Last winter, Kleen Nutrition launched their first product, an all-natural, organic, non-GMO sports drink called Wholedration. It’s based on coconut sugar and coconut water with a two flavor system tailored to sweat rates. Their December launch wasn’t exactly timed with the hot temps that make us sweat a ton, so we waited a while to put it through a proper test.
I used it as my sole hydration source during a solo effort at 6 Hours of Warrior Creek in April and throughout the summer on short, long, hot and normal rides and haven’t come close to cramping a single time. Equally as impressive is that even on four to six hour rides, I didn’t tire of the flavor and it never built up a sticky sweet tongue coating.
The carb count is low, just 7-9g per 8oz serving, which falls in line with modern thinking about using the drink to hydrate and food to fuel, so I did rely on nuts, bars and Clif’s surprisingly tasty organic food purée squeezes to keep me riding strong. The drink’s two flavors are mild, not too acidic, and they’re definitely not sweet, which is the right combo for long term use. Pour into the details below…
Little things like large, graphical serving size directions make the user experience better, too. I tire of reading tiny 6pt print to remember how many scoops for a large water bottle, so this labeling is as refreshing as the drink.
The two flavors are Red Strawberry and Blue Acai Blackberry. Just think of using the red for hotter days and it’s easy to remember which one (the red one) is for higher sweat rates. We covered their science and reasoning in detail here, but suffice to say that electrolyte and carb count is a little higher in the red one to better replace what’s being lost through excessive sweating. Why a higher carb count? Because the electrolytes come in part from the coconut sugar and water (sea salt is the other source), so to get higher electrolyte levels, the carbs need to be a bit higher.
It seems to work as long as I maintained a proper hydration rate, which I normally do…I tend to drink twice as much as most of my riding buddies on a given ride, I just don’t know how they do it. But I haven’t had so much as a twinge of pre-cramping while using Wholedration.
If you’re looking for a decent tasting product made from top notch ingredients, it’s worth a look. Retail is $24.95 for 45 (8oz) servings.
