My recommendation would be just using plain maltodextrin (glucose) in your drink. You can add some sugar free juice etc for flavour.

Besides no added sugar, what are you wanting in your sports drink/bars? Protein? Sodium? Caffeine? Natural Carbs?

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

Sodium and carbs ideally

I had a meeting for my kid's baseball last night - I spent the whole time staring at a display for BioSteel - the big marketing point seemed to be "no added sugar". Aside from that, I have no actual insight into the product.

Um... maybe I'm a bit dense, here, but what? You want carbohydrates in a drink, but you don't want sugar? I suppose your only other option is fiber... Have you tried metamucil?

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

sorry this is funny: no sugar but you want carbs. what do you define as "sugar" here? and what do you define "carbs"? are Fructose, glucose, and sucrose in your definition of carbs?

UCAN?

I think he's looking for natural carbs/sugar as opposed to added carbs/sugar.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

Yes, this.

Might be an impossible ask to get quick carbs without added sugar, but that’s the goal.

What about natural fruit juices as the base and adding salt/sodium? The acid may not work, but it's the only drink I can think of with natural sugars.

(BTW, another non-sponsored plug for the Saturday app. It tells me how many carbs, volume of fluid and salt/sodium I need for a workout or event. I was always pretty bad on the volume and salt/sodium content. I've seen a tremendous increase in my ability to do workouts on +105F days.)

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

The maple syrup based products are likely your best bet.

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Reminds me also of honey

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

All carbs are sugars once they're in your gut. Your body can't tell whether it came from an apple or sugarcane. Starches become glucose and fibre turns into fat or goes straight through.
If you're aiming to give your liver a break from fructose, avoid tooth decay or resensitise your tastebuds, then you'll have to drop the fruit and 'natural' juices and syrups like honey too.
Longer polysaccharides would then be what you want - so no fructose, glucose, dextrose - but much longer than maltodextrin and you could risk some issues. I used cyclic dextrin on a steady aero turbo session once and seemed to block myself up - was very sick and bloated; couldn't eat for hours.
Sugar is unhealthy for many reasons, but some of the reasons don't apply during exercise. Moderation and timing. Gels, fruit, bread, whatever is all "added sugar" to your diet & bloodstream.