I blended this after looking at several commercial mixes that weren’t giving me what I needed, or were using massively excessive packaging, or both, or were using ingredients I cannot tolerate. No stevia for me, please, I’m allergic to ragweeds and stevia is cross reactive.
For this mix, I use mineral citrates because they’re fairly stable, relatively flavorless & I do not react to them. A citrate is made by reacting the mineral with citric acid, so if you’ve been reactive, do take care.
I make 200 serving batches at a time. Each 5 gram (1 tsp) serving needs to be in 500 ml of water. It carbonates great, mixes well with water enhancer/KoolAid, makes terrible coffee/tea. It will be cloudy in the first minute with the water, but stir/shake and it will clear up, or put it in the refrigerator for a while.
ADDENDUM: the mix does fine under INSTANT or POWDERED Teas, but does not make good leaf tea. Which is not ideal, but personally, a 50-50 mix of Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea with an equal part of One Organic Instant Black Tea Powder works for a decent iced tea substitute.
Supplements are one of those products that can be very inconsistent in the United States because they’re not tested and there’s no oversight. We’ve got now a 25 year history of third parties consistently testing supplements and finding at least half are not what they say on the bottle. Mostly, this applies to proprietary mixes*, herbs**, and fillers†. Minerals, being single substances, are a little more reliable, but it definitely helps to know you’re looking at white, finely milled powders that taste
– mildly salty for potassium citrate
– chalky for calcium citrate
– a little sweet for magnesium citrate.
*where one powder looks like another and some powdered pharmaceutical can fulfill the claim made — no seriously, herbal Viagra has been found to be just Viagra and fillers many more times than a few
**dried parsley looks like most green plant powder
† wheat flour, cornstarch and rice flour all look similar, but it matters for allergens
My preference is for one of two major names with rigorous in-house lab testing. First is NOW Foods, second is Bulk Supplements. They are reliable and provide a good product for a fair price. I do not use affiliate links, I will not make a single cent from this recipe, and also they will not know I referred them. Be the change you want to see on this internet.
For 200 servings of 1 TEASPOON (5 g) each
In a wide-mouth 1 quart mason jar, mix
- 380 grams (1.5 cup + 1 tsp) potassium citrate
- 75 grams calcium (5 tablespoons) calcium citrate
- 30 grams (2 tablespoons) magnesium citrate
- 5 g (1 teaspoon) fine salt (any)
Seal well with a single piece cap (not a canning lid and ring, there will be dust!) and SHAKE WELL to mix. Use as 1 teaspoon/5 grams to 500 ml water, with any flavorings or enhancements above that 500 milliliters.
Use a gram scale for BEST results, but volume measurements are okay. Calcium citrate is very light and fine, so expect it will seem like you’re adding tons.
Do not include any silicon moisture absorbent bags, and do expect to find at least one in every package.
Potassium chloride has a very strong, salty-acid taste so it’s not a substitute. Potassium bicarbonate is a bit salty and a little alkaline (so might taste soapy) but is not toxic and is often in commercial antacids.
1 kg packs of potassium citrate are ~$18-22 at ‘zon, that will make a little more than 2.5 of this recipe. Bulk Supplements Potassium Citrate The NOW Foods brand is also excellent, but it comes in 12 oz/340g bottles, which is a little low for this formula.
Calcium citrate can be found in 1 kg packs, but I’ve found that Now Foods 8 oz bottle is just fine, and it’s $9 a bottle for more than 3 recipes’ worth.
I use Magnesium Citrate from Now Foods, also 8 oz bottle, which is a couple of years supply.
Any salt. Mine currently happens to be finely ground pink salt, but that’s because that’s what Costco had.
Dissolve each serving — 1 teaspoon — in at least 500 mg of water.
Each teaspoon of powder provides
- 1 gram of potassium (20% of daily requirement
- 75 mg of calcium (3%)
- 120 mg of magnesium (30%)
- 5 mg chloride
- 5 mg sodium
You can double or triple this recipe, but you will need a much bigger jar. You have to have room to shake for blending. You can decant after mixing into a smaller jar if that suits your set-up better.
Glass powder funnels work much better if you’re putting this in bottles. Plastic funnels have enough static charge that it will grab and clog the outlet.
ADDENDUM for Summer, 2024
I noticed that I was getting some mild salt cramps when it was extremely hot outside, so I added sodium citrate at a level that would make most POTSies laugh, but I’ve found that I have to keep sodium and potassium in balance, and I cannot substitute sodium for potassium. My goal is 1 part sodium to 4-5 parts potassium, so for 200 servings, I added 90 grams of sodium CITRATE (tastes much less salty than Sodium chloride) to add about 200 mg of sodium per serving. I’m pretty sure you could go up to about 200 grams of sodium citrate per 200 servings, and get about 250 mg of sodium per serving, without it being unpleasant to drink.
I’ve also run the experiment of doubling the concentration of the powder in 500 ml, and it tastes about the same, carbonates about the same (it’s a little more prone to over-carbonate and overflow the bottle) and once carbonated, tastes remarkably like San Pellegrino, so for those who need higher concentrations, it works!
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