Skratch Labs Sport Recovery Drink Mix

Skratch Labs Sport Recovery Drink Mix is an all-natural protein and carbohydrate powder designed to kick-start your recovery process. It's super-easy to stomach, and comes in great tasting flavours. It is quite pricey, though.

• Pros: Easy on the stomach, good flavours, non-GMO and gluten-free, enhanced with probiotic to aid protein absorption and help those with dairy or lactose intolerances
• Cons: Relatively low protein content, quite expensive per portion, only two flavours

Sometimes, after a particularly long or hard ride, you can't really face the idea of downing a recovery shake, which can be overly sweet and bloating. The Skratch mix totally negates this, thanks to its ease on the stomach and pleasant taste.

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The mix is available in two flavours: the go-to option of all sports brands, chocolate, and the best friend of most cyclists, coffee. The coffee variant also contains a small dose of caffeine (45mg per serving), which is subtle enough to give your brain the boost it needs after a particularly taxing ride, but not strong enough to cause issues if you're particularly sensitive to caffeine.

I found both flavours great, with a gentle flavour that is neither too subtle nor too strong. I love coffee and so am biased, but am particularly fond of this flavour. It's quite a mild taste that I imagine will suit most palettes, sort of like a very weak latte.

Both flavours sit very easily in the stomach and do not leave you feeling bloated or gassy, as some recovery mixes do. I think this is down to both the subtle flavours and the focus on natural ingredients.

Nutritionally, the natural ingredients in the mix manage to pack a punch, though perhaps not quite as hard a right-hook as I'd like. A 12fl oz/350ml serving – two scoops taken with water – contains 200 calories, a decent 35g carbohydrate and 7g protein. While the carbohydrate content is on par with most recovery mixes, 7g protein is quite small compared with the typical 20-30g in most recovery bars or shakes. This is perhaps excusable though – Skratch points out on its blog that carbohydrate is the key nutrient to replenish after endurance exercise, and the role of protein is more to boost and assist carbohydrate uptake, and so this relatively lack of protein is perhaps justified – depending on what science you believe.

Skratch is a big advocate of fuelling and repairing naturally; many sports products are full of ingredients you've not heard of, whereas Skratch's makeup is a lot more natural. It's also compatible with a range of diets, being non-GMO, gluten-free, vegetarian and kosher.

It also contains added probiotic, which is intended to 'help with absorption of protein as well as lactase which helps with anyone who has issues with milk products or lactose'. I have no special dietary preference, but the focus on whole, clean ingredients can only be a good thing, particularly after a long ride when you might have consumed a lot of overly processed energy food and when your stomach is perhaps a little delicate.

> Read more road.cc reviews of energy and recovery drinks here

I used the mix after a few short interval sessions and some long rides, and felt strong and recovered the next day. Of course, isolating the good recovery to the effect of the mix, as opposed to other factors such as good sleep, is not possible, but it cannot be excluded from the equation.

The mix comes in large pouches containing 12 servings. This makes a serving work out at around £2.40, which is quite a lot, especially when you consider that you can get a bottle of chocolate milk (an oft-used alternative to recovery shakes) for about £1 from the supermarket, although Torq's recovery drink works out at around £3.33 a serving (£39.99 for a 1.5kg pouch).

I'd say the Skratch recovery mix is worth the money for the quality of the product and its ingredients, and the excellent taste.

Verdict

A great tasting energy drink that sits well on the stomach and seems to do the job