoon in a glass of milk, and it just clumps up. Muscle Milk just sort of dissolves.

I plan on carrying some with me from now on. I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking of carrying a wide-mouthed bottle like a 20oz Gatorade plastic bottle, and just shaking it up like a shaker bottle. Powder tends to taste nasty with water for me, but Muscle Milk does sell some that might taste OK (Peach Mango stands out). Otherwise, maybe you could try mixing it with some powdered milk ahead of time.

[Brendan Lammers]

Also, I second the opinion that you shouldn't leave the protein mixed for very long. I've heard, but I can't verify at all, that powdered protein starts to denature if you leave it mixed for very long. Also, I've accidentally left some mixed in a cup overnight just sitting around and it starts to smell REALLY nasty really fast.

[Mark Hudson]

I am doing a mix of muscle milk and perpeptium.

I carry the lightweight nalgene 32 oz and put this mix in with 10oz water and shake away. Easy peazy breakfast for me.

[Tim Zen]

Great idea about the powdering freeze dried strawberries. Thank you.

I use the chocolate whey protein powder and mix it with granola and powdered milk.
I also add it to hot chocolate mix.

EmergenC is another good drink mix. I they make a "sport-drink" mix too.

[Laurie Ann March]

I make all sorts of fruit powders from freeze-dried fruit like Walter suggested earlier. Some Emergen-C or lemonade powder mixed with powdered blueberries or raspberries can be really tasty. Blueberries with powdered Nido and a little ginger is pretty delicious too. Sometimes I add a bit of chia seed to true lime and water and make a trail version of chia fresca but don't use too much chia or it might get to thick to swallow properly.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

You can buy pre-powdered freeze-dried fruit from Just Tomatoes btw online.

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