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Always drinking pure water can be boring and tasteless, especially when you have to filtrate it or use sterilizer/purification tabs which might cause the water to taste really bad.
What are easy (lightweight and not complicated to use) ways to get some flavour and diversion in my drinking while being outdoors for several weeks?
As a former soldier (and Medic), I personally don't flavour my water during the outdoors.
The contents of the canteen/flask might be required for a non-drinking purpose such as:
However, I do flavour my water on a day-to-day basis for the gym etc using super-concentrate micro capsules such as Squash'd
If you have not seen them then you can read about the growth in the super-concentrate market.
As a frequent Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinker I am a bit of a sugar addict and I can attest to the hyper-sweetness of even a 1/2 second squirt of Squash'd. It is very flavoursome without being overpowering. One little capsule should last for a week easily.
Electrolyte water however is really just a fancy name for some carbs (sugar) with a dash of salt. You can make exactly the same chemical solution at home with a pinch of salt and the juice of a citrus fruit - which is exactly what we used to make soldiers sip when suffering from heat exhaustion. For the price of a Lucozade sachet, I could make 40-50 litres of homemade electrolyte.
Few things I do:
I preferably avoid artificial materials, so I would use lemon, orange or grapefruit juice, just a bit for the taste, not really making lemonade (although it might irritate your stomach after several days of drinking it).
Crushed herb leaves can also give a new taste to the already "boring" water - for this purpose I would use mint, wild thyme, basil or maybe rosemary. Better experiment with these, because some could have stronger taste than what you would enjoy. Also, these aromatic plants have oils which might influence the digestion, so use with care.
That is a very tricky question...
Pure water is the best for everything. There are lots of things you can use to add some taste and make it easy to drink but there are some considerations about that as well. For sure those electrolytes are the best options but they are not cheap.
In a camping trip, where exercise is not the focus, all those already said, should be fine. Coffee, tea bags, those juice powders...
If you are for something a bit more intense, you need to take in consideration dehydration. Teas and some juice powders have diuretic effect and you will get more dehydrated, which in this case I would prefer the electrolytes drinks.
If you are doing that most of people wouldn't, Water will be just fine.
Some times, when I'm on the go in a really long/intense trip, I feel that after half way, it gets hard even to eat. My body gets so tired that even digestion becomes hard. That is when I start on soup packs and soft food. The same thing for the drink. More pure water, your system will work better. :)
Depends on the activity. Depends on the time of year.
Summer on the trail: Water. I don't bother with anything else. Salted nuts are part of my lunch and there is a salt shaker with supper. Since in my hiking country stream crossings are rarely more than an hour apart, water is convenient. A 500 ml bottle is fine. If you were in serious sweat country, I'd give consideration to a drink with electrolytes.
(Addendum: Last trip included a ridge walk. We use a 2 liter pop bottle per person in addition to our 500 ml bottle. Most days the pop bottle was empty in our pack.)
Winter Snowshoeing. Water is much less available. I used to organize cross country orienteering contests, so would often spend all day putzing about setting controls for meets that were far enough in the future that my tracks would vanish.
Anyway, I would take 2 liter pop bottle full of hot coffee with lots of milk and sugar. This was nested in spare clothing in my day pack for insulation.
Dogsledding. We usually traveled 2 or 3 per sled, with half the people at any given time up front breaking trail. For these trips we carried 6 quart thermoses that we filled at breakfast with juice crystals (faux juice) made at double strength with boiling water.
In use, you would fill the cap or a cup with snow, add hot juice and turn it into double the volume of warm juice, or into a slushy if you preferred.
In camp, all trips: I like my morning coffee, made at near expresso strength, and 2 mugs with lots of brown sugar and plastic powdered creamer. In the evening I drink hot chocolate, or a mix of powdered coconut milk, powdered milk, and if I'm really decandant and can afford the weight (canoe trips, weekend trips, sled trips) a splash of vanilla extract.
I carry some extra soup and juice packets to use for rainy day lunches. Lunch on rainy days can be done two ways: Add a layer, eat as fast as you can, take off a layer and go; or add a layer, make a fire, make up soup or a hot beverage, have lunch, get warm, and go.
(All of my trips are in wilderness areas that permit fires. Last trip (Willmore Wilderness, north of Jasper) once we were a day from the trail head, we saw 2 sets of shoe prints, but many sets of wolf, bear, moose, and a few cougar. Very lightly used country.)
All trip meals tend to be soupy. This is both for rehydration, and it makes the pots easier to clean.
If you are into performance endurance racing, the standard faux juice is too sweet, running about 10% sugar. You want a solution around 5-7%. This is absorbed fast by your gut. Depending on the weather you can tune this. Hot weather (sweating due to environment) you want less sugar. Cooler weather (almost all sweat due to exertion) you can use more sugar. Fill your camel hump with the right level of glucose (not plain sugar) and you can postpone depleting your liver's glycogen and delay hitting the wall.
Note however:
I have found running trips with teens that, without flavouring, many kids will fail to drink enough, become chronically mildly dehydrated, with the attendant mild headaches, grumpiness, and lack of energy. To help keep them hydrated: Served hot chocolate with breakfast, dilute faux juice at lunch, and strong sweet tea after supper, as well serving soup as part of supper. In most cases all of these were served at about twice the dilution you would find in 'civilization'.
Yes, they drink when really thirsty, and will gradually start drinking enough, but that takes a week. Meanwhile at every stop, you have to remind them to drink.
Propel Zero powder packs is what I use on backpacking trips once I make camp. During each day of hiking I only drink water and obtain needed nutrition through food. After I finish for the day I will drink 16 or 20 ounces of water flavored with one Propel Zero packet while I rest and setup camp or my area in a shelter. Then it's back to water for dinner.
I take the small packets of gatorade or similar that offers flavor plus electrolytes. I find that flavouring helps to make certain sources of water palatable when filtering it out in the backcountry.
Since I don't like putting anything besides water in my water bottles while I'm backpacking, I typically will just alternate Gatorade powder with a swish of water, then mix it together in my mouth. Definitely gets rid of the sugar craving, since, after all, you're just eating sugar.
You might consider boiling it up with some berries, (suitable) plants or pine needles.
In terms of treatment tablets, there are neutralisers to sort the taste out, but they are not perfect.
For a double solution, you might want to try those effervescent vitamin c tablets. Orange is nice.
Plain water is certainly the best choice, but it can be awfully boring. If I need something else I usually bring some single serve drink mixes, either crystal light or the Walmart branded ones.
Also, some of the single serve drink mixes are available with caffine/b vitamins. Not the best thing for hydration, but when your camping and don't feel like making coffee they can be a nice alternative.
