After running out of my trusty Gatorade powder and wanting to try something a little more healthy, I decided to give HEED "subtle lemon" flavor a try today. I took exactly one swig before my gag reflux kicked in and stomach started turning. The stuff tastes like a mix of ground up vitamins, chalk, and dishwater.

Does anyone really like the taste of this crap?

I love HEED!! The flavour is so smooth and subtle compared with the sharp/sour taste of Gatorade. My favourite is the mandarin orange but the lemon is good too.

It goes down so much better than Gatorade, doesn't leave that horrible after-taste that Gatorade leaves, and I can eat an energy bar or cookie with it without having the weird chemical reaction that happens when eating an energy bar or cookie with Gatorade.

I'd take a swig of heed over gatoraid any day of the week. I prefer the strawberry flavor myself.

It grows on you, honestly.

The melon flavor is pretty good.

It sure does, my eyes bleed when I see Gatorade now.

Gatorade is a (simple) sugar based (comercial) drink and is always going to taste better to our sweet tooth trained taste buds. You may want to try something like Clif Shot Electrolyte drink in the interm. It is about half simple sugar to complex carbs ratio. After you get used to this then move to Heed with it's much healthier almost all complex carb mix. Heed is taste sweetened with Xylitol and Stevia which are much "slower" tasting sweetness and require a little taste conditioning.

Anywhere to get Heed for a discounted price? Have tried google and Amazon and always get the same price.

I wouldn't say that HEED tastes good, but I can tolerate it for rides. Let's put it this way: I have no desire to drink it except for its intended purpose. But drinking Gatorade is not much different from Coke.

I like the Orange a lot and can't stand the Lemon.

I'm not that crazy about Heed either. Mixed a little light makes it go down better. I have been using Gu Brew lemon lime flavor lately. I like the taste better. I am not sure on the overall nutritional differences but the sodium content is much higher than Heed which helps to keep the cramping in check on the long rides.

Gatorade tastes better because it is a sugary like a coke. You like coke too don't ya! Heed is better for your teeth also, Xylitol doesn't promote cavities.

Not sure why you quoted me and asking if I like coke (maybe you ment the OP) but I will answer nevertheless. I don't drink any drinks that contain added suger (I like to save these calories for eating). I do drink sugar free (diet) Coke or other soda drinks (I know they are slightly bad but I do like them from time to time) and fruit juices (OJ, Grapefruit, Tart Cherry...) that contain naturally occurring sugars.


Also I'll ask again: Anywhere to buy HEED at a discount price?

Tried the melon HEED in the first two hour bottle Saturday, two packets of melon. Didn't think it was too bad, drank about 3/4 of it, then added two scoops of Perpetuem and filled it back up, which also wasn't too bad. Thinking that will be my standard for long rides, along with a few servings of gel in the first two hours. Will try the orange next, thanks.

I've not found any discounted Hammer products, other than some folks on here have a '15% off of your first order' link in their signatures.

Wasn't really speaking to you, but I must say you haven't denied that you like coke!

Gotta agree with that. I think HEED is a good drink for riding, but the only flavor I like is the Orange.

In Atlanta it's illegal to dislike Coke. I just don't like sugared Coke.

Also to the OP: You may be suffering a little bit of context. Take the following anecdote.

You are in a nice restaurant (white table cloths) and your server brings you a glass of water. In it you see one small black speck. This will induce your gage reflex and you will send it back.

Now it's 95ºF and you are outside trimming the hedges after mowing the grass. You are sweaty, dirty, hot and thirsty. You will not think twice about grabbing the garden hose out of the dirt and drinking from it.

Yeah the only discounts I have ever seen on hammer stuff is the referral discount on first purchase or from them when you buy in bulk. A good way to get the 15% multiple times is use your significant others name and have it shipped to a different address. Or have a sibling order.

Like any food for hard riding, HEED takes some getting used to. If your usual sports drink is sugar or HFCS-based, then swapping abruptly to HEED is going to give you some gastric distress, since your gut isn't used to the complex sugars used in HEED. Several of us were sucker-punched pretty hard on a century ride last year when you train consistently on a sugar-based drink; then suddenly the only thing available at the rest stops is HEED. I have never cramped as hard or so badly as I did on that ride, and the only thing I had changed was drinking HEED instead of the usual stuff.

That being said, I like the taste of HEED, especially the orange and lemon flavors, but it doesn't set at all well in my gut. I did the same ride this past summer, but carried my own mix (Nuun, and Arizona Green Tea mix) left the HEED alone, and just mixed my own stuff from plain water.

HEED is one of those things that if you plan to ride hard and long with it, you need to be drinking it on a very regular basis to keep your gut familiarized with its ingredients. It's good stuff, but my first real experience with it was a definite turn-off.

I liked HEED from my very first taste, and it sat well with me from my very first ride onward. It was such a wonderful relief to drink HEED rather than the other stuff (several different types of sports drinks) I had been drinking.

Oh, I liked (& still like) the flavor just fine... but about 25 miles or so down the road, I found that HEED didn't agree with me as well as I thought it would ;-)

Since then, I've been a lot more careful about selecting my drinks...

It's a matter of having the enzymes available to digest the stuff. For example, as we mammals grow older, we start making less and less of the enzymes to digest milk, unless you have been drinking milk as a regular part of your diet all along.

I sat through a workshop that one of the local bike shops put on last fall on sports drinks and nutrition, and it seems that Hammer uses a lot of the more complex carbs in its products. So, if you're a regular user of their products, it works just fine. Otherwise it will take a little adjusting to get your system used to it. Like any other food or health product, try it out (gently) before you try to ride hard/long with it.

I guess I'll have a try a flavor other than the "subtle lemon".

This thread is funny!
The same happened to me when I tried it. Heed is NASTY however, I find most drinks to be the same. I have tried Fluid and can tolerate the taste of it but it is sweet like Gatorade so it has to be diluted and for me, probably better as an after ride drink.

On the Hammer products, what you can do is to modify the taste just a bit. Next time, especially with the orange flavor, add a few ounces of orange juice to it, the one without pulp. The change in my opinion is to the good.

And if this works, adding just a little juice to any kind of energy powder product will enhance the flavor.

Will it change the chemistry of the product? I mean the electrolyte, the protein, the maltodextrin, the chemical makeup, causing it to lose its original purpose? Even if so, how much degradation could there be?

Next time you do a 70 mile ride, give yourself a break and go for that 20 ounce Coke, like the pros do at the grand tours. Besides, like I always said, Coke really cleans out the water bottles.

Greg Lemond used to mix his water bottles 1/2 water and 1/2 Coke. Of course the carbonation is gone but the mild flavor remains nonetheless. I like soft drinks at breaks. We plan our breaks around convenience stores/gas stations that sell them. And after a long event ride, nothing taste better than a Pepsi or Coke - regular or diet.

Sports drinks have been around a long time and for many athletes they're more convenient than energy gels. Unfortunately, most sport drinks are not much more than artificially coloured sugar water that does little to aid your performance and even less for your health. But HEED as a healthy alternative to keep you hydrated.