Homemade High-Carb Drink: The 2-Ingredient Carb Drink That Costs Pennies
So if you've done any amount of ultra running you'll have come across Tailwind (and other carb drinks!), and you'll also have come across the price of it. It's brilliant stuff, I use it and I rate it, but paying what you pay for what is essentially sugar and salt in a fancy bag started to feel a wee bit daft to me. Especially when you're going through loads of it on the big days.
So I started making my own. And honestly? It does the job for a fraction of the price, with two things you've probably already got in your kitchen. Let me show you.
If you've read my backyard ultra fuelling guide, you'll know I'm a big believer in liquid nutrition, especially for the night hours when you can't face chewing anything. This is the drink I lean on for exactly that.
What Tailwind actually is
Before you think I'm slagging it off, I'm not. But it helps to know what you're actually paying for so you understand what we're replicating.
A serving of Tailwind's endurance fuel is basically 50g of carbs and around 620mg of sodium, and the carbs come from two simple sugars, dextrose and sucrose. That's the engine of it. There's also a wee bit of potassium, magnesium and calcium in there, which I'll be honest about in a minute. But the thing doing the heavy lifting, the thing keeping you going hour after hour, is the sugar and the salt. That's the bit that matters most, and that's the bit you can make yourself for pennies.
The recipe
Here it is. Told you it was simple.
Ingredients (per 500ml bottle):
Caster sugar – around 40–50g (that's your carbs)
Himalayan or sea salt – ¼ tsp (that's your sodium)
Fresh lemon juice – a good squeeze (optional, for flavour)
Water – 500ml
Method:
Add the sugar and salt to your bottle
Squeeze in the lemon if you're using it
Top up with water, seal, and shake until it's all dissolved
That's your lot. Adjust the sugar to hit the carbs you're after, and the amount of water to how you like it, thicker or more dilute.
Why caster sugar actually works so well
Here's a wee bit of science that pleased me no end when I learned it. Caster sugar is sucrose, and sucrose is made of glucose and fructose bonded together. And it turns out that mix of glucose and fructose is exactly what your body wants for absorbing carbs quickly, because the two sugars take different routes into your bloodstream, so you can take on more without your stomach complaining.
So that pricey "dual-carb" or "multiple transportable carbohydrate" thing you'll see plastered over fancy fuels? Plain old caster sugar does it too, because it's glucose and fructose already. Funny how that works, isn't it.
Being honest: what this doesn't replicate
I'm not going to sit here and tell you two ingredients are identical to the shop stuff, because I want you to trust what I tell you. So here's the full truth.
My homemade version nails the two things that matter most, the carbs and the sodium. What it doesn't have is the wee amounts of potassium, magnesium and calcium that Tailwind adds. For most people on most efforts, that's genuinely not a dealbreaker, you get those from your other food through the day, and sodium is by far the main electrolyte you're sweating out anyway.
But if you're going really long, or you're a heavy sweater, or it's roasting hot, you might want those other electrolytes covered too. Easy fix, you can drink this alongside a proper electrolyte drink, and I've got a homemade electrolyte drink recipe for exactly that, or just add a wee electrolyte tab to your bottle. So think of this as your cheap carb-and-sodium engine, and top up the other bits if and when you need them.
When I use it
This is my go-to for the long stuff, the ultras, the backyard loops, the big training days. I sip it steadily rather than glugging it, and on a backyard ultra it becomes my main fuel through the night when solid food is off the menu.
For shorter or easy runs I honestly don't bother with any of this, water with electrolytes is grand. It's during a hard workout or when you're out for hours and hours that keeping a steady drip of carbs going becomes the difference between finishing strong and falling apart.
A few tips
Practise it in training first. Same as any fuel, never try something new on race day. Get your gut used to it on your long runs and find the sugar amount that sits right for you.
Don't make it too concentrated. If it's too strong and syrupy your stomach has to pull water in to dilute it, which can leave you feeling sick and bloated. If in doubt, add more water.
Make it taste nice. The lemon genuinely helps, especially hours in when everything sweet starts to turn your stomach. A wee bit of tartness resets the palate.
Mix it fresh the morning of, or the night before and keep it in the fridge. No preservatives in this, so use it up within a day or two.
The bottom line
You don't need to spend a fortune to fuel your long runs well. The stuff that keeps you going, the carbs and the salt, costs pennies and lives in your kitchen cupboard already. The fancy products are convenient and I still use them when it suits, but knowing you can knock up your own in 30 seconds is a proper freeing feeling, and your bank balance will thank you when you're training big.
Give it a go on your next long one. Start with the base recipe, tweak the sugar to suit, and see how you get on.
Right, that's me away for a bottle of it. Bash on.
— Kayleigh 🍌
Want the rest of your fuelling sorted? Here's my homemade honey energy gel recipe, my electrolyte drink for runners, and my full backyard ultra fuelling guide for the really long days.
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