Four times
the taurine.
Original is the flavour yohemite launched with in 2021, and it is the only one of the four carrying about 400mg of taurine per tablet — roughly four times the 100mg in Lemon, Peach and Green Grape. Zero sugar, four electrolytes, ten drinks in a tube that weighs 36 grams.
It fizzes for two to three minutes.
Drop a tablet into 400–600ml and it breaks up steadily rather than vanishing. The finished drink is clear and lightly citrus — no added colours, so it does not look like a sports drink.
Wait until the fizzing stops before you drink it. Half-dissolved is where people get a sharp mouthful and decide they do not like it.
Dispatched from our Sydney warehouse. Standard shipping $15, free on orders of $100 or more. See the 4-flavour pack →
Calamansi, not orange.
The label says calamansi — a small Asian citrus that sits somewhere between a mandarin and a lime. It is why Original reads as rounder than a straight orange flavour and less sour than lemon.
The flavour is built from natural orange flavour, lemon oil and lime oil rather than one fruit, which is what gives it that hard-to-place citrus character people end up calling "the original".
If you are buying one tube to find out whether you like the range, this is the one. It is the flavour the brand was built on and the one with the most taurine in it.
It is a citrus flavour, not a juice. If you want a fruit that tastes obviously like the fruit, Lemon and Peach both carry real juice powder.
Figures from yohemite’s own Korean store, where Water has been sold since September 2021. Review count and rating are as listed on yohemite.com today; the 450,000 tubes covers September 2021 to September 2024. It is a newer arrival in Australia, so the review count here is still small — that is the honest version.
Anywhere you already carry a bottle.
After training
Sweat takes sodium and potassium out with the fluid. Plain water puts the fluid back and nothing else.
Hot Australian days
A tube lives in the car door or the beach bag. No fridge, no bottle to keep cold, no sugar in 35 degrees.
Flights and long drives
36g of tablets goes through security in a carry-on. A litre of sports drink does not.
The reason it packs so well is that it is not a drink yet. A 500ml bottled sports drink is about 480ml of water you are paying to ship and carry. A whole tube of ten drinks weighs 36 grams.
Why not just drink water?
Plain water
Free, and most of the time it is all you need. It replaces the fluid you lost but not the sodium and potassium that went with it, which is the gap this fills after a long, hot or salty-sweat session.
A bottled sports drink
Ready to go, and that is a real advantage. But a typical 500ml bottle carries around 30–35g of sugar, it wants a fridge, and you are buying a new plastic bottle every time. This is 0g of sugars and ten drinks in one tube.
A powder sachet
Also compact. Sachets tear in a bag, need a wide-mouth bottle to tip into without spilling, and leave a wrapper each time. A tablet drops in through any bottle neck and the tube reseals.
Sugar figures for bottled sports drinks are a general market range, not a measurement of a specific competitor — check the panel on whatever you are comparing.
10 tablets. 36 grams.
Each tablet is 3.6g and makes one 400–600ml drink, so a tube is ten drinks.
Citric acid plus sodium and potassium bicarbonate is what makes it fizz, and it is also where sodium and potassium come from. Calcium and magnesium carbonate round out the four electrolytes.
Taurine is the point of difference in Original. Roughly 400mg a tablet, against about 100mg in the other three flavours.
Zero sugar. Sweetness comes from sorbitol, maltitol, erythritol and stevia, plus aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame potassium — so it contains phenylalanine.
There is a desiccant sachet in the tube keeping the tablets dry. Take it out and bin it.
Four electrolytes, plus taurine.
Sodium and potassium are the two you lose most of in sweat. Calcium and magnesium come along in smaller amounts. Here is the concentration in the finished drink, straight off the label rather than a claim.
Sodium
19.1 mEq/L
Potassium
9.1 mEq/L
Calcium
1 mEq/L
Magnesium
0.5 mEq/L
Electrolyte concentration as printed on the tube. One tablet also carries 220mg of sodium and 2.4g of carbohydrate, none of it sugar.
