Powdered drinks

First of all, I am not put off by decent chemical nutrients. On my last trip, I took a bag of Gatorade, a bag of Cytomax, and a bag of Vitalyte powders. I also have the stuff to assemble my own custom mix. The advantage of the custom mix is that you can tune it to your own preferences. I read the labels on the commercial products to figure out which of them I like and which I don't like.

1. You probably want some kind of sweetener, either sugar, glucose, or maltodextrin. I find maltodextrin to be less sweet than sugar, but it works pretty good. I keep my sweeteners lower than the commercial products.

2. You probably want a pinch of some kind of electrolytes, sodium chloride table salt, or potassium chloride dieter's salt.

3. I also have some sodium citrate for zippy flavor, but you can get dehydrated orange, lemon, and lime crystals. Flavor is a very personal thing.

4. If you are shopping for dehydrated fruit powder, you might want something like dehydrated cherry powder. That will give some natural dark color.

I think it is good to have different mixes on one long trip, because you can get tired of only one and then not drink enough water.

–B.G.–

Will you drink Stevia? If so, both Trader Joe's and Crystal Lite make lines of it (as does Walmart) of natural dye/Stevia/sugar blend mixes. IMO with it being mixed you can't taste Stevia (which is from said herb plant).

Or…you can make your own. It is easy. Buy True Lemon powder and mix with sugar and water. Ta-Da. Instant lemonade.

Tang for me, but I use it for hot trips in desert. Hot water tastes yucky.

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Hi Jen,

I agree that there are times that a flavoured drink is preferable, and hav esimilar criteria to you. I have discovered a local (Australian) product, Nerada iced tea sachets. These are single serve sachets, that they recommend for about 7oz of water. I find this a little sweet, and mix up to about 12oz (350ml). It has sugar, but no artificial sweetners or colours. It also contains caffeine, which I like at about 3pm.

The other product I like is Hansell's Vitafresh. No artificial colours, flavoured or sweetners. This may be available in the US. I like the Jamacian Lime, or the colorless raspberry if you can get it. It comes in a sachet to make one litre, but again I find this too sweet, and tend to mix half strength.

The only issue is that auger is much heavier and bulkier than aspartame, but I think it's worth it to avoid the nasty aftertaste.

Rod

Thanks all! :)

I have a Trader Joe's and a Smiths somewhat near me, so I can give the Trader Joe's brand and the True Lemon brand a shot. Unfortunately it looks like the Aussie brands are only available in Aus, NZ & UK… I'll keep an eye out next time I'm in the UK though :)

Have you tried MiO?
On a whim I started putting it in my water bottle in the spring and drink at least a liter of water lightly flavored with it every day. I especially take it camping because I dislike the taste of AquaMira; CamelBak bladders even more so.
For a few bucks, it might be worth a try if you're just looking to make water taste like something.
They come in 2.6 oz squeeze containers and can make probably 30L of water, at least.

Thought I'd report back on my mini taste test conducted today.

I got some Crystal Light packets sweetened with Stevia, some True Lemon packets sweetened with Stevia, and some True Lime just on its own. The Stevia stuff was pretty grim… it still has that nasty aftertaste, just like all the chemical sweeteners. I will be avoiding this from now on.

The True Lime was awesome! I bought the packets that are used for cooking. 2 True Lime packets and a tablespoon of powdered sugar in a 16oz Nalgene makes a nice flavoured water that has just the right amount of lime and is not too sweet. I will be using this as my dinner time drink from now on :)

You might try the maltodextrin instead of Stevia.

Where I live, there are stores that sell all sorts of nutritional supplements for bodybuilders and sports fanatics. I found a three-pound jug of maltodextrin, which is just about what I needed for mixture experimentation and a summer's worth of trips.

I grow red raspberries on my patio. I pick those, then dehydrate them until I have this red granular stuff. I work that with a mortar and pestle until I get a fine red granular stuff, and I use that for raspberry flavoring.

–B.G.–

Jen, I can tell you the Trader Joe ones taste better than the CL ones do.

coco hydro is pretty good. dehydrated coconut water

"coco hydro is pretty good. dehydrated ….. water"

ahhh. I've been waiting for this.