What to Mix Creatine With: How to Optimize Your Creatine Intake

Before getting into what to mix with creatine, let’s quickly cover the purpose of this popular supplement. Creatine is a nutrient naturally produced by the body and found in the diet through meat. Most people maintain creatine stores at around 60-80% of their maximum capacity from consuming 1-2g creatine from a normal diet. By fully saturating the body’s creatine stores, there are significant benefits including increased high-intensity exercise performance, reduced fatigue, and better recovery. 

Saturating your creatine stores is most easily achieved through supplementing with 3-5g of creatine a day. Full saturation will occur within 2-4 weeks, at which point you can carry on taking the same amount of creatine everyday. Virtually all athletes will benefit from creatine supplementation. 

Also, although these are our recommendations for mixing creatine, it’s worth noting that this comes down to a matter of personal preference. While these tips will help creatine mix smoothly and be absorbed by the body better, they won’t make a major difference in the effects creatine has on you. 

So, what can you mix creatine with?

One of the main problems people have with creatine is that it doesn’t seem to dissolve properly when they mix into whatever beverage they’re using. A quick fix for this is mixing creatine into warm liquid instead of cold. As most people drink their creatine in water, the easiest way to do this is simply by using warm tap water instead of cold. This difference in temperature will make a major difference in solubility. You can also consider mixing creatine into coffee or tea for even better solubility!

While some people like to mix their creatine with juice or milk instead of water, drinking these beverages warm is unappealing at best. If you prefer mixing creatine with these drinks, you may have to accept a slightly grittier consistency. If this is the case, don’t worry! There likely won’t be any major difference in effects if you’re drinking slightly less dissolved creatine. 

Another factor to consider alongside solubility is how to maximize creatine absorption in the body. After all, what good is creatine supplementation if your body isn’t putting it to use? 

To get optimum creatine absorption, it appears beneficial to consume your creatine alongside food rich in carbohydrates and protein. This is because creatine absorption is influenced by sodium and insulin. Essentially, sodium helps to transport creatine into the muscle, a process that’s improved when insulin levels are high. Mixing your creatine with a fruit juice, or a carbohydrate-rich protein shake may be a good way to maximize these benefits. 

While creatine is better absorbed when insulin levels are high, it likely won’t make a major difference in effects over a long period of time. Creatine is a saturation-based supplement, meaning you need to take it for at least a couple of weeks to begin noticing effects. While improving creatine absorption might make a slight difference in how fast you notice effects, it’s not something you should worry too much about, ​​especially after a few weeks. 

As mentioned above, consuming creatine alongside a good amount of carbs will help your body absorb the nutrient better. It’s worth noting that this won’t make a huge difference in the supplements effects, especially after the first few weeks of use. However, if you’re interested in speeding up the time it takes for your muscles to get fully saturated, you can absolutely mix creatine with food. However, just taking a higher dose of creatine (10-20g) will have a more noticeable effect on speeding up saturation.

One of the easiest ways to do this would be to mix your creatine in with a protein shake or smoothie. You could just as easily mix it in with something like a soup or broth as well. While you may be concerned about creatine being less effective when mixed into a hot liquid, it does not appear this has any effect on how creatine is absorbed. 

In theory, you could also add creatine on top of any other food you’re eating. Eating undissolved creatine will give you the same effects as drinking dissolved creatine. However, whatever food you’re sprinkling creatine on top of will likely be incredibly unpleasant to eat. Eating creatine without water will also increase the chance of experiencing stomach discomfort. While you could add creatine as a seasoning to your food, we can’t recommend it for the reasons listed above. 

If you’re inclined to mix creatine with food, it is possible. Keep in mind that you’ll ideally want to mix it into liquid foods to ensure it’s dissolved properly before consuming it. Most people will find it much easier to just mix creatine into a drink, as opposed to sprinkling it on top of food. 

Creatine is also often included in pre-workout supplements despite having no immediate acute effects. Because you likely won’t be taking pre-workout everyday, we recommend taking creatine on its own instead of alongside a