I’m not the OP, but I did the same. It was such a faff mixing malto without clumping - sugar is easier, more readily available and I reckon it’s much less sweet, or at least a different flavour profile. I was using a scoop of Gatorade, Skratch or Pure (the brand) mix to help it taste better but when they all ran out I started using hydration tabs or a dash of lemon or lime juice.
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Can UK TR users who make their own please point me at a UK shopping list? I keep ploughing thru this thread, not finishing it after taking a few notes and then a week later remembering I still didn’t actually order anything!
Not UK, but Ireland… Maltodextrin from Myprotein or BulkPowders. Bulk used to do Fructose, but don’t (on their .ie site at least) post-brexit, so I buy from Holland and Barrett. Electrolyte powder I buy from Bulk.
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Not sure it’s the right thread, but… I mix my own mix but have a few foreign trips. I don’t really fancy bringing white powder on flights, so was going to buy actual Beta Fuel sachets. Will I need to train my gut, once I’m hitting the same/ v. similar mix?
I was concerned too. Security gives you much more trouble about bringing peanut butter or yogurt with you than white powders.
White powders aren’t even flagged for a second look most of the time. But they’ll take my potentially-explosive-PB every time.
If you’re using the same glucose:fructose ratio, roughly the same sodium amounts, and same overall carb amounts, no gut training will be necessary.
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No out of stock here too now I look. I did home delivery the last time, so stocked up! I used to be able to by 5kg of it with Bulk!
I’ll still be nervous, for the sake of the cost of a few sachet’s!
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[quote=“PhilSJones, post:848, topic:16117, full:true”]
No sure if it helps, but I use old High 5 hydration tablet tubes to hold extra powder on a long ride. Neat, easy to open and hold enough for a 750cc bottle using the mix I use. Easy to carry in back pockets or elsewhere. Might as well reuse them, but not ideal after they have been used as don’t fold up 
[/quote]
This works. I’ve also repurposed the Tums 72 tablet container. It’s see-through, has a decent sized mouth opening to help filling and pouring, and has a solidly locking flip-cap that I can’t lose. I used a sharpie to mark the outside with graduations at 30gram increments of powder (think it was perpetuem scoops at the time), and the container holds 120g of malto (edit: fixed this to change to grams of malto, since scoops depends on the scoop size).
And as a bonus, the 2 wide faces of the bottle are concave, which meant they somewhat curve around the water bottle in my Revelate feed bags (I’m on mtb) when I put them in the mesh pockets on the outside.
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True story! Those things are expensive!!
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@Bbt67 @Macy MyProtein for Maltodextrin and https://peaksupps.co.uk/ for fructose - £13.99 for 2Kg
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This works really well when you have one bottle of plain water to chase. 720 gms of malto/fructose will work in a single bottle pretty easily.
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Maltodextrin isn’t sweet at all, a drink mix with just malto tastes of basically nothing. That’s a big part of the point of it vs. glucose or plain sugar.
Fructose is really sweet.
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Yes, most winter I’ve been mainly just using Malto (not trying to get optimal/ mixed with whole foods). Did a long one on Saturday, and did a mid ride fill of just malto - I was very surprised how tasteless it was minus the slug of squash/ cordial.
I’ve been making my own BF for the past few years using the “old” ratio of 1-.5 (malto-fructose) and making 90g of carbs for a 24oz (709ml) bottle. I just got some new supplies (the malto comes in a 2 gallon bucket now - twice as big as before!) and want to make my new recipe conform to the “new” ratio of 1-.8. I also want to see if I can squeeze some more carbs into that bottle. So I’m thinking:
60g malto
48g fructose
1 tsp sodium citrate
Juice of two meyer lemons
I have two questions: does that sound like the correct recipe, and is that an appropriate amount of mix for that size of bottle?
For a 90g serving of 1:0.8, I would have thought it was 50g Malto and 40g fructose.
Sodium is what you can tolerate/most effective. i have tested a spectrum of mini noun and maximum ranges with no effect to tummy issues. I do 1600mg per 700ml bottle. Also use Potassium at 150mg.
The new recipe is intended to give me 108g per 24 oz bottle.
Actually ran out of time, and brought my own mix with me, labelled “carbs” in my bike box (already mixed in my portion containers). No issues at all. I actually had protein in my carry on - both in a pack and in a container on the bottom of a mixer bottle - not an eyebrow raised!
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Is there a big difference between fructose and dextrose? I currently use high5 energy drink powder which is 2:1 maltodextrin to fructose. I find this works really well for me although I haven’t been taking as much as I should, so iv started upping my dosage. However this thread has got me thinking of making my own mix. It just seems a lot cheaper easier for me to pick up dextrose over fructose. Is this recommended or should I stick with the malto/fructose mix
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Very important question! And the answer is yes, definitely.
Here are the basics you need to know.
Dextrose and maltodextrin are interchangeable in the quest for optimizing the glucose:fructose ratio to your desired value. They both provide just glucose. Fructose is the other side of the ratio.
For more info on the glucose, fructose, and other sugar, and how they all relate to getting your fueling right, this monosaccharides deeper dive is helpful.
The easiest path to optimizing your ratio may be just using sucrose, or sucrose plus dextrose.
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Another question does anyone add bcaa’s to their mix as I thought these good to help endurance and support muscle growth/retention