When the weather gets hot enough I end up having problems with getting dehydrated even if I’m taking on lots of water. I’ve used tablets like Nuun before to help but I generally find them to taste so grim that it’s hard to persuade myself to use them.

Are there any hydration aids out there that actually taste nice or is the best I can hope for one that mostly masks the unpleasant taste of the supplements that they contain?

High 5 in citrus tastes real nice.

I find nuun to be a bit ‘gassy’ (make you burp!), Zymm are quite nice but expensive, best value and taste though are High 5 zero.

apple juice / water mix with a pinch of salt

I’ve tried Zym and don’t find it any nicer than Nuun. I’ll seek out some High5 Zero and see what that’s like. I’ll also try getting some apple juice and seeing if my tastes have changed enough since I last tried it to like it now.

High 5 Zero in neutral flavour, add whatever floats your boat then for taste

I find all the Torq stuff nice!!

TandemJeremy – Member
apple juice / water mix with a pinch of salt

That’s an ‘almost isotonic carb drink’ not what the OP asked for 🙄

Beer? 😈

hilldodger – it will still hydrate. there is a theory that isotonic drinks hydrate quicker – you can use salts or sugars or a mix to get an isotonic solution

orange juice / water mix with a pinch of salt

not what the OP asked for

This is STW – it’s not here so you can get advice it’s here for those who have a pathological need to give it. 🙂

I quite like the taste of the Nuun tablets but yes they are gassy, but rather than burp this can be redirected to give extra thrust.

torq is by far the best, i like the citrus ones. orange or lemon/lime.

Torq Neutral/Natural doesn’t really taste of anything, it just seems to make plain water ‘thicker’. Mixes very well with more-or-less anything but the mildness is, I think at the expense of efficacy. Very easy to digest if you have a mincelite constitution.

My personal poison is High 5 berry or citrus. There’s no denying they have a flavour but it’s not unpleasant or medicinal and I find them quite effective, esp the caffeinated derivative.

TandemJeremy – Member
hilldodger – it will still hydrate. there is a theory that isotonic drinks hydrate quicker – you can use salts or sugars or a mix to get an isotonic solution

Yes, I know.

And I’m sure you know that the upper and lower limits of tonicity are quite well defined.
Whereas your ‘pinch’ of salt is an undefined amount and your fruit juice has an unknown amount of sugar plus other dissolved salts 🙄

I can imgaine you reaction if someone were to market a drink with ingredients listed as “a dash of this and a pinch of that”.

Either buy the correctly formulated stuff if you want isotonic or just drink water and eat a few munchies if you don’t…….

As above, they’re carb drinks rather than something which will rehydrate you (although they’ve got some electrolytes in there too). I find Zero very palatable for an electrolyte tab, or Elete water, which is completely tasteless, just add a few drops to any drink you like.

Anyway, trolling and wind ups aside, I’m currently enjoying nuun ‘orange with a hint of ginger’.
To get rid of excess fizz, I just shake well and release the pressure a few times before riding, this is easier if you use a bottle than a bladder.

Torq is nicest to me, and also free from bad sweetner chemicals. Couple of tips though (applies to all)

1) don’t necessarily mix it full strength
2) they all taste mingingly salty when you are not riding, however this translates to satisfying moorishness when you are working hard on a hot day – ime.

Nuun Kona Cola tastes lovely to me 🙂 Just electrolytes though.

High 5 in citrus tastes real nice

Came in to say this, also High 5 4:1 Endurance in Citrus is nice.

which is best for low sugar content- as a diabetic, I’m gonna be limited, aren’t I? 😐

I know you don’t like Nuun, but the tri berry ones are very nice tasting. Next time we ride together i’ll bring one along in a bottle.

Otherwise maybe 50/50 water and oj which is i think meant to hydrate you better than just water. But its not enough to just think hydration during the ride – try to hydrate well in the days before.

SIS Blackcurrant is my latest….very nice actually!

Nuun Kona Cola tastes lovely to me Just electrolytes though

Isn’t that the one with added caffeine as well? I like that and the orange and ginger.

nuun orange & ginger or lemon & lime

which is best for low sugar content- as a diabetic, I’m gonna be limited, aren’t I?

There’s 2 entirely different products being recommended:

– carb drinks, which you’ll probably want to avoid (although talk to Matt Hart at Torq fitness, he’s very knowledgable), such as Torq, High 5 Source (referred to as ‘High 5’ here), 4:1, SIS, Go, Accelerade, Cytomax etc etc
– electrolyte tablets such as Zym, Nuun, High 5 Zero and Elete.

The former will give you energy, and do little for cramp etc IME. The latter contain nothing but electrolytes, they’re more palatable by and large, certainly in large quantities, won’t ruin your guts, but don’t actually provide any energy, so you’ll need to get it from an alternative source such as bars or gels.

Depends what the issue is: running out of energy, carb drink. Getting cramp/dehydration: electrolyte tablets.

Many of the carb drinks do claim to contain enough electrolytes to stop cramp, but many years of experimentation whilst racing has taught me that personally, they do nothing!

which is best for low sugar content- as a diabetic, I’m gonna be limited, aren’t I?

It’s all sugar, that’s the entire point. If you want to reduce the sugar, dilute it!