Tube, ten tablets, nothing else.
No scoop, no shaker, no measuring. The tube reseals with a clip cap, so half a tube goes back in a bag or a car door without anything spilling.
Shelf life is two years, which is why people keep one in the glovebox and one in the gym bag and forget about them until it is 35 degrees.
Drop it in and wait a couple of minutes.
Drop one tablet
Into 400–600ml of water. 500ml is the sweet spot; less water makes it stronger, more makes it lighter.
Give it 2–3 minutes
It fizzes the whole time. Wait until it has fully dissolved rather than drinking it half-broken — that is when the flavour evens out.
Drink it
Cold water is slower than room temperature. Never chew or swallow a tablet dry, and bin the small desiccant sachet that sits in the tube.
Every flavour is the same price. The four-tube pack is the only thing that changes the per-drink cost.
Questions answered.
Why is it called Original & Tangerine?
Because that is how it reads to most people. The label flavour is calamansi, a citrus that lands between a mandarin and a lime, built from natural orange flavour with lemon and lime oil. If you were expecting a straight tangerine soda, this is rounder and much less sweet than that.
What does the taurine actually do?
Taurine is an amino acid your body already makes and it turns up in most sports and energy drinks. Original carries about 400mg a tablet and the other flavours about 100mg. We are not going to make a performance claim about it — the honest reason to pick Original over the others is that it has four times as much of it, and it is the flavour the brand started with.
How long does it take to dissolve?
Two to three minutes in 400–600ml of water. It is an effervescent tablet, not an instant powder, so it fizzes the whole way down. Colder water is slower.
Is it actually sugar free?
Yes — 0g of sugars per tablet, and 46kJ (about 11 Calories). To be straight with you about how that is done: the sweetness comes from sorbitol, maltitol, erythritol and stevia, plus aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame potassium. That means it contains phenylalanine, so it is not suitable if you have phenylketonuria (PKU).
How is it different from a bottled sports drink?
Two things. A typical 500ml sports drink carries around 30–35g of sugar and this has none. And ten servings fit in a 36g tube instead of ten plastic bottles, which is the part people notice once they have carried it around for a week.
How many can I have in a day?
One or two is normal for everyday use, and more on a hot day or a long session. Each tablet carries 220mg of sodium, so if you are on a sodium-restricted diet or you are pregnant, check with your GP or a dietitian first. This is a beverage base, not a medicine.
Does it have caffeine?
No. No caffeine and no added colours, which is why plenty of people use it in the evening after a hot day or a late session without it affecting sleep.
What is the white sachet inside the tube?
A desiccant. It keeps the tablets dry so they do not start fizzing in the tube. Do not eat it or drop it in your drink — take it out and bin it. You can see it next to the tablets in the photo above.
Is it vegan?
Yes, and it is certified rather than self-declared — V-Label International vegan certification. It is made in a HACCP-certified facility in South Korea.
Shipping & Returns
- Dispatched from our Sydney warehouse within 24 hours on business days
- Sent with Australia Post, Australia-wide
- Standard shipping $15, Express $20, free on orders of $100 or more
- If an item arrives damaged, faulty or incorrect, we cover return postage and send a replacement or refund
- For change-of-mind returns, return postage is covered by you. Please contact us first
This is in addition to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
Original, in full.
Nutrition Information
Servings per package: 10 · Serving size: 3.6 g (1 tablet)
| Average quantity | Per serve | Per 100 g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 46 kJ | 1278 kJ |
| Protein | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fat, total | 0 g | 0 g |
| Saturated | 0 g | 0 g |
| Trans | 0 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 2.4 g | 66.7 g |
| Sugars | 0 g | 0 g |
| Sodium | 220.0 mg | 6111.0 mg |
Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Best before date is printed on the tube. Mix with water before consumption — do not eat or swallow the tablet dry, and do not eat the desiccant.
Zero sugar. Four electrolytes. Four times the taurine.
- Dispatched within 24 hours
- V-Label certified vegan
- Sent with Australia Post
