the instant

Gel Formulator

90 g
g/hr
600 mg
mg/hr
Preferred Gel Consistency 0.80 g/ml
Thin Syrup 0.60 g/ml

Flows like fruit juice. Light and highly drinkable concentrate.

Standard Maple 0.80 g/ml

Standard commercial gel. Smooth flow, easy to consume.

Thick Honey 1.00 g/ml

High-density gel. Sticky, dense, and slow-flowing.

Rocket Fuel 1.20 g/ml

Ultra-thick gel paste. Extremely dense; must chase with water.

Target Tartness Level Medium
1000 ml
ml

Fueling Reality Check

Liquid Gel
Hourly Gel Volume -
Carbs per Hour -
Sodium per Hour -
Describe the texture and dosing experience.
Juice-like Maple Syrup Heavy Gel

Consumption Strategy

250 ml
ml
-

A little about what the recipe below is doing

Standard table sugar (sucrose) is a double-sugar molecule. By simmering it with citric acid, we trigger acid-catalyzed thermal inversion. This process splits sucrose into its simple sugar components: glucose and fructose. This dual molecular trick does two vital things for you:

1. Double the Gastric Uptake (No Cramping) Glucose and fructose use separate absorption pathways in your gut. Splitting the sugar beforehand prevents gut bottlenecks. This allows you to absorb up to 90g–120g+ of carbs per hour—practically doubling your absorption limit without bloating or sloshing.
2. Zero Crystallization (Ready When You Are) Standard sugar syrup will quickly crystallize back into gritty rock sugar when cooled. Inverting the sugar alters its molecular structure so it stays completely smooth and liquid. You can store a large batch in the fridge for weeks, ready to pour for your runs, rides, hikes, or races.

Fun Science Fact: This is exactly how bees make honey! Bees secrete an enzyme called invertase to split nectar sucrose into glucose and fructose, which keeps honey in its famous, non-crystallizing liquid state for years. You're basically doing the work of a honeybee in a saucepan in under 20 minutes!

Perfect Taste Profile: Inverted sugar syrup is naturally about 25% sweeter than normal sugar. However, when balanced with the citric acid's sour kick and sodium citrate's smooth salinity, it cuts the cloying sweetness, leaving you with a clean, refreshing taste that goes down easy even at high heart rates.

Below are your custom-calculated ingredients and cooking checklist based on your choices above.

Kitchen Ingredients Card

Starting water includes a 30ml steam evaporation buffer for the 20-min simmer.
Pure Cane Sugar (Sucrose) The source of your fuel. Boiling and simmering splits it into glucose and fructose so your stomach can absorb it twice as fast without causing cramps.
-g -
Starting Water Dissolves the sugar. We start with extra water because some of it will steam off during the 20-minute simmer.
-ml -
Citric Acid For inversion & tartness Sour helper. It acts as a catalyst to chemically split the sugar when hot, and adds a nice tartness to cut the heavy sweetness.
-g - (formula: -)
Sodium Citrate Your main electrolyte. Replaces sodium lost in sweat. We use Sodium Citrate instead of table salt because it is extremely gentle on the stomach and doesn't taste overly salty. We divide by 260 in the formula because sodium citrate is only 26% sodium by weight.
-g -

Kitchen Prep & Cooking Checklist

1🥄
Combine Initial Ingredients Combine the calculated - of Sugar, - of Citric Acid, and - of Starting Water in a saucepan (do not add sodium citrate yet). If the starting water looks low, do not panic; the sugar will fully liquefy as it heats up.
2🔥
Bring to Simmer & Invert (20 min) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and maintain a gentle simmer undisturbed for 20 minutes to break the sucrose bonds (inversion). This creates the glucose-fructose blend that improves gastric tolerance and prevents crystallization. Set your phone or stove timer for 20 minutes.
3⚡
Buffer with Electrolytes Remove from heat and stir in the calculated - of Sodium Citrate until fully dissolved. Adding it after inversion prevents chemical disruption of the inversion process.
4🧊
Top Off & Store Pour the hot syrup into a marked measuring vessel and top off with cold water until the liquid line hits exactly your initial Target Batch Size line of -. Let cool and transfer to flasks or bottles.