Homemade Energy Drinks
 

I've been thinking about replacing water with energy drink for longer rides but I can't afford let alone justify buying sports drinks regularly just for that purpose. I know some people make their own and while there are a few recipes available on the internet I was wondering if anybody here does it, what recipe do you use and how does it compare to the commercial drinks? (I'm not talking about particularly long rides here, just anything much over one hour where I'd normally bring a snack/energy bar)

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Caffeine works for many riders.
Use caffinated tea (not herbal/caffeine-free).
I have used 2 teabags per water bottle. Make the hot tea and then cool it; refrigerate it in the summer for a cool drink with a bit of kick

for qite a while when I was in college and of course poor, I use to use Tang. (Go ahead and submit your astronought jokes here)

Now I use a mix of Gatorade and Powerade Option water. If I watch for sales I can get the Powerade for $.60-.75 per bottle. Gatorade I usually only get for around $1/bottle which starts to be where I call it expensive. The Powerade being cheaper keeps the price down.

just buy some powdered gatorade. wallmart has the big tub that last me almost 1.5 months in the summer time. it cost me 8 bucks

well i keep handing it out cause it works for me; and it is based on the drink we used on the hay crews.


TMT's sport drink.
citric acid (sub un-sweet koolaid)
sea salt (make sure it is the real deal unrefined sea salt has minerals in it * about the same mix as blood)
water (no chlorine *let it sit out for 24 hrs or boil to remove chlorine)
honey (Grade B maple syrup works)
mix to taste (add a flavor if you want)

And on my long rides i take 1 "rainbow light just once multivitamin" every 2 hours (this is about how fast i burn it off) I don't cramp, bonk, pass out or get overly fatigued.

This page has recipes for homemade energy bars and sport drinks:

http://www.cptips.com/hmdesnk.htm

A long time ago, I read a book called "Eat To Win". The author was once of the first to tell people they needed to drink water for sports performance.

His simple recipe for a sports drink was:

* Pint of water
* A few Tbsp of orange juice
* A dash of salt

Everyone's different. You need to tweak this so that your ingesting the sugars and minerals in the drink and it's not so concentrated that it sits in your stomach.

See this bikeforums thread. I adapted the gatorade recipe #1 from edmaverik, and doubled the quantity.

1 cup sugar (the original recipe called for 5/8 cup. Doubled would be about 1 1/4 cups).
1.5 teaspoons salt. (I use 1 tsp lite salt plus 1/2 tsp regular salt)
2 packs unsweetened Natural Lemon koolaid.

Mix well, then measure 2 heaping tablespoons of the mix in a zip lock bag. This is about 30 to 35 grams. The bag makes one water bottle full (I fill up a 22 oz bottle, but the recipe was for the smaller 16 oz bottle).
Each bottle is approximately 100-120 calories.

This makes about 8 bags.

I do something similar ... basically, fruit syrup (is that Koolaid?? - I know it as cordial), salt/lite salt. Then, aha, the secret weapon - a couple of spoonfuls of baby cereal.

The baby cereal idea came from an article on home-brew drinks in a French bike magazine. It seems to work well.

+1 I prefer a dash of lime juice juice instead. I also use this recipe without the salt (in the winter) to make my tap water tastier.

And if you want to double the calories of any of these drinks for longer or harder rides, just add some maltodextrin powder.

I would add colloidal minerals to a mixture of water and the fruit juice of your choice.

Jacob Vickery

I've used both green tea (hot, in a glass water bottle--re-used nantucket nectar bottle) for commuting, and water with a dash of lemon juice and salt. I started trying to work something out when I started getting headaches after commuting and working in hot weather. I haven't done long rides on that, but it seems to work for the short commute + chasing after little kids outside all day in the 90+ degree sun. I prefer healthy food over straight sugar for my energy, so sports drinks have never seemed very appealing.

1/2 tsp. salt
1 or 2 oz. corn syrup
8 oz. real orange juice or concentrated, not tang
Enough boiled water to fill a quart jar.

Cool down. This is actually a homemade recipe for Pediolyte, an eloctrolyte solution available everywhere for kids with diarrea or vomiting. Used to prevent dehydration.

I found that store bought pediolyte, mixed 50 -50 with water is pretty good for long (>50miles) rides. The above replacement is pretty good as well. Water is good enough for rides less than 50 miles.

Ive been using

Water
orange Juice
1teaspoon cayenne pepper

Orange juice is full of potassium and the cayenne pepper improves your circulation

TMT-your recipe looks similiar to one I once saw put out by the creator of Gator-aid. If I remember correctly it was 1 cup water, with 1 tblsp honey a squeeze of lemon and a bit of salt. Boil and cool.