UKH

While we're waiting...In my winter climbing flask I used to use fruit tea then changed to Ribena to get a bit of sugar. I'm thinking I could try hot choc or possibly I could go a bit higher tec - opinions or experience please?

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Just hot water, and avoid the rancid smell later. Just add something at point of pouring, or is that not well enough infused? It's the heat that matters, for me. Yet to be honest, I haven't  often taken a flask in recent winters.

In reply to veteye:

Unlike Brexit, climate change does at least have some positives.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

I'm pretty simple and tend to go with peppermint tea. There was a recipe kicking about on here a while back for some insane gourmet hot chocolate involving a melted mars bar, espresso and chilli...but I've yet to have the opportunity to try it out. It did sound like just the thing though.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Ginger tea - with the ginger turned up to 11.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

+1 for Ribena. Hot choc doesn't feel as hydrating on the hill.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

+1 Ribena. 
 

I’ve discovered oat milk used in a flask does not turn the flask smelly or rancid afterwards. I now sometimes take a vegan hot chocolate or sugary oat milk decaf coffee. We like it. 

I'm tending towards hot water and take something for it in a pocket too.  I've had one too many experiences with flasks where I've put milk into coffee that is maybe a few days old, but still tasting perfectly fine and then you open the flask later to find you've got half a flask of yukky curds with thin brown liquid on top.  With plain hot water you've got the option for a packet of coffee with/out milk/sugar these days, instant tea, hot choccy, soup mix, even a small quantity of ribena in a baby nalgene, or one of these mixes with added noodles/pasta if you want something more substantial/calorific.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

My Winter flask recipe is full fat milk, heated with a mars bar melted into it, some spicy Mexican-style hot choc powder, a shot of espresso, and a splash of brandy. Warming in every way, and very calorific.
It’s constantly evolving since I read on here about someone’s “mars bar soup”: hot milk and mars bars, but I’ve settled on the above for the last few years.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

The only time I drink coffee is on the hill. Small flask of espresso is a welcome lunchtime boost.

Blackcurrant or raspberry tea.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

I take hot coffee, milk plus lots of sugar

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Vimto - like Ribena, only better!

In reply to Duncan Beard: 
Hot chocolate really hard to clean out the flask . Steaming hot Ribeana or vimto . No need for extra water bottle , just add a handful of cleanish snow to each mug full .

Edit: no need for either today in the lakes . Just turn your head to the sky ,  open mouth for a few seconds , rehydration complete z 

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Excellent, thanks folks. I'm intrigued by the luxury hot choc thing but maybe not do it while car camping (or at CIC hut).

Someone mentioned oat milk instead of cow's, I'm in the process of changing over. Gave up cow juice on my morning cereal 6 years ago, I did use rice but it has arsenic in (all rice does). I've had black coffee for 15 years anyway, tea is an issue for me but slowly adjusting.

If this was a cycling or running forum I'm sure there'd be loads of people recommending their favourite performance-enhancing powder/gel but I guess mountaineers are more down to earth (or saving their money for better gear?).

In reply to Duncan Beard:

A good quality lamb/beef stock cube in 300mls of boiling water. Roast dinner in a flask and good hit of salt too.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Vimto or Ribena - sometimes varying to Winter Spice Vimto.  I like tea or coffee before I set off, but not so much when I'm up in the hills.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Vimto.  Also in my water bottle for cycling.

Or, honey, ginger and lemon

In reply to Rampart:

Beware anagrams! :o0

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Bovril (cubes till they changed the recipe to something disgusting) now usually an Oxo cube in a 300 mL flask. Good salt boost, but does taint the flask.

Otherwise Hi-Fruit Squash in a bigger flask. 

In reply to Basemetal:

See Nov 2009 UKC discussion on the component parts and merits of "Mummery' s Blood." First came across it many years ago in WH  Murray's books .  Dark rum and Bovril combination as I am sure you are all aware. And yes, I  do partake, although not as frequently as winters become less severe!!

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Crush some fresh Ginger root up in a tablespoonful of boiling water (an old-fashioned mortar and pestle is best for this) and add it to your Ribena mix… it'll put a bounce in your step on the hill!

Pete.

In reply to Pete O'Donovan:

One of my climbing partners uses grated ginger but I can't remember what he puts it with. I'll have to check with him, but I will try it with Ribena.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

My experiences of luxury hot chocolate have not been terribly positive.

1. It's a ballache to make the night before only to reheat at zero dark thirty before heading out for the day.

2. It cools noticeable quicker then ribena, vimto etc, probably due to the high fat content.

3. The wee belt of brandy is just enough to make me feel tipsy enough to feel unsteady on my feet on descent routes.

I'm a ribena convert or occasionally I'll drop a hydration tablet into the flask instead.

In reply to PJ2398:

Yep. I'm a fan of Bovril in a flask. Very warming and filling.

In reply to damowilk:

Wow. I don't really do milk, or Mars Bars, but I'm trying this. 

In reply to damowilk:

That's the one!

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Costa (available in Tesco) and Clipper do good vegan hot chocolate drink powders, works fine with oat milk

In reply to Duncan Beard:

I was a Ribena devotee until they changed the recipe and the chemical nature of the current low sugar recipe is not for me.

I've now gone to hot elderflower cordial. 

In reply to galpinos:

I always buy the one that still has sugar in as I hate sweeteners. But I think even it has some amount of sweeteners in, fortunately not enough to bother me.

