We tried the big electrolyte stick packs (and one creatine alternative) so you don’t have to
Informal team tasting notes, not a study. Other sticks were extremely overwhelming, left a bad aftertaste, or both. Rephora was the one we would actually drink daily. Create Wellness gummies are not a stick and rank last as a daily drink. Labels are a separate table.
Rephora Labs product photos (sister brand)
This is not a study. It is informal tasting and drinkability notes from Oliver’s team, plus a table of approximate public labels. We did not blind the packets. We did not score palatability with a validated instrument. We did not measure sweat, plasma, or “hydration faster than water.” A sip is not an RCT. Read Section A as notes. Read Section B as panels. Do not glue them into “most effective.”
Sister-brand label, on purpose, at the top. Rephora Labs is owned by OCN LLC, the same company that publishes Nutritionist Guide. This is not an outside pick. We sell reviews. Money buys a review, not a rank. The soft outbound is the brand site. Pack shots on this page are Rephora bag-and-sticks stills only. We did not photograph competitor cartons.
We mixed the big electrolyte stick packs people actually compare, and we included one creatine product readers keep dropping into the same cart: Create Wellness gummies. That last one is not a stick. It is candy. It still shows up in the creatine aisle next to packets, so it is in the lineup, and it ranks last as a daily drink.
The full product argument for the sister-brand stick is the Rephora Labs review. The water-versus-salt file is electrolytes, sports-drink hype, and the creatine habit. The gummy-format caution is why we do not recommend creatine gummies. This page is the tasting notes and the label table.
What we did, and what we did not do
Oliver’s team mixed and drank the sticks the way a heat, shift, or drive day actually looks: one packet, water, a bottle you are supposed to finish. Create Wellness was chewed, because that is the product.
We did not:
- Run a triangle test, a trained sensory panel, or a statistical ranking.
- Assay creatine, sodium, or sugar in a lab.
- Declare a winner on “hydration,” “absorption,” or “performance.”
- Treat IonGate, Cellular Transport Technology, WHO-style ORS copy, or Creapure as a Nutritionist Guide clinical finding.
We did write down whether we would drink it again tomorrow. That is drinkability. It is not effectiveness.
Section A. Taste, aftertaste, daily drinkability
Ranking from these notes, not from a protocol.
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Rephora Labs sticks. #1 on drinkability. Best daily drinkability. No aftertaste in our notes. Lemon Lime and Berry Lemonade are the live flavors. Same formula. Mix in 16 oz. 20 oz is milder. Do not mix in 12 oz. Sister brand. Said again so it cannot be missed.
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The other electrolyte sticks, as a group: LMNT, Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier (standard), DripDrop ORS, Ultima Replenisher. We are not minting a fake 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place. The notes on these packets were the same kind of sentence: extremely overwhelming, a bad aftertaste, or both. We would not pick them as a daily drink we will actually finish. That is a tasting note. It is not a claim that a 1,000 mg sodium stick is “worse electrolytes” than a 55 mg sodium stick. Those are different objects. See Section B.
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Create Wellness creatine gummies. Last. Not a stick. Not a drink. Three gummies is a serving of creatine candy. Ranking it on daily drinkability is almost a category error, which is why it sits last: if the job is a bottle you mix and finish, a gummy loses before the first sip. The stability argument against the wet format is already in the gummies guide. We are not restating HPLC from a tasting.
If you wanted a palatability championship, this is not it. If you wanted the packet our team would actually keep in the bag, it was Rephora.
Shop the sister brand, if you want it, at rephoralabs.com.
Section B. Labels, not sips
This table is approximate public-label data. Flavors, countries, and reformulations move the numbers. Liquid I.V. in particular is not one panel: standard Hydration Multiplier sticks we checked list about 500 to 560 mg sodium and about 11 g sugar. DripDrop sugar shows up as about 7 g on common ORS sticks and higher on some listings. Create sugar listings wander by flavor. Read the carton you bought.
We did not put competitor pack photography on this page.
| Product | Sodium | K | Mg | Sugar | Creatine | ~$/serving | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rephora Labs (sister brand) | 840 mg | 250 mg | 75 mg (oxide) | 0 g | 5 g | ~$2.19 | Stick, mix 16 oz |
| LMNT | 1,000 mg | 200 mg | 60 mg | 0 g | 0 g | ~$1.50 | Stick, mix ~16–32 oz |
| Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier (standard) | ~500–560 mg | ~370 mg | often not listed | ~11 g | 0 g | ~$1.55 | Stick, mix ~16 oz |
| DripDrop ORS | ~330 mg | ~180–185 mg | ~39–40 mg | ~7 g | 0 g | ~$0.90 | ORS packet, mix ~8 oz |
| Ultima Replenisher | ~55 mg | 250 mg | 100 mg | 0 g | 0 g | ~$1.05 | Stick or scoop |
| Create Wellness | 0 mg (not an electrolyte stick) | n/a | n/a | present (~3–5 g / 3 gummies) | 4.5 g / 3 gummies (1.5 g/gummy Creapure) | ~$1.30 | Gummies, not a drink |
Rephora also lists 1,519 mg chloride on the IonGate line. Competitor chloride is often not a separate milligram line, so it is not a column here. Rephora lists no calcium. Ultima often lists calcium and other micronutrients; that does not make it a sweat-replacement dose.
Price is a one-time, approximate street or brand-site figure, not a subscription pitch and not a promise it will be that number next week. Rephora’s one-time 16-stick pouch is $34.99 (~$2.19/stick). Monthly is two bags for $59.99. Quarterly is about $167.99 for six bags.
