Clif Quench Review

Clif Bar recently launched into a heavy marketing campaign for Clif Quench, a new line of electrolyte drink aimed at endurance athletes. Originally announced in early March, Clif, a company well known for recovery products for athletes, continues to release quality products that are both good for the body and environment.

The new Quench line features four flavors – Fruit Punch, Lime-Ade, Orange, and Strawberry Citrus – but the Quench drinks are designed as a tasty re-hydration drink, not a traditional sports drink.

Each bottle is 16 ounces, and has 90 calories, 20 grams of sugar, 70 mg potassium, and 260mg of sodium.

I mainly use it as a reward after a hard bike ride or run, but Quench should be ideal for anyone who has a hard time drinking something such as Cytomax or Gatorade while training. During a recent 30-mile bike ride in hot weather, I carried a bottle in one of the pockets of my bike jersey, and had a quick drink while in the saddle.

I drank another bottle after finishing my ride. It is a tasty, functional drink that is relatively inexpensive.

I recently ran nine miles in San Francisco (across the Golden Gate Bridge, of course), then went for a 25-mile bike ride that involved a couple of nasty little climbs. I again used some Clif Quench as a reward once I was done seeing how much it would take before my legs absolutely exploded.

Clif competitor Accelerade also has a pre-made drink for athletes, though I've had trouble drinking some of it after a hard workout because of the added whey protein mixed in the drink. The Clif Quench, however, offers the important nutrients athletes need without making it unbearable to drink. The older athletes who need the sodium to prevent cramping apparently like this simple mixture a tad bit more than other drinks.

In keeping with Clif's well known organic and environmentally green philosophy, the drink is 88 percent organic and doesn't use high fructose corn syrup. The drink, in fact, has just seven ingredients: Filtered water, organic evaporated cane juice, natural flavors, real salt, citric acid, magnesium lactate, and potassium phosphate.

I'm not a fan of high fructose corn syrup -- although tasty, it's obviously horrible for you -- and try my best to avoid it at all cost.

The new bottles are in stores now – with a retail price of $1.49 – though can be found on sale. My local Nob Hill grocery store marked up the price to $1.69, but was selling bottles for $0.88. I bought a case after my trial review.