Making your own electrolyte drink: the recipe using salt and lemon

Making your own electrolytes It only takes a few ingredients: still water, a pinch of sea salt and the juice of half a lemon, plus 1 cl of maple syrup if you like – that’s how the ‘Electrolyte’ recipe appears on our mocktail menu. Here you can read about what’s in it, when water on its own is enough, how the Consumer Advice Centre mixes an isotonic drink, and what the limitations of a homemade drink are.

The recipe

1. Add a pinch of sea salt and the juice of half a lemon to the glass.
2. Add 1 cl of maple syrup if desired.
3. Pour in the water gently and stir.

The same menu lists ‘Der Sportler’ with the same ingredients, but with the option of 1 cl of honey instead of maple syrup. The menu does not specify how much a ‘pinch’ is; the quantities are serving suggestions, not strict recipe guidelines.

What’s in it?

Salt is sodium chloride. According to the German Nutrition Society (DGE), sodium, chloride and potassium are among the body’s most important electrolytes. To convert: 1 g of salt is equivalent to around 400 mg of sodium.

Vegetables and fruit such as apricots, bananas, carrots, kohlrabi and tomatoes, as well as nuts, are rich in potassium. The drink is not sugar-free when made with the optional ingredients: maple syrup is boiled down to a sugar content of around 60 per cent, whilst honey contains 82 g of sugar per 100 g, according to the US nutritional database.

When is water enough?

When we sweat, the body loses not only water but, above all, sodium and chloride. According to the Hesse Consumer Advice Centre, water is often sufficient for shorter training sessions, and according to the Bavarian Consumer Service, for moderate exercise lasting up to an hour, it is enough to drink after the session.

Anyone exercising intensively for more than an hour should drink something from time to time. After exercise, the Hessen Consumer Advice Centre advises replenishing not only fluids but also lost electrolytes – with mineral water or diluted fruit or vegetable juices. The fluid intake calculator shows how much you should drink in total.

Make your own isotonic drink

‘Isotonic’ means that the drink contains exactly the same number of particles – that is, sugar and minerals – in solution as there are in the blood. The term is not defined by law.

• Iso-Drink from the Hessen Consumer Advice Centre: two parts sodium-rich mineral water containing around 600 mg of sodium per litre and one part juice.
• For less intense training: a juice and water mix made from one part juice and three parts water. It is hypotonic, meaning it contains fewer dissolved particles, and primarily provides fluid.
• Not suitable: undiluted juices, fizzy drinks and iced tea – due to their high sugar content, they are hypertonic.

As a guide: the isotonic drink contains, by calculation, around 400 mg of sodium per litre. Converted to a 330-ml can, that’s about 130 mg of sodium, or roughly a third of a gram of salt. Whether our recipe is isotonic depends on the amount of salt and syrup used – we haven’t measured it.

Limitations: not effective for diarrhoea

Electrolyte supplements available from pharmacies are approved for people with acute diarrhoea to help restore electrolyte and fluid balance. Dehydration is particularly dangerous for babies, young children and the elderly. Our recipe is a drink from the mocktail menu and not a rehydration solution for people who are ill – if you have diarrhoea or are vomiting, particularly if you are a child or an elderly person, it is best to ask at a pharmacy or GP’s surgery.

There are no official recommendations regarding electrolyte solutions as a remedy for a hangover. According to the Pharmazeutische Zeitung, the hype surrounding them has led to supply shortages of the products on which patients – particularly children – rely.

Salt in moderation

The World Health Organisation recommends that adults consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium a day, which is equivalent to less than 5 g of salt. In fact, the average global intake in 2021 was 4,278 mg of sodium, or around 11 g of salt. According to the German Nutrition Society (DGE), a high sodium intake can increase the risk of high blood pressure. It is therefore best to use salt sparingly in drinks.

You can read more on this topic in the article ‘Electrolytes no sugar’. You’ll find more non-alcoholic drinks in the ‘Mocktails’ section, and you can find out whether still or sparkling water suits you better in ‘Sparkling or still?’.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. ACQUA REAPER: Product specifications, 14 September 26.
2. German Nutrition Society: Reference values: Sodium, 2016 edition, accessed 16 September 2026. dge.de
3. German Nutrition Society: Reference values: Chloride, 2016 edition, accessed 16 September 2026. dge.de
4. German Nutrition Society: Reference values: Potassium, 2016 edition, accessed 16 September 2026. dge.de
5. World Health Organisation (WHO): Sodium reduction – Fact sheet, 11 May 26. who.int
6. Hessen Consumer Advice Centre: Specialised sports drinks are unnecessary, as at 27 April 2022. verbraucherzentrale-hessen.de
7. VerbraucherService Bayern im KDFB e. V.: Recommendations on fluid intake – a critical look, 25 August 2021. verbraucherservice-bayern.de
8. Pharmazeutische Zeitung: Making your own electrolyte solution, 30 December 2022. pharmazeutische-zeitung.de
9. Pharmazeutische Zeitung: Moving away from party hype through online education, 29 December 23. pharmazeutische-zeitung.de
10. Wikipedia: Maple syrup, as at 26 May 26. de.wikipedia.org
11. U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central: Honey (SR Legacy, FDC 169640), data record 1 April 2019, accessed 16 September 2026. fdc.nal.usda.gov