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Rawvelo Organic Hydration Drink Mix

8
£11.99

VERDICT:

8
10
Slightly pricey, but great-tasting hydration drink mix made up of A-list ingredients
Capable hydration
Great taste and easy to drink
All-natural and organic ingredients
Not the most carbs
Slightly pricey
Weight: 
32g
Contact: 

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The Rawvelo Organic Hydration Mix is made with all-natural ingredients, tastes great, and is easy to drink all-day long. It's no slouch in the nutritional department either, provided you're looking for a drink that's designed to hydrate you, rather than offer loads of ride fuel. It's not too expensive per serving, but there are slightly cheaper options out there.

The hydration drink mix is available in either lemon or raspberry flavour and comes in a powder that you mix with water. It contains an A-list of organic ingredients, including raw cane sugar, glucose, coconut water powder, pink Himalayan sea salt and natural flavourings.

> The best cycling water bottles you can buy – tried and tested

Both options are vegan-friendly, too, and the packaging is recyclable with carrier bags – an improvement on Rawvelo's packaging from a couple of years back that was non-recyclable. The product marketing has also smartened up a lot and looks a lot more in keeping with its contents and brand ethos.

2022 Rawvelo Organic Hydration Drink Mix - Raspberry.jpg

In terms of nutritional benefit, both flavours are nigh-on identical, with the only real difference in energy and carbs, where the lemon option offers ever so slightly more potency, with 91kcal versus 86kcal of energy, while carbs are 23g comapred with 21g.

Clearly, Rawvelo's hydration mix lacks in the numbers department when it comes to raw fuel compared with the likes of SIS's Beta Fuel that Liam liked or the OTE Super Carbs OTE Super Carbs that Jamie rated.

But where the Rawvelo powder lacks, it makes up for in its ability to keep you hydrated, and both flavours include some useful benefits to prevent dehydration when your body sheds minerals as you sweat, including sodium (402/403mg), magnesium (both flavours 6mg), potassium (118mg), and calcium (11mg).

Against another road.cc favourite, Precision Hydration's PF 30 Drink Mix does a similar thing but is ever so slightly more potent in this regard. There's not a huge amount in it, though.

2022 Rawvelo Organic Hydration Drink Mix - Lemon.jpg

Where I believe the Rawvelo to be the better option here is in the taste, and it's easy to overlook this when you're just focusing on the numbers. Whether you go for the lemon or raspberry flavours, you're getting a great-tasting drink, a lot of which is down to the all-natural ingredient list.

> Cycling hydration: Is 1 water bottle or 2 best on long rides?

There's nothing overpowering here, it's all very subtle and you'll easily neck the stuff on a hotter day without thinking twice about it. The lemon is a little on the bitter side, as you might expect with real lemon – which by the way I like – and the raspberry is slightly fruity with the mildest hint of 90s Freeze Pop to it. Again, I like that. Essentially, both are a bit like a posh and fizzy version of regular squash, which is a good thing.

Value

Each serving is 25g, which you add to 500ml of water – good enough for about 20-30 miles, then. The 400g pouch costs £25.99 which works out at 16 servings, or £1.62 per serving. The sample pack costs £11.99 and consists of six servings, which is the equivalent to just under £2 per serving, so marginally more expensive. If you're trying Rawvelo for the first time, this is a good way of testing the waters or, well, waters mixed with powders.

Veloforte's Vivo Electrolyte Powder, which is a similar all-natural hydration powder, with similar nutritional numbers, works out at about £1.58 per serving, when you buy in bulk, or £1.35 if you get a subscription, which is a bit cheaper overall.

Precision Hydration's PF 30 Drink Mix (which has been renamed to PF 60 Drink Mix since we reviewed it) is £18.99 per bag, and at 15 servings works out at £1.27 per serving, which beats the Rawvelo or Veloforte options, and if you buy it in five-bag bulk it's just over £1 per serving. A very reasonably priced alternative, then.

Conclusion

From a purely nutritional point of view, Rawvelo's hydration offering is roughly on par with its closest competitors, though it's slightly more expensive pound for pound. That said, you might be willing to spend the extra pennies just because it tastes really good, is easy to drink in voluminous quantities, and the ingredients are top notch.