Many of the carb drinks do claim to contain enough electrolytes to stop cramp, but many years of experimentation whilst racing has taught me that personally, they do nothing

Mmm, cramp is caused by all sorts of things I think – possibly only one of them is electrolyte deficiency, and it’s not at all clear if the kind you get at the end of a long knackering race can be fixed with electrolytes. My experience with race cramp is that it is caused by lack of race fitness rather than anything I drink 🙂 So similar to njee20 🙂

Another vote for Torq stuff….its about the only stuff I can stomach…

Ooh, many replies!

Blackcurrant SIS was the first one of these things I tried and I didn’t like it much. I’ve tried Nuun Kona Cola and I didn’t like that either. I had a dose of Nuun (maybe it was Zym) lemon and lime before lunch and that was what inspired me to start this thread so while it may work for some of you I don’t find it very nice…

On the other hand, whatever flavour the tablet I had last night when I woke up with a dry mouth, headache and blocked nose didn’t seem too bad, it may have been an orange and ginger or a tri-berry one. I had a decent length ride yesterday and it had been hot but post ride and in the evening I didn’t feel too bad, I was drinking a decent amount and there weren’t any obvious signs of dehydration, it’s not like I was ignoring hydration until I went to bed!

My general hydration should be OK. I drink loads of water on work days – maybe 3 litres, plus other liquids, typically. I could probably drink more at weekends, though.

When I have used hydration supplements it’s largely been after riding rather than while I’m on the bike. I’ve found that I drink less if it’s not just water in my Camelbak and after one occasion where I needed to flush something out of my eyes but had only Nuunified water to hand I’m not keen on repeating that!

My main issue with this sort of thing seems to be that if it gets too hot, no matter how much liquids I take on I end up feeling very ropey after the ride, dry mouth, unsettled stomach, liquids just passing through rather than helping. I figure this is due to loss of electrolytes and stuff like that but admittedly this is not a field I know much about so perhaps I’m reading the signs all wrong.

I threw away half a bottle of SIS blackcurrant. I’d rather bonk.

liquids just passing through rather than helping

That’s why the electrolytes are there. It helps you absorb the water – not really anything to do with cramp.

You can’t store much water – you need to replace what you lose whilst riding. Electrolytes are good for this I think.

Thanks for vaguely confirming my vague understanding, molgrips. 🙂

You’re vaguely welcome 🙂

I have noticed btw that the more I drink on really hot days the more I sweat – and the more comfortable I feel. Only when really sweating comical amounts can I deal with the heat. So the moral is get used to drinking tons whilst riding!

molgrips – Member

It’s all sugar, that’s the entire point. If you want to reduce the sugar, dilute it!

It would appear not? ❓

High Five Zero…

My experience with race cramp is that it is caused by lack of race fitness rather than anything I drink

The Nuun/Zym/Zero/Elite water stop me cramping, then I blow up! Balancing act!

It’s all sugar, that’s the entire point. If you want to reduce the sugar, dilute it

Read my previous post, there are carb drinks and electrolyte tabs, people are recommending both, they do very different things.

For cramp sufferers try taking zinc and B complex supplements.
If you don’t like pills then bananas are a good source of zinc and wholegrain cereal bars good for B vits plus you’ll get a good mix of high/low GI carbs 🙂

My main issue with this sort of thing seems to be that if it gets too hot, no matter how much liquids I take on I end up feeling very ropey after the ride, dry mouth, unsettled stomach, liquids just passing through rather than helping. I figure this is due to loss of electrolytes and stuff like that but admittedly this is not a field I know much about so perhaps I’m reading the signs all wrong.

Sounds like you’re getting to a point where electrolyte imbalance is causing problems and if that’s the case then drinking water isn’t going to help much as it’ll just make you feel full without actually replenishing lost electrolytes. If you’re using energy drinks at this point, hyper- or hypo-tonic fluids will just lead to greater ‘turnover’ of water which may explain your feeling of water passing straight through.

How come you’re getting so dehydrated? Dressed too warmly? Or is it just that you drink hardly anything on the bike? Try something like the SIS Electrolyte drinks or just experiment with making your own: fruit juice of choice, water, sugar, salt and a bit of orange juice, mix to taste (about 50:50 water/juice and a teaspoon of salt, tablespoon of sugar and a cup of OJ in a 3L camelbak.

crazy-legs – Member
How come you’re getting so dehydrated? Dressed too warmly? Or is it just that you drink hardly anything on the bike?

I was wearing a short sleeved jersey and shorts on my ride yesterday, so there’s not much room for wearing less there. I was out on the bike for a bit less than 4 hours and polished off a 3l Camelbak of water in that time. It was hot yesterday but not excessively so, which is maybe why I was fairly taken by surprise by what happened.

As I mentioned above I generally just have water in my Camelbak and eat food for energy rather than drinking energy drinks. It sounds like I should be putting more effort into keeping electrolytes topped up while I’m riding on hot days rather than leaving that until afterwards. That is a bit annoying, as mentioned above I prefer drinking just water while riding. If it really is flavourless maybe that elete stuff will work for me or perhaps I should consider taking an electrolyte drink in a bottle with me on rides as well as a Camelbak – when it’s hot, anyway.