My pick this week is a hydration product. GU Energy’s Hydration Drink Tabs. I drink more when the contents of my bottle when it has a flavor. I blame my longstanding sweet tooth. The thing is, traveling with a bag of mix is not ideal. All it takes is one exploded bag of drink mix to screw up a vacation. I know; I got to witness it once. Orange Gatorade is, apparently, tough to wash out of whites.
With the GU Energy Drink Tabs, they travel well and offer a surprisingly compact package. One tab gives you 320mg of sodium and 55mg of potassium and 1g of sugar. The small amount of sugar actually helps your body process the sodium and potassium more quickly. That’s not to say this is a fuel source; you’ll need gels or chews or Little Debbie Snack Cakes.
The one drawback to this product is that a single tablet is meant to mix with 16 oz. of water. Most bottles are either 20 or 24 oz. As annoying as this is, there’s a reason why all these mixes are portioned relative to 16 oz.: it’s an FDA regulation.
With a 20 oz. bottle I fill them not quite to the top. With 24 oz. bottles I cut a tablet in half, and generally if I’m filling a 24 oz. bottle, I’m filling two of them, so the other half gets put to use immediately.
We’re getting into event season and it’s not always possible to drive to an event with pre-mixed bottles. This is my solution if I need to travel light, and sometimes even if I don’t.
The Hydration Tabs come in Tropical Citrus, Orange, my personal favorite Strawberry Lemonade, Triberry and Lemon Lime. There’s also a Strawberry Hibiscus that adds a little jolt of caffeine. A 12-serving tube goes for $7.50 or a box of four for $30.