Is smashing a keyboard with my fingers a high-impact workout?
It sounds high-impact because when I hit my keys, it’s like I’m a Foley artist creating the footsteps of a centipede. Or I’m like Mozart doing Rondo alla Turca from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331 — but on a keyboard, typing silly wordplay, the word “delicious” way too much, and classical music references that might be incorrect.
Does a keyboard jockey like me need electrolytes to replace those lost from heavy typing? It’s questionable whether I lost any. But if I did, I can now get them from Gatorade in a lower sugar form — 75% less sugar than regular Gatorade, to be exact.
Gatorade Lower Sugar currently comes in four flavors — Fruit Punch, Lemonade, Rain Berry, and Glacier Cherry, because of course, there’s always a Glacier flavor. I ended up with Fruit Punch. They have no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or colors. And don’t get them confused with Gatorade Zero, Gatorade G2, Gatorade Fit, or whatever other lower or zero sugar varieties the Gatorade scientists have dreamed up over the years. Gatorade Lower Sugar is a new product that uses the sweetener combination du jour — sugar and stevia — which you’ve also seen recently in the Pepsi Prebiotic Colas.
Also, what’s the deal with the super self-explanatory name? No Gatorade LS. No Gatorade 3. It’s like no one had a good idea, so they just went literal and called it a day.
For this review, I felt compelled to compare it with the original Gatorade and the zero-sugar version — partly for science, and partly because my fingers probably need hydration from writing this. So I did a blind taste test, and it turns out I preferred Gatorade Lower Sugar over Gatorade Zero and regular Gatorade.
The original Gatorade Fruit Punch has a slightly thicker texture than the others, but its fruit punch flavor didn’t punch as hard and was surprisingly less sweet than I expected. Gatorade Zero had a thinner texture, but its fruit punch flavor hit harder, with a nice sweetness from the sucralose and acesulfame potassium. There’s a hint of artificial sweetener aftertaste, but it’s one I don’t mind.
Gatorade Lower Sugar stood out as my favorite of the three. Across multiple blind taste tests, it consistently tasted the best, and it’s genuinely difficult to tell it was sweetened with sugar and stevia. Without the regular Gatorade on hand for comparison, I could easily be convinced this was the original. The only characteristic that fell short of the other two was its color, but that’s simply the absence of artificial dyes.
Speaking of sugar and stevia — that combination was the sweetener du jour several years ago, too. Remember Pepsi True and Coca-Cola Life? Decent tasting colas that didn’t last, possibly because the stevia was noticeable enough to give them a slight bitterness. It seems PepsiCo has since figured out how to balance the two sweeteners, because whatever they’re doing here works.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to work up a sweat typing out these nutrition facts.
Purchased Price: $2.39
Size: 28 fl oz bottle
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (28 fl oz) 50 calories, 0 grams of fat, 380 milligrams of sodium, 11 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar (including 11 grams of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.
My doctor has been trying to persuade me to cut back on the energy drinks, especially the non-diet versions. Sparkling Ice seems a promising alternative (no sugar, no caffeine, minimal calories/bottle). I’ve never been into sports hydration drinks before, but I wonder if something like Gatorade Lower Sugar might be worth trying?
Body Armor is asking Gatorade to hold its beer. It’s regular line is cane sugured with nothing artificial. It’s mid line is cane sugured for stevia with nothing artificial. It’s zero line is stevia with nothing artificial. I’ll stick with that.