A New Experiment

You can't always drink beer. I know, it almost sounds like blasphemy but tell the jogger that runs past my window every morning right around 6:04am to hydrate herself with a Guinness and guaranteed, you're going to get a disdainful look.

I took a break this week from my handcrafted beer production and focused on two different homemade recipes for a sports drink. Sports drinks can often be more beneficial than plain water during extended physical activity because of the particular additives.

Most common sport drinks are based on what is called in the science community as oral rehydration therapy. It is a simple solution of salts and sugars for the primary use of treating dehydration by allowing the body to absorb and maintain more water.

Gatorade, the official sports drink of the NFL, is the most famous of sports drinks and uses these exact ingredients plus flavoring and dye. The sports fans out there would be interested in knowing that Gatorade derived its name from the University of Florida because it was developed to maintain hydration for their football team, the Florida Gators.

The two different recipes I tried both utilize sugar and salt to mimic the oral rehydration therapy benefits but differs from one another (and Gatorade styled drinks) by adding different flavoring ingredients.

The first recipe called for sugar, sea salt, water and one package of unsweetened Koolade. Oh, did I forget to mention how simple and easy this is? With four simple ingredients you have replicated a fairly comparable drink to commercial sports drinks.

The second recipe calls for the same ingredients, only replacing the Koolade with one half-cup of orange juice. Despite the obvious benefits of drinking vitamin pumped orange juice over the processed artificial flavoring of Koolade, the latter easily remains a better choice in regards to taste.

Perhaps it has been the years of drinking nothing but artificial flavored sodas, sweetened tea's and sugar pumped latte's as an adolescent, but there is an appreciable taste of processed flavoring that makes the homemade Koolade based concoction a bit more pleasing to the taste buds than the orange juiced based solution. I know the words 'processed' and 'Koolade' have bad stigmas, so you can begin throwing your judgments now.

However, unless you are constantly engaging in extended durations of physical activity, bored, or curious about making your own drinks, you may want to stick with buying a Powerade or Gatorade at your local Seven-Eleven.

There is a potential for savings by making it yourself but it would be nominal unless you made large quantities and bought ingredients in bulk. Unless your a football team or a soccer-mom, chances are you won't be needing that much.

My advice- give it a whirl and see if it works for you, but don't have huge expectations.

Homemade or not- sometimes its just necessary to put down the beer on a Sunday afternoon, namely because the 49ers are on a bi-week, get outdoors and give your body an excuse to enjoy a refreshing sports drink.