The Backpacking Mixes

The home version is water, fresh citrus, and salt sole. All three survive the trip to dry form almost perfectly — a saturated brine is just dissolved salt, and crystallized citrus fooled most tasters in a blind test against fresh-squeezed. Cold or warm water both work; this one doesn’t even need the stove.

Core mix — per serving (~4 g)

Ingredient	Amount	Grams	Stands in for
True Lemon or True Lime crystallized citrus	1 heaping tsp	2.5 g	Juice of ~half a lemon
Redmond Real Salt, fine (or fine Himalayan/Celtic)	scant ¼ tsp	1.3 g	1 tsp salt sole

Add 12–16 oz water, swirl, drink. A week of core mix fits in one snack-size bag (~28 g).

Full tonic mix — per serving (~20 g)

Everything above, plus the optional layers in Ed’s order of importance:

Ingredient	Amount	Grams	Stands in for
Apple cider vinegar powder	1 tsp	3 g	~1 tbsp liquid ACV
Shilajit powder (PrimaVie, ≥50% fulvic acids) or fulvic mineral powder	1–2 caps, opened	0.5 g	Fulvic & humic mineral drops
Coconut water powder (freeze-dried, unsweetened)	1 rounded tbsp	8 g	8 oz coconut water
Pomegranate juice powder (freeze-dried)	1–1.5 tsp	4 g	A splash of pomegranate juice
Chlorophyllin capsule (water-soluble, alfalfa-derived)	1 cap, opened	0.35 g	Liquid chlorophyll

The two side packets

• Baking soda — ~2 g (¼–½ tsp) per day for the after-tonic tooth swish. Pack it in its own mini vial or contact-lens case, separate from the mix — moisture plus citric acid means fizz, and a neutralized tonic.
• Probiotic capsule — the honest word on water kefir: there is no add-water equivalent of a living ferment. A shelf-stable spore-form probiotic (Bacillus coagulans) is the nearest stand-in, and it’s a distant one. Swallow it separately; don’t stir it into hot water.

Batch prep

1. Multiply the table by your number of mornings.
2. Blend everything except baking soda and probiotics in a bowl.
3. Portion per-serving into mini zip bags — the citrus and pomegranate powders are hygroscopic and will clump in one big jar. If you must use a jar, add a food-safe desiccant packet.
4. Five-day trip, full mix: about 110 g (~4 oz) plus the two side packets.

What’s lost vs. home

The living fizz of water kefir, and the fresh-cut brightness of real citrus — though crystallized citrus gets remarkably close (its cold-pressed lemon oil does the trick). Everything else is chemically the same drink.

Lazy option

Cure Hydration lemon packets are essentially this tonic’s core three ingredients (coconut water powder, pink salt, citrus) in one sachet — add a shilajit cap and you’re 80% there. Sweetened, though, which the home version isn’t.

The home version depends on a fresh grinder, a blender, and a refrigerator. The trail version’s whole trick is powdered fats: butter powder and heavy cream powder carry milk solids that act as their own emulsifier, and a half-dose of MCT powder (on acacia fiber) helps hold everything in suspension. Pre-blend the dry mix at home — cacao that rafts on hot water by itself shakes in clean when its particles are interspersed with the cream and honey granules.

Kit: one insulated shaker mug with a leak-proof lid. Hot-not-boiling water, cap, shake 20 seconds, vent carefully, enjoy.

Core mix — per serving (~33 g, about $2.30)

Ingredient	Product pick	Amount	Grams
Coffee	Mount Hagen organic freeze-dried (the only taste-respectable + certified-organic + affordable instant)	2 rounded tsp	3.5 g
Butter	It’s Just! grass-fed butter powder	1.5 tbsp	10 g
Cream	Anthony’s heavy cream powder (72% butterfat)	1 heaping tbsp	8 g
Cacao	Navitas Organics, non-alkalized	1 scant tbsp	5 g
Honey	Granules in-mix, or a 9 g honey packet on the side	2 tsp	7 g

Ten servings ≈ 330 g (12 oz) of pack weight. For a dairy-free or fully-organic version, swap both dairy powders for organic coconut milk powder — it dissolves the easiest of all the fat carriers.

Full send mix — per serving (~44 g, about $3.45)

Core, plus the optionals that actually behave in a shaken drink:

Ingredient	Amount	Grams
MCT oil powder (Sports Research organic, acacia carrier — doubles as the emulsifier)	half serving	5 g
Mushroom extract powder (extract, not whole-mushroom — extracts spray-dry and dissolve)		1.5 g
Baobab (genuinely dissolves — it’s soluble fiber and fruit acids)		2 g
Matcha (sift into the blend at home; it clumps from static otherwise)		1 g
Ceylon cinnamon		0.5 g
Ashwagandha		0.6 g
Cardamom		0.3 g
Vanilla powder		0.3 g

Per-trip swap-ins: instant yerba mate (+2 g — caffeine on caffeine, know thyself) or instant Teeccino (3 g) as the evening decaf version.

Batch prep

1. Multiply by your mornings; dry-blend everything in one bowl at home.
2. Whisk thoroughly — the pre-blend is what makes the shake-in work.
3. Portion into per-serving bags, or one bag plus a 33 g (~3 tbsp) scoop.
4. If using honey packets instead of granules, count them out and pack out the sticky wrappers.

What’s lost vs. home, honestly

• Fresh-roasted, fresh-ground coffee — the compromise the whole mix rests on. Freeze-dried organic is the best available stand-in.
• Raw honey — honey granules are honey plus cane sugar; drying kills “raw” no matter the brand. If raw matters, carry packets or a 2 oz squeeze bottle (≈ 6 servings).
• Grass-fed cream — no grass-fed or organic heavy cream powder meaningfully exists at retail; accept conventional cream powder or go coconut.
• Almond butter and tahini — omitted: oily nut pastes will not disperse in hot water without a blender, period.
• Triphala — omitted from the drink: bitter, gritty, insoluble. Carry capsules and take them at camp.
• Moringa — omitted: leaf particles float and streak in a shaken cup.

Lazy options, benchmarked

No commercial mix contains real butter + cream + cacao + honey. Four Sigmatic instant packets (~$1.75, organic, no fats) plus a 4th & Heart ghee packet gets closest in spirit — and costs more than this mix. Ed’s counsel applies regardless: morning beverage is its own quality assurance, especially when camping.