CNP Professional Pro Hydrate

CNP Pro Hydrate comes from an extensive range of cycling appropriate products, affiliations with both Team Sky and British Cycling plus a host of domestic teams having certainly pushed things along for the brand recently.

The Pro Hydrate comes in 500g containers for £11.39 a go. That gives you 12 servings, each one of which mixes with 500ml of water. To save you doing the maths, that works out at roughly 95p for each 500ml. That's more expensive than SiS or Powerbar products, for example, but there is a lot to like about Pro Hydrate.

For a start, it's easy to mix and the taste certainly shouldn't offend most people; in fact, to my tastebuds it is better flavour than most. There is lots to like about the product. It's easy to mix and the taste certainly shouldn't offend most people. It's not overly sweet which is really important when you're operating at a high intensity or drinking all day on long rides. If the flavour overpowers your ability to consume the drink, you are never going to get much benefit.

I used Pro Hydrate mainly over a training camp in Majorca. It was certainly a very useful survival tool and I was happy to keep drinking it despite downing multiple litres during the week. My bottles are now all dyed orange but that isn't uncommon for energy drinks.

Pro Hydrate is hypotonic meaning that the fluid and carbs are very quickly and easily absorbed by your body. Both sodium and potassium are essentials for the body when training, especially in the heat, but you can find larger doses of both of these plus calcium and magnesium in the very popular GO from SiS. To be honest, though, that is probably splitting hairs. 

Ask any nutrition expert and, from my experience, they will say that hitting your correct intake level is more important than the detail of carb composition (see below for the details). Pro Hydrate's carb content is 100% maltodextrin, a classic ingredient for sports drinks. I do have one gripe with the ingredients list. Unlike most carbohydrate drinks aimed at endurance sports, CNP Pro Hydrate contains a very high amount of added taurine.

First extracted from bull's bile, taurine is now mass manufactured and is a key component to energy drinks like Red Bull. CNP say that, 'Taurine has been added for increased hydration and to promote blood flow which will combat muscle tiredness'.

At 7.5g of taurine per 500ml serving, Pro Hydrate has 7.5 times more taurine in it than a can of Red Bull. A quick bit of investigative journalism would reveal that the jury is still out on the benefits/dangers of excessive taurine content. Just be aware that it is there and perhaps make up your own mind.

Each serving of Pro Hydrate contains 7.4g of protein. Other energy drinks with protein in them, such as 4:1 from High5, use whey for the protein source which gives a very different texture.

Verdict

A good tasting and easy to mix carbohydrate drink from a growing player in the sports nutrition market; the jury is out on the high taurine content and it is a guaranteed bottle stainer