You are standing in your kitchen. You fill up your bottle of water and drop a scoop of SWORD® drink mix into it. After a quick shake you give it a taste. Hmm. Your first impression is that it's mild. Surprisingly mild. This is intentional.

Hydration drinks you purchase from the convenience store are engineered to taste good while you are sitting on the couch. They are essentially non-carbonated soft drinks full of sweet simple sugars. SWORD® is engineered for use during hard work, not sitting on the couch. And, as you know, your body reacts differently to fuel when you are working hard.

The first difference happens in your mouth. When you are working, your heart rate is elevated. Blood moves from your core outward to meet the demands of your working muscles. Your tongue may be the recipient of some of that extra blood. That makes it more sensitive to taste. SWORD® tastes great when you are working. It doesn’t overpower your taste buds leaving that cloying residue in your mouth. It is there and then it is gone to do its job.

That leads to the second difference. Palatability is important psychologically. If you are working for hours, your ability to keep drinking is essential not only to your performance, but also to your health. If a drink tastes too strong, you start to dread each sip. It will feel like taking medicine. And, because of that, it will be difficult to maintain appropriate levels of fuel and hydration.

So, yes. SWORD® tastes mild. It is made that way to help you keep going when things get difficult. You probably notice that it also tastes slightly salty. We will address that in the next post.

This is the first subject in the SWORD 101 Series. Next read about why we focus on sodium electrolytes in our performance hydration.