The complete guide
Unflavoured Hydration Salts, A Plain English Buyer's Guide
The problem with most drink mixes
Walk down the hydration aisle and nearly everything is flavoured. Berry, citrus, tropical, sometimes a blue one. That is fine for the first week. By week three, a lot of people quietly go off it. A flavour you chose on a Tuesday morning is a flavour you are stuck with for the next twenty nine serves.
There is a second issue. When something is flavoured, it usually needs a sweetener to carry that flavour, plus a colour so it looks like what it says on the tub. None of that is sinister, but it does lengthen the ingredient list, and plenty of people would rather it stayed short.
That is where an unflavoured electrolyte powder comes in. You stir the salts into water, and the water still mostly tastes like water. Nothing is pretending to be mango.
What this product actually is
Hydration Salts Unflavoured 30 Serves is a powder, sold in a pack of thirty serves. The ingredients listed by the maker are sodium chloride (organic lake salt, Lake Deborah, Western Australia), magnesium gluconate, potassium chloride and silica.
Three of those four are the sodium potassium magnesium salts the name points to. The fourth, silica, is a very common anti-caking agent. Its job is dull and useful. It keeps the powder loose so it pours and scoops cleanly instead of setting into a brick at the bottom of the pack.
What you will not find in that list is flavouring, colour or sweetener. That is the defining feature of the product and the main reason to choose it over a flavoured alternative.
We should be straight about something here. We are not going to tell you what this product does for your body, your training, your sleep or anything else. It is a food, and we describe foods by what is in them, what size the pack is, and how the maker says to prepare them. The pack label carries the formal ingredient list, the allergen statement and the directions, and that label is the final word. Read it before you use the product.
How you make a serve
The maker's direction is simple. Mix a serve with 400 to 600 mls of water.
That is a wide enough range to be useful. 400 mls fits most glasses. 600 mls is closer to a standard drink bottle. The amount of water changes how noticeable the salt note is, so if you find a serve in 400 mls a bit sharp, go to 500 or 600 and it softens.
A bottle with a screw lid is the easiest tool for the job. Pour the water, add the serve, put the lid on, shake it for a few seconds. Stirring in a glass works too, it just takes a little more patience. Room temperature water disperses powder faster than ice cold water, so if you are using fridge water, give it an extra shake.
Make it fresh each time rather than mixing a jug in the morning and working through it over the day. That is general good practice with any made up drink, not something specific to this product.
Who tends to go for an unflavoured mix
In our experience, the people who look for the best unflavoured electrolyte powder fall into a few groups.
There are the label readers. They want to know every ingredient and they want that list to be short. Four ingredients suits them.
There are people who already drink something with flavour all day, coffee, tea, a soft drink here and there, and do not want yet another flavoured liquid. Their water is the one plain thing they have, and they would like to keep it that way.
Then there are the practical ones. A thirty serve pack is tidier than a box of individual sachets, and it works out to about a month at one serve a day. It sits on the bench, it goes in a bag, it does not generate thirty bits of foil.
And there are people who simply dislike sweeteners. Not for any dramatic reason. They just do not like the taste.
Who should not use it
This is a sports food, and the maker's warning is clear. Sports foods are not suitable for children under 15, and they are not suitable for pregnant women. They should be used alongside a balanced diet rather than in place of proper food.
If you have a health condition, take medication, or are on a diet that limits sodium or potassium, talk to a qualified health professional before adding anything like this. We cannot give that advice and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
How to choose between packs like this
A few questions sort most of it out.
First, flavoured or not. This is the big one and it is purely preference. If you know you will get bored of a flavour, unflavoured is the safer buy. If you need the drink to taste like something to get through it, buy a flavoured one instead.
Second, how long you want a pack to last. Thirty serves at one a day is about a month. If two people in the house will use it, halve that. If you only reach for it occasionally, a thirty serve pack might sit around for a while, so storage matters more.
Third, the ingredient list. Read it against anything else you are considering. Short lists are easier to assess. This one has four items, all named above.
Fourth, the directions. 400 to 600 mls per serve tells you something practical, that this is designed for a decent sized drink rather than a small shot. If you usually sip from a 750 ml bottle, that is useful to know when you plan your day.
Looking after the pack
Hydration salts are hygroscopic, which is a long word for they like moisture. Give them any and they clump.
So, four habits worth building. Keep the pack sealed when you are not using it. Store it somewhere cool and dry, out of direct sun, not next to the kettle. Use a dry scoop or spoon every single time, because a damp one is the usual culprit behind a solid lump halfway down the pack. And do not leave the scoop sitting inside an open pack in a humid kitchen.
If you do get small clumps, you can usually break them up and carry on. If the powder looks, smells or behaves oddly, do not use it. Get in touch with us instead.
Delivery and returns in plain terms
We dispatch within 2 working days. Delivery then takes up to 7 working days by tracked courier. Delivery is Australia only.
Change of mind returns are accepted within 14 days of delivery, on unopened and sealed packs only. That is standard for food products, since we cannot resell an opened pack. If your order arrives faulty or damaged, that is put right under the Australian Consumer Law, so send us your order number and a photo and we will handle it.
No warranty is sold with this product. Your consumer law rights are unaffected by that.
The short version
Hydration Salts Unflavoured 30 Serves is a plain, powdered electrolyte mix in a thirty serve pack. Four listed ingredients, sodium chloride from Lake Deborah in Western Australia, magnesium gluconate, potassium chloride and silica. No flavour, no colour, no sweetener.
Mix a serve with 400 to 600 mls of water, shake, drink. Keep the pack sealed and dry, use a dry scoop, and buy it because you want your water left alone rather than disguised.
It is a sports food, so it is not for children under 15 or for pregnant women, and it belongs alongside a balanced diet. Read the pack label before you use it, every time, because the label is the final word on ingredients, allergens and directions.