The Trekking Pawns Try Making Our Own Electrolyte Powder: A DIY Hydration Experiment Can we make our own electrolyte drink mix at home?

 Apparently, yes!

As travelers, we are always looking for ways to save money, pack smarter, and make things ourselves when it actually makes sense. Electrolyte drink packets are one of those little travel conveniences that can add up quickly—especially when you're buying them for long flights, hot-weather adventures, hiking days, cruises, or just trying to stay hydrated while wandering around a new city.

So when we came across LMNT's recipe for making its electrolyte drink mix at home, we had one of those classic Trekking Pawns moments:

"Wait... we can make that ourselves?"

We found the ingredients online, grabbed a kitchen scale, and decided to give DIY electrolytes a try!

The original LMNT homemade electrolyte recipe is surprisingly simple. The recipe uses just three electrolyte ingredients, and then you can add water and whatever flavoring you like. LMNT says its homemade formula is designed to provide approximately 1,000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, and 60 mg magnesium per serving.

🧂 So What's Actually in It?

The basic recipe is essentially three powdered ingredients:

• Sodium chloride (regular salt) – 2,500 mg
• Potassium chloride – 385 mg
• Magnesium malate – 390 mg
  OR 265 mg of di-magnesium malate
• 16–32 ounces of water

That gives one serving containing approximately:

• 1,000 mg sodium
• 200 mg potassium
• 60 mg magnesium

According to LMNT, these are the same electrolyte amounts and ratios used in its Raw Unflavored drink mix.

And that's it!

No giant chemistry experiment. No complicated blender setup. No mysterious list of 47 ingredients.

Just salt + potassium + magnesium.

Okay, this might actually be doable.

⚖️ The Important Part: Get a Kitchen Scale

This is probably the biggest takeaway from reading the LMNT recipe.

Use a scale.

LMNT specifically recommends measuring the ingredients by weight rather than teaspoons because powders can have different densities. Two products can occupy different amounts of space even when they weigh the same.

Since we're trying to recreate a specific electrolyte ratio, we're not really interested in eyeballing it.

We're going to measure.

And fortunately, inexpensive digital kitchen scales are easy to find online.

🧪 The Trekking Pawns DIY Recipe

Instead of making one serving at a time, we're going to take LMNT's suggestion and make a 30-serving batch.

That means measuring: (All product links are to Amazon)

For 30 servings:

• 75 grams sodium chloride
• 11.5 grams potassium chloride
• 11.7 grams magnesium malate

Or, if using di-magnesium malate:

• 75 grams sodium chloride
• 11.5 grams potassium chloride
• 8 grams di-magnesium malate

LMNT recommends thoroughly mixing the ingredients and then weighing out individual servings. A serving comes out to approximately 3.3 grams when using magnesium malate or 3.15 grams when using di-magnesium malate.

Our plan?

We're going with the bulk batch.

Because measuring three microscopic amounts of powder every morning sounds like exactly the kind of thing we're going to do twice and then completely abandon.

Thirty servings?

Much better.

🛒 What We're Ordering

The shopping list is pretty short.

1. Sodium Chloride

Otherwise known as...

Salt.

Yep. Regular sodium chloride.

The LMNT recipe calls for 2,500 mg of sodium chloride per serving, which provides approximately 1,000 mg of sodium.

This is definitely the easiest ingredient to find.

2. Potassium Chloride

This is the ingredient that makes the recipe feel a little more "science experiment" and a little less "grab the salt shaker."

Potassium chloride is commonly used as a potassium supplement and salt substitute, but we're going to pay close attention to the product label and make sure we're buying an appropriate food/supplement-grade powder rather than some random industrial product.

3. Magnesium Malate

And then there's magnesium.

LMNT's recipe uses magnesium malate or di-magnesium malate. The exact amount depends on which form you purchase, so don't substitute the quantities blindly.

That's another reason we're sticking closely to the original recipe rather than trying to invent our own formula.

🍋 But What Does It Taste Like?

Here's where things get interesting.

The basic mixture is unflavored.

And we're guessing that "unflavored" is another way of saying:

"Congratulations, you have made salty water."

Fortunately, LMNT provides several flavor variations that can be recreated at home.

For example, its Citrus Salt recipe adds:

• Lime juice
• Stevia
• Water
• Ice

The Raspberry version adds raspberries and lime juice, while the Orange version uses orange slices and lime juice. There's even a watermelon version.

That means we don't have to be locked into one flavor.

And for travelers, that's actually pretty cool.

One homemade electrolyte base could become:

🍋 Lemon/lime

🍊 Orange

🍓 Raspberry

🍉 Watermelon

Or whatever combination we come up with.

