A shoutout to the US users out there. I’m looking for some energy drink mix that is somewhat cheap from a US shop. A friend of mine offered to bring me some to Guatemala when he is flying in. I have searched a bit but can’t find any good deals. Usually I buy High5 2,2 kg for around 25$ from either …

2 kg granulated sugar at $4. I add some Gatorade mix for flavor.

I do 60g of powdered gatorade mix and 30g of powdered maltodextrin in 750ml of water for each hour of riding, both are dirt cheap.

I’ve started using just Gatorade - about 60g per bottle. I think it was $11 last time I bought one from Amazon and it lasted months.

25g gatorade, 17g Karbolyn (“Neutral” flavor) in 500ml water, works for me.

A friend of mine has a product geluminati ( www.geluminati.com ). They’re trying to gain word of mouth and I know a lot of thought has been put into sourcing ingredients and optimizing ratios so I’d recommend folks check them out!

If you really want to get fancy I just get cheap table syrup (not real maple) from the store and add some salt for electrolytes. It’s actually quite delicious.

Is anyone who’s doing granulated sugar also adding in citric acid or something similar to get the sweetness down?

I’ve not bothered with citric acid. I did not find the sweetness so bad, and I try to get it down with little mouth contact. (Dental hygiene) Not even sure that I prefer it with the Gatorade. But I’ve got to use up the huge tub I convinced my wife to order from Amazon.

I’ve used citric acid in the past. It doesn’t take much to add flavor and I would only use about 6 teaspoons in about 90 ounces of maltodextrin/dextrose/table sugar (I was making bulk batches). I’m not sure what that translates to if just making a single bottle but a small pinch is likely all you ne…

[image] mtbjones: If the sweetness is your real issue, maltodextrin is much less sweet than other sugars. Granulated sugar is 1:1 glucose to fructose, I’m assuming it’s mostly the fructose that brings the unavoidable sweetness. I’m not sure starting with maltodextrin + adding in the requisite…

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US users: cheap energy drink

Nutrition

mtbjones January 12, 2023, 2:50pm 12

You are correct. There’s at least one long thread about this with lots of details:

Topic		Replies	Views
Carb Conundrum (homemade drink) Nutrition	39	6310	May 15, 2023
Best trending endurance drink mix this spring? Nutrition	43	2184	March 27, 2025
Low cost training nutrition, recipes? Nutrition	63	9661	January 14, 2021
Simple, cheap energy drink recipe Nutrition	9	1332	March 27, 2025
Gatorade vs. Specialty Brands Nutrition	50	3616	August 26, 2024

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