Verdict

Slightly pricey, but great-tasting hydration drink mix made up of A-list ingredients

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Rawvelo Organic Hydration Drink Mix

Size tested: 25g

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Rawvelo says: "Our hydration mixes serve up an optimum blend of the natural sugars and electrolytes that your body craves when you work out. Simply mix with water for a light, quenching drink that helps to replenish your body. Sip during or immediately after exercise to enjoy the post-exercise glow, without the post-exercise woe."

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Ingredients

RASPBERRY

Organic Raw Cane Sugar, Organic Glucose, Organic Coconut Water Powder, Organic Freeze-dried Raspberry Powder (8%), Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, Organic Lemon Juice Powder, Natural Raspberry Flavour

LEMON

Organic Raw Cane Sugar, Organic Glucose, Organic Coconut Water Powder, Organic Lemon Juice Powder, Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, Natural Lemon Flavour

Good packaging, which is now also recyclable. Large pouch is resealable, smaller pouches are easy to carry with you.

Rate the product for performance:
 
8/10

Good electrolytes, but energy/carbs could be slightly better.

Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10

The smaller packets are sturdy enough to carry in a bag without them falling apart.

Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
 
9/10

Easy to drink all-day long.

Rate the product for value:
 
4/10

One of the more expensive hydration options.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Good hydration, great taste and easy to drink.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

The taste is subtle – almost like a weak and slightly fizzy squash.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Nothing.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

Pricier than similar competitors, but not hugely so, and it depends on whether you buy in bulk or not. When comparing a similar bag size, Precision Hydration's PF 60 Drink Mix is £1.27 per serving, Veloforte's Vivo Electrolyte Powder is £1.58 (or £1.35 if you subscribe), while Rawvelo is £1.62 per serving.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes – I'd probably get a mix of bulk and pouches to cover different scenarios.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

Slightly more expensive than its competitors, but Rawvelo is probably one of the nicest when it comes to taste, and you can drink plenty of it without feeling any aftereffects. It also has decent nutrition, at least from a hydration perspective. My only suggestion to Rawvelo would be to up the carbs to put it on par with the PF 30 Drink Mix, though you can easily make that up with snack bars or sweets on a ride.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 39  Height: 6'4  Weight: 175lbs

I usually ride: Condor Italia RC custom build  My best bike is:

I've been riding for: 10-20 years  I ride: A few times a week  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, sportives, mtb,

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8 comments

Avatar
hutchdaddy | 1 year ago
0 likes

3 l bottle of Vimto, £3 Iceland, far more tasty. www.iceland.co.uk/p/vimto-real-fruit-squash-3-litre/63984.html

Avatar
Simon E | 1 year ago
2 likes

400mg of salt per serving might not sound like much but I'd say it is OTT. There's too much salt in the western diet already, and is linked with a range of medical conditions. The idea that you need to increase your intake of salt due to sweating during exercise is contentious (unless perhaps you're ultra-running in the heat). And it doesn't prevent cramp.

Pink Himalayan salt is mined in Pakistan and sold to gullible people as being somehow better than other types of salt due to its colour.

The reviewer states that "both are a bit like a posh and fizzy version of regular squash" so I'd suggest that buying a bottle of squash (or use diluted fruit juice) and adding some sugar or maltodextrin is a similarly effective way to put some carbs in your bidon.

Avatar
jaymack replied to Simon E | 1 year ago
0 likes

You're bang on the money Simon. A bottle of posh squash from M&S will cost £1.60,if you must a kg of maltodextin will cost about £8.00. That's £9.60 to make between 5 and 6 litres of sports drink (and that's just on the basis of the amount of squash you've got). You don't need added salt but if you really, really do you've probably got some in your kitchen cupboards. Alternatively you could forgo the maltodextin, buy the posh squash and spend £9.99 on Christine Aschwanden's excellent book 'Good to Go'. That way you'd have spent the grand total of £11.59 which is still cheaper than the reviewed product and you'd never fall for the snake oil salesmen's 'Sports Nutrition' pitch again whilst still being as well hydrated as your ever likely to need to be. 

Avatar
The Accountant replied to Simon E | 1 year ago
0 likes

Depends how much effort you put in. When I ride, I'm heaping out a lot of sweat, and the electrolyte input helps to rebalance my system. I can get leg and get cramps from a lack of salt for a while after my rides.

My favourite most cost effective drink is still SIS Go Electrolyte, which you can tend to find on offer quite frequently.

Buy 2x1.6kg tubs on eBay and there is currently a 20% voucher, meaning £28.78 for 3.2kg. No need to faff around mixing your own. 64 drinks at 45p a serving, decent value.

