Orange and Green Tea Sports Drink Recipe

Sports drinks do more than quench your thirst, they help restore electrolytes such as sodium and potassium as well as provide carbohydrates to give you quick energy.

During the summer I like to do most of my cardio outdoors by hiking, biking and jogging. With the heat and humidity I sweat a lot and wind up drinking a lot of water. When it's really hot and I'm sweating a lot I tend to feel groggy afterwards. That's where sports drinks come in.

But buying sports drinks 4 or more times a week can add up so I decided to learn how to make my own and have come up with a recipe for an orange flavored sports drink with matcha green tea.

During most normal exercises I'll just bring my 20oz Polar Insulated Water Bottle. On longer hikes and bike trips I'll bring my Camelbak and I'll fill the 100ml reservoir either half or completely full. On very hot days when I take a long bike ride I'll use the Camelbak and the water bottle.

Under normal circumstances, just plain water is fine for me, but when it's very hot and I'm spending a long time exercising, I've noticed that I get a little groggy feeling and my brain feels a little foggy.

After Googling around I found that drinking too much water while sweating a lot can flush out your body's sodium and leads to a condition called hyponatremia which can be quite serious. I don't know if that's what I was starting to develop but I know mentally I was off a bit. So it was time to add some electrolytes and flavor to my drink and this is what I came up with.

If you're concerned about the caffeine in the tea you can leave it out. I usually have one cup of coffee and one cup of matcha a day and that's pretty much all the caffeine I take in since I've cut out colas from my diet.

The following is my Matcha Green Tea and Orange Sports Drink Recipe that I mix in my 20oz Polar Bottle.  I use either Cafe Grade Gotcha Matcha or Vita Life Matcha Green Tea Powder. The Gotcha Matcha tastes better but the Vita Life is more economical.

• 1-2 scoops Matcha Green Tea Powder (vary according to taste)
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar (or honey)
• 1/8th teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons orange juice
• Enough water to fill bottle

Directions:

• Sift the matcha green tea powder into an empty cup using an OXO Good Grips Mini Strainer. or similar to break up clumps.
• Add about 1/3 to 1/2  cup of cold water to the matcha powder and stir vigorously. They have special bamboo whisks for this but I just use a fork.
• Add the sugar, salt and orange juice and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
• Pour into water bottle and fill up about half way with cold water. Put the cap on the bottle and shake a bit, then uncap and fill up the rest of the way with water, cap and shake to mix again.

The matcha tea powder doesn't dissolve, it's just suspended in solution. Since you're outside being active it will keep mixed up but a good shake when you take a sip may be needed sometimes.

The Polar Insulated water bottle helps keep the drink cold. If I have time I'll put the bottle in the freezer for about an hour before I need it or just throw in some ice cubes.