With the multitude of different supplements on the market, it can be hard to know how to take them properly. So, what drinks can you mix creatine into?
There are many drinks you can mix with creatine. These include:
- Water
- Milk
- Pre-Workout
- Juice
- Protein Shakes
- Smoothies
- Coffee
Since creatine is usually flavorless, you can mix it into almost any drink you can think of. However, some of these options are better than the others, and I’ll break them down next.
Water
Water is one of the most common choices for taking creatine. It’s easy, cheap, and you drink it every day anyway.
However, there are a few reasons that water may not be the best option for mixing creatine.
Creatine does not dissolve into water. This ends up making the mix grainy, and can potentially upset your stomach.
This also makes the creatine settle within water soon after you mix it. This means that if you don’t drink it right away, you’ll have to keep stirring it until you’re finished.
Creatine also can degrade when added to water, so again, it’s imperative that you drink it quickly if you’re mixing your creatine with water.
Milk
Milk is another great option and it’s one of my favorites. Creatine mixes and dissolves into milk much better than water, and in turn tastes better and causes fewer stomach issues.
Creatine is also more effective when it’s taken with carbohydrates, which milk happens to contain. It doesn’t have to be mixed with carbs, but taking them at the same time like this just helps out.
To get benefits from this, you can also just eat some carbs before, during, or after you take creatine no matter what drink you choose to mix it into.
Milk is also good for you on its own and contains many nutrients beneficial to lifters. It can also be the main ingredient in some of the other drinks I’ll go over down below.
Pre-Workout
I know, I know, pre-workout itself is not a drink. This being said, it is a very common drink for lifters, especially right before a workout.
Many pre-workouts already contain creatine. They market creatine as giving you more energy for your workout, which is technically true in the long term, but creatine gives no immediate short-term benefit when you drink it. It doesn’t need to be taken right before your workout to be effective.
However, taking creatine with your pre-workout can be a more efficient way to consume it. If you’re already drinking a workout drink, why not just take your creatine at the same time?
If your pre-workout of choice doesn’t contain creatine, feel free to add it after you mix it with water.
The only reason you wouldn’t want to do this is that adding one more ingredient to your pre-workout can make your stomach upset, just like adding creatine itself to water.
Juice
As I mentioned before, your body is more efficient at absorbing creatine when you take it with carbs. Thankfully, juice contains carbs!
Most juices really aren’t good for you, for example, many large brands of orange juice contain very little actual juice and are mostly artificial/filled with sugar. That’s a conversation for a different time, so I’ll end that there.
Disregarding what I just said, juices are a great option for taking creatine. It mixes well and has a strong enough taste of its own to conceal any taste that creatine might have.
Protein Shakes
Protein shakes are a personal favorite of mine in general, but for taking creatine as well.
Protein shakes on their own usually contain milk, which is great by itself, as well as protein powder, which as you likely know is great for lifters.
As I mentioned before creatine mixes well into milk. This effect is magnified when you’re mixing it into a protein shake because the thicker texture covers up the graininess of creatine even better.
If you mix your creatine into protein powder there’s almost no way to tell that you’re actually drinking creatine.
There’s also the benefit I mentioned earlier of mixing creatine with carbs, which just makes this option even better. If you’ve never taken your creatine with a protein shake, I highly recommend it.
Smoothies
Mixing creatine into a smoothie has all of the benefits of protein shakes and juice combined.
Texture, taste, carbs, solubility, nutrients, everything. I personally don’t drink smoothies very often, but if you do, they’re a great option. Just be aware of how much sugar you’re taking in.
Smoothies are especially good for you if you’re putting the right ingredients in, like real, fresh fruits. Otherwise, they can be a junky sugar-filled drink that won’t make you feel good.
Technically, either way creatine mixes well into smoothies, especially if they’re made with milk.
Coffee
You also can mix creatine with coffee, but I’ve never done this myself, so I can’t vouch for it. You can pretty much mix creatine with any drink in existence.
There have been some studies in the past (from the 90s, you can read one below) that showed that caffeine counteracts the effectiveness of creatine and essentially cancels it out.
More recently, these claims have been disputed, and new studies are being conducted to see if this is actually true or not.