💧 How We'll Make a Drink

Once the dry mix is prepared, LMNT recommends adding approximately one serving to 16–32 ounces of water.

Our basic method will be:

1. Measure one serving of the homemade powder.
2. Add it to a large water bottle.
3. Add 16–32 ounces of water.
4. Shake thoroughly.
5. Add citrus, fruit, or another flavor if desired.
6. Add ice.
7. Taste.
8. Decide whether we've just created a brilliant travel hack—or salty science water.

Honestly, we're hoping for brilliant travel hack.

✈️ Why We're Trying This

Travel is one of the reasons this experiment caught our attention.

When we're traveling, especially in hot destinations, we're often walking 10,000, 15,000, or even 20,000+ steps a day.

Add:

• Airports
• Airplanes
• Long train rides
• Hiking
• Beaches
• Cruises
• Summer sightseeing
• Hours outside
• And occasionally forgetting to drink enough water

...and hydration becomes something worth thinking about.

A small container of homemade electrolyte powder could potentially be useful for packing in our travel gear.

Instead of bringing a box of individual packets, we could bring a small, well-labeled container of our homemade mix and measure servings as needed.

Less packaging. Potentially less expensive. And definitely more DIY.

That's pretty Trekking Pawns.

💰 Is Homemade Actually Cheaper?

This is one of the things we really want to find out.

Buying individual electrolyte packets is convenient, but convenience usually comes with a price.

With homemade mix, we're buying the ingredients in larger quantities and making multiple servings at once.

The real question is:

How much does one homemade serving actually cost?

That's something we're going to calculate after purchasing the ingredients.

Because saving money is great.

Saving money while making something that tastes good is even better.

Saving money while making something that tastes like seawater?

Well...

We may need to revisit the experiment.

🧳 Our Travel Test

We're especially interested in testing this on future Trekking Pawns adventures.

Imagine packing a small container of the dry mix for:

✈️ A long travel day

🏙️ A full day exploring a city

🥾 A hiking adventure

🚢 A cruise excursion

☀️ A hot-weather destination

Instead of buying a drink every time we feel like we need electrolytes, we'd have our own little hydration kit.

And since the basic mix is unflavored, we could customize it depending on what we have available.

Lime juice in Mexico?

Perfect.

Fresh oranges somewhere in Europe?

Let's try it.

Raspberries from a market?

Why not?

We're already imagining ourselves standing in a tiny European hotel kitchen with a water bottle, some fruit, and a suspicious little container of white powder.

What could possibly go wrong?

⚠️ A Quick Safety Note

This is a DIY electrolyte experiment—not medical advice.

The recipe is relatively high in sodium compared with many everyday electrolyte products. The amounts also need to be measured accurately, particularly potassium and magnesium.

If you have a medical condition, take medications that affect electrolyte levels, or have been told to limit sodium, potassium, or magnesium, check with a healthcare professional before using a concentrated electrolyte mix.

And don't confuse this homemade recipe with a medically formulated oral rehydration solution (ORS) used to treat significant dehydration from illness. Those formulations are specifically designed for that purpose.

For us, we're looking at this as a homemade hydration experiment for appropriate everyday/travel situations—not as a replacement for medical treatment.

🧂 The Trekking Pawns Verdict... Coming Soon!

So we've officially entered our DIY Electrolyte Era.

We found a recipe that looks simple enough.

We found the ingredients.

We have a kitchen scale.

We have water bottles.

Now there's only one thing left to do:

Mix it and see what happens.

Will we save money?

Will it taste good?

Will we become obsessed with making our own flavors?

Will we accidentally create something that tastes like the Pacific Ocean?

Only one way to find out.

Stay tuned for Part 2:

The Trekking Pawns Make Homemade LMNT: The Taste Test & Cost Breakdown

We'll calculate the actual cost per serving, try a few flavors, and report back on the most important scientific measurement of all:

Does it actually taste good?

Until then...

Stay hydrated, stay salty, and keep trekking! 🌎✈️🥤

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Want to Try It Yourself?

Start with the original recipe from LMNT rather than improvising the quantities:

LMNT's "How to make LMNT's electrolyte drink mix at home" recipe

The current recipe calls for 2,500 mg sodium chloride + 385 mg potassium chloride + 390 mg magnesium malate (or 265 mg di-magnesium malate) per serving, and LMNT recommends using a scale for accuracy.

The Trekking Pawns are sharing our DIY experiment and not endorsing homemade electrolytes as a treatment for dehydration or illness. Always use appropriate medical care when needed.