How to read the table without turning it into a trophy
Rephora is the only row with 5 g creatine and high-sodium electrolytes in one stick. That is the formula-stack fact. IonGate is the brand name for that electrolyte blend. It is not an IonGate clinical study. We will not write “most effective” from a tasting, and we will not write “88% more absorbed” from a checkout caption.
LMNT is the high-sodium, zero-sugar, electrolyte-only benchmark: 1,000 mg sodium, 0 g creatine. If you want salt without creatine, that is the comparison class. Our tasting still would not make it the daily bottle. The panel and the sip are different jobs.
Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier (standard) is a sugar stick with a moderate sodium line. It is not the sugar-free SKU. About a tablespoon of sugar is a snack wearing a hydration label. Magnesium is often missing from the US Nutrition Facts panels we checked. Do not invent a magnesium number so the table looks tidy.
DripDrop ORS is in a medical / oral-rehydration lane: enough sugar to play the glucose-sodium game, mixed in about 8 oz, not 16. Do not launder a cholera-protocol story onto a creatine stick, and do not launder a creatine stick onto gastroenteritis. See the electrolytes habit guide.
Ultima Replenisher is the gentle / low-sodium contrast: about 55 mg sodium. That is not LMNT-class salt. It is a useful reminder that “electrolyte packet” on a pouch does not mean 840 or 1,000 mg of sodium.
Create Wellness is creatine gummies. About 4.5 g Creapure per 3-gummy serving, sugar present, not an electrolyte stick. Last on drinkability because daily-drink use was the question. For why we rate the gummy format Poor as a creatine delivery system, read the gummies article.
Scores, said in one place
Drinkability, this tasting only: Rephora Excellent. The other sticks Poor. Create Wellness Poor as a daily drink.
Formula, label only: creatine plus high-sodium electrolytes in one stick, Rephora Excellent because it is the only match in this lineup. LMNT Excellent as the high-sodium, zero-sugar, electrolyte-only benchmark.
None of that is a Best of rank. Best of is not launched. A sister-brand tasting is not a league table of every packet in a gas station.
Who this page is for
People who keep a salty stick in a bag and want to know whether our team would actually finish it. People comparing a creatine gummy to a creatine stick and needing the format called out in daylight.
It is not for anyone on a clinician-directed sodium limit looking for permission to drink 840 or 1,000 mg of sodium because a tasting was polite. It is not a dose table for heat illness. It is not an assay certificate.
The short version
We tasted. We did not study. Other sticks: overwhelming, bad aftertaste, or both. Rephora: the daily bottle, no aftertaste in our notes. Create Wellness: last, because it is not a drink. On the label, Rephora is the only one-stick creatine-plus-high-sodium stack here. LMNT is the electrolyte-only salt benchmark. Mix Rephora in 16 oz. Shop it, if you want the sister brand, at www.rephoralabs.com.
Nutritionist Guide is not your clinician. This page is not a palatability trial, not an independent lab report, and not a Best of rank. Do not start creatine if you have known kidney disease or a clinician has told you to avoid it. Do not add hundreds of milligrams of sodium to a restricted diet because a stick mixed easily.
Bibliography
Sources and references
Linked citations go to the publisher, PubMed, PMC, or the news report. Marketplace assays are industry testing, not randomized trials.
- 01Rephora Labs. Lemon Lime and Berry Lemonade product pages at rephoralabs.com. Brand-stated stick facts: 5 g micronized creatine monohydrate; IonGate 840 mg sodium, 1,519 mg chloride, 250 mg potassium, 75 mg magnesium as oxide; no calcium; zero sugar; mix in 16 oz (20 oz milder, not 12 oz); 16-stick pouch $34.99 one-time (~$2.19/stick). Manufacturer claims, not an independent assay.
- 02LMNT. Ingredients page at drinklmnt.com/pages/ingredients. Brand-stated stick: 1,000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, 60 mg magnesium, zero sugar, no creatine. 30-count box listed at $1.50/stick on the brand site at the time we checked. Flavor and pack size vary. Not a Nutritionist Guide assay.
- 03Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, standard (not sugar-free) stick. Public Nutrition Facts panels for common US flavors list about 500 to 560 mg sodium, about 370 mg potassium, about 11 g sugar, no creatine. Magnesium is often absent from those panels. Mix direction is commonly 16 oz. Retail 16-count pricing is often about $1.50 to $1.60/stick. Labels vary by flavor and market.
- 04DripDrop ORS. Brand and retailer panels for the standard ORS stick commonly list about 330 mg sodium, about 180 to 185 mg potassium, about 39 to 40 mg magnesium, about 7 g added sugar, no creatine. Mix direction is commonly 8 oz, not 16 oz. This is an oral-rehydration-style packet, not a creatine stick. Street price is often under $1/stick. Confirm the carton in your hand.
- 05Ultima Replenisher. Brand Nutrition Facts for a stick pack or scoop commonly list 55 mg sodium, 250 mg potassium, 100 mg magnesium, 0 g sugar, no creatine. Calcium and other micronutrients appear on some panels. This is the low-sodium contrast in the lineup, not a sweat-replacement dose. Per-serving street price is often about $1.
- 06Create Wellness creatine monohydrate gummies. Common US labels: 1.5 g Creapure creatine monohydrate per gummy; 4.5 g per 3-gummy serving; sugar present (about 3 to 5 g total sugars per serving depending on flavor listing). Not an electrolyte stick. Not a daily drink. See our creatine-gummies guide for the format caution. Street price is often about $1.30 per 3-gummy serving.