Elderflower cordial - like Schloer or similar?

In reply to Duncan Beard:

You not heard of the N+1 formula for cyclists 

In reply to Duncan Beard:

The "full strength" Ribena had loads of sugar taken out when the sugar tax came in, in 2018, it's been rank since then imho!

Belvoir or Bottle Green, one or the other is always on offer in the local Morrisons, it's not cheap stuff!

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Black tea with a bit of sugar

In reply to Duncan Beard:

to be honest you can do worse than blackcurrant/Ribena.  It always gives me a bit of a boost (I don't make it too strong though).   Hot chocolate is good as is milky coffee but coffee seems to affect blood flow to the extremities so not good if feeling cold already

Liquorice tea good as well

In reply to mike123:

Milky Coffee or Hot chocolate (which form a rather late breakfast) I use a Pioneer brand soup style stainless steel pot - holds as much as a decent mug and drunk all at once then easy to clean.

Prolong the heat by scalding the exterior with boiling water and wrap up in a woollen scarf as insulator

In reply to veteye:

Putting tea and coffee in (but only one of them in any given flask because it's hard to clean the taste out) works fine for me.  Just carry milk separately e.g. in a small Klean Kanteen insulated bottle, as it's that that makes for the vile taste.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

I must be terribly old skool as I generally just take tea or coffee (with full fat cow juice) in a flask.

The stewed luke warm taste of tea thats long past it's best is all part of the experience!

However, since the invention of the Jetboil and those teeny tiny 'winter gas' canisters I am known to take the stove and a variety of components (tea, coffee, milk, cuppa soup etc) with me and enjoy periodic brew ups as circumstances permit - a one-man mobile mountain tea shack!  Not much difference in weight carried at the start either, and virtually unlimited brews provided enough gas/water/snaw.

N

In reply to galpinos: I bought low sugar Ribeana by mistake ( I m fine with full sugar drink’s especially on the hill ) , my kids said it tasted weird so tried using it in my flask just to get rid , it gave me the sh1ts . 

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Helloooooo!

Fancy hydration tablets for me. Just half full with hot water when you mix initially, wait for the evervesence to calm down then fill to the top.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Bottlegreen Winter Spiced Berry Cordial: not cheap but very tasty and no artificial sweeteners. 

In reply to damowilk:

Full fat milk, cream, drinking chocolate, cocoa, triple shot espresso, double shot amaretto, boiled in a pan, tipped into a pre-heated 300ml flask. Flask inserted into the big gloves. Top out, hot drink, toasty gloves for the descent. 

Edit: I give the flask a good clean when I get home and use it for tea every shift I work. No pong, it's fine.

In reply to Stichtplate:

This bit worth noting. Cleaning flasks out is like doing laundry and hanging camping stuff up to dry - it's not fun when it's late and you're tired, but it still needs doing.

In reply to Stichtplate:

Ohh, might have to experiment with cream and amaretto! Version 3.0, here we come!

In reply to Wingnut:

including disassembly and full cleaning and drying of seals.  That's why I like my stainless steel soup pot for drinks as it is really easy to clean completely

In reply to galpinos:

I was using Ribena generically - we actually use a much better blackcurrant drink more like the old Ribena of 40 years ago

In reply to wercat:

Spill the beans!

In reply to galpinos:

appropriately named

"Rocks - 100% squished Blackcurrant juice"  we get it from a local health food shop as it is organic without any nasty sweeteners other than sugar

just google "Rocks blackcurrant squash"

In reply to wercat:

I shall give it a go, cheers!

In reply to Duncan Beard:

I gave up hot drinks 25 years ago. You lose more heat sitting around drinking them than you gain from the small amount of fluid. 

I take water and cola or lucozade.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Or just do what I do and chuck a ginger teabag in with your Ribena. Or, if you're feeling especially adventurous, one ginger AND one cinammon. Leave it/them in, but keep giving it a swirl as you drink or the spice flavour tends to concentrate at the bottom

In reply to wercat:

Thanks for the link - we bought some and it's amazing!!

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Used to always be Assam tea, black. More recently, occasionally green tea (made with genuine gunpowder green), or my regular drug of abuse, black coffee (Ethiopian). 

In reply to ripper:

Well... If that's how you play it, why not masala chai?

Not my favourite one, but perhaps the easiest to get hold of? https://twinings.co.uk/products/spicy-chai-50-tea-bags now you've seen it here keep your eyes open in a big supermarket (large Tesco, Sainsbury's etc) and you may well spot it

In reply to timparkin:

I used to work at rocks!

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Hot chocolate for me.

Love it moral and/or victory drink.

In reply to timparkin:

you can add apple juice to it as well

In reply to Duncan Beard. Thanks for all the suggestions. On the weekends CIC hut trip (great conditions on the Ben!) I went with Bottle Green cordial & it was great on the cold belays. Decanted into a plastic water bottle to carry up but still another 500g to carry up to the CIC so I may use it on day trips next time but take fruit tea bags & sugar to the hut. New super light Thermos flask worked a treat too.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

Two lemon and ginger teabags in a 1L flask. Fill it in the morning so it is piping hot and, instead of blowing on the mugfull to to cool it, add snow; effectively letting you carry more liquid for the same weight.

In reply to Duncan Beard:

I've been using SIS electrolyte powder in hot water for the past few winters. Will never go back to taking cold drinks in witner again!