add xantham gum to your dr harrison mix.

That would just give gloop though, and wouldn't be the right potency.

LOL, I know exactly where you’re coming from. So I looked at all the top gels and ordered the main ingredients. Checked out various YouTube videos, recipes, etc. Spent weeks getting the formulas (taste, consistency, ingredients, extras) to my liking. And never came up with anything that came close to GU, Hammer, Clif, or even power bar! Should have learned from my failure to make a decent sports drink, however I still use the ‘workout mix’ concoction I made after seeing the price of those!

It's not quite a traditional gel, but It's pretty easy to make the equivalent of the old Extran boxes or the Enervit liquid gel... they're both basically just a saturated sugar solution with added flavoring (I use lemon zest).

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Get bulk maltodextrin from a home brewing supply store, dissolve it with warm water (it takes surprisingly little; 2:1 by weight IIRC) and flavor it with Mio (or one of the other flavor drops).

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Do you have a link for this?

I use this recipe and sub in gatorade powder for citric acid at 10-12g/gel serving. If my terrible math is correct, it comes out to ~70-80g of carbs/serving.


https://www.jimdowning.org/articles/diy-endurance-carbs/

If it's more about the single use plastics, you could opt for the 15 serving bags of Gu and use their flask.

https://guenergy.com/products/gu-energy-flask

I got curious about this since I've had such a good result with the Speed Nectar so I merged the link above with the speed nectar formula to begin experimenting with how to fuel for longer rides without multiple bottles. I've done this with super concentrated liquid but sometimes like the smaller form factor of a gel and the need to only top off fresh water.

Pyrex 3 cup measuring cup
Gu gel flask (160ml/5.5oz capacity)

25g gatorade fruit punch powder
100g table sugar
200mg caffeine powder
1/2tsp sodium citrate
4g (1/2tsp) fruit pectin

Put all of the ingredients into the pyrex measuring cup, topped with water to the 150ml line. Whisked to stir the ingredients then microwaved for 1 minute (solution bubbles up but didn't overflow the measuring cup). Removed, whisked again, microwaved for another minute. Set aside to cool.

This mix was slightly thinner than a Gu gel and didn't quite fill the flask, it only made it to the 4 serving line on the side. For the next batch, I will try increasing the mixture to the 200ml line and adding an additional 2g (3/4tsp) of fruit pectin to see if that hits the fill and consistency I'm after. I may also bump to 125g of table sugar for a 150g (plus the little bit of carbs the pectin adds) per flask so I could do a 4+ hour ride on just 3 flasks, topping off my bottles with plain water as needed to hit ~1L per hour.

Honey. Maple syrup.
Youre welcome........

Previous thread link

Table sugar: 580 calories per 150g
Honey: 456 calories per 150g

And you'd still need to include supplements to the honey to achieve the desired sodium and caffeine targets.

If you like the Alex formula (I do) then just use the same thing for gels, but more concentrated.

I use a 350mL gel flask from Decathlon and found that the thickness is similar to gels if I use about 200-225g of sugar. It has been perfect for marathons.

The day prior to needing it, I start with about 50mL to dissolve a SIS or Nuun tab (what I use for flavor). Once dissolved, add 200-225g sugar, 100-200mg caffeine, and some salt. Then add warm water to get the volume up to 350mL. At this stage I use warm water to help the sugar dissolve. Come by every few hours to stir it a bit. Transfer to gel flak before bed. Let it sit over night. Use in the morning.

I've tried 250g/350mL once but that was too thick for the squeeze valve.

You're ignoring the water required to dilute the table sugar to a honey-like consistency in your maths, and adding constraints that the OP did not have in his post. Also, just add some salt.

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I have been playing around with something very similar. I remember back in the day Enervit used to make this cola flavored "gel", but it was liquid. Loved that stuff and really like cola flavor. I've been using powerbar hydros because i prefer the consistency to gels, but they only have one flavor I like.

So here is what I do. I have a 32 oz squeeze bottle, and I'll mix up 16 x 2.0 oz servings. Each serving has 12.5g maltodextrin and 12.5g fructose. I tried with table sugar, but it was just too sweet. So in a sauce pan, I'll add 200g malto and 200g fructose (for 16 servings), enough salt to bring it to ~250mg sodium/serving using sodium citrate and water so I end up with 32oz finished product. Warm it up enough to get it to dissolve and then add to the flask. And here is the "special sauce". I add about 1.5-2oz of cola syrup. I found an organic one that tastes good, uses cane sugar (so doesn't mess with my 1:1 ratio, although with the amount I'm using it wouldn't make much difference). The cola syrup makes it so delicious. Love that I can play with the amount of flavoring pretty easily to get it where I want it. The consistency is more syrupy than gel like. I haven't messed with any gelling agents, but might just for fun. So that 32 oz container lives in my fridge and then I decant into gel flasks for bikes and runs.

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You can dissolve 150g of table sugar into 79ml of water at room temperature, more with warm water and it still won't be nearly as thick as honey.

As to constraints, OP was discussing moving from the Harrison drink formula to a gel format. The app Harrison created absolutely includes the options for different "approved" additives to the drink.

For my original post, it was more to explore some of the previous links in the thread to see what could be accomplished FOR ME and how I would need to iterate on the experiment to achieve what I considered to be a suitable custom commercial gel substitute. There aren't any gels on the market that I could buy that would give me the volume and ingredients that the Harrison app is suggesting.

Having someone do a drive-by post and say, honey or maple syrup, you're welcome doesn't add constructively to the question asked by the OP.

What ratios?

The book Run Fast Cook Fast Eat Slow has an entire chapter on gels, snacks and drinks for long workouts and races.

Anyone tried adding Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to their home made drinks/gels? :)
Preferably not ones with citric acid.