Avatar
HollisJ replied to Simon E | 1 year ago
0 likes

Not to be pedantic, but it's not 400mg of salt, it's 400mg of sodium. Per 25g serving it's actually just 1.0g of salt.

The BHF recommends no more than 6mg a salt and 2500mg sodium each day, so you're probably ok to have a couple of servings in a ride, especially given you're losing salts from your body when you sweat a lot.

I always monitor my daily salt intake and try to avoid processed foods and aim to only eat whole foods, with minimal seasoning, so I'm happy to add salt my drinks but I can see why there may be concern for those who consume too much salt, but frankly hydration sachets are not the main issue here, it's poor diet that's the problem.

Fwiw, I do buy hydration sachets but if I don't have any I just tend to add a bit of sugar and salt to squash. No big deal either way - whichever route people want to go I'm sure they'll be happy.

 

Avatar
Simon E replied to HollisJ | 1 year ago
0 likes
HollisJ wrote:

Not to be pedantic, but it's not 400mg of salt, it's 400mg of sodium. Per 25g serving it's actually just 1.0g of salt.

And you think 1g of salt for an hour or so of riding is a good thing? I don't.

HollisJ wrote:

The BHF recommends no more than 6mg a salt and 2500mg sodium each day, so you're probably ok to have a couple of servings in a ride, especially given you're losing salts from your body when you sweat a lot.

Thanks for the correction re 400mg/1g.

Unless you're riding across a desert or racing for 4 hours in the Vuelta d'Espana at 35°C in August you're likely to be losing far less salt/sodium during a ride than you've been led to believe. If you're eating foods that contain salt then it's really not at all necessary to add it to energy drinks.

There are medical professionals that take issue with the widely quoted figure of 6g of salt (or 2,500mg of sodium) a day. The American Heart Association advises a maximum of 1,500 mg of sodium per day, for example.

And like speed limits, that's a maximum, not a target.

Avatar
HollisJ replied to Simon E | 1 year ago
0 likes
Simon E wrote:

And you think 1g of salt for an hour or so of riding is a good thing? I don't.

I didn't say that - I was merely pointing out the difference between what you stated and what the ingredients actually say. Unfortunately I'm not qualified to say how much salt intake in a given time frame is good or otherwise.

Simon E wrote:

Unless you're riding across a desert or racing for 4 hours in the Vuelta d'Espana at 35°C in August you're likely to be losing far less salt/sodium during a ride than you've been led to believe. If you're eating foods that contain salt then it's really not at all necessary to add it to energy drinks.

There are medical professionals that take issue with the widely quoted figure of 6g of salt (or 2,500mg of sodium) a day. The American Heart Association advises a maximum of 1,500 mg of sodium per day, for example.

And like speed limits, that's a maximum, not a target.

Certainly, I'd agree with that - less salt is always better. It's fair to say that you probaby can't put everyone in the same boat, though, as everyone sweats differently and loses salts to a lesser or greater degree.

Anecodatal as it is (so take it with a pinch of salt…) I tend to sweat a lot and I can actually see all the salt on my helmet straps after a ride. I used to get pretty bad headaches just drinking water or squash (even in large quantities), but have found that hydration mixes with some salt in them help to mitigate that.

Avatar
Jetmans Dad replied to HollisJ | 1 year ago
1 like
HollisJ wrote:

Not to be pedantic, but it's not 400mg of salt, it's 400mg of sodium. Per 25g serving it's actually just 1.0g of salt.

The BHF recommends no more than 6mg a salt and 2500mg sodium each day, so you're probably ok to have a couple of servings in a ride, especially given you're losing salts from your body when you sweat a lot.

Let's at least get the pedantry right ...

"Just" 1.0g is 2 and a half times as much as 400mg, so the correct figure is worse than the one originally quoted, not better as you imply, although you are correct that salt is 40% (ish) sodium, so 1g of salt equates to 400mg of sodium. 

It also means that, using the maximum recommended 6g (not mg) of salt per day, you are ingesting 1/6 of your maximum recommended daily salt intake in one single bidon. A couple of servings would then make it 1/3 of the maximum, before you account for any of the food you have eaten/will eat that day. 

Just to make you feel even better ... a slice of bread is generally 0.3-0.5g of salt per slice and bacon around 2.5-2.8g per two rashers, so two bidons and a bacon sandwich at the cafe stop will pretty much get you to the limit.

Yes, I do have high blood pressure ... why do you ask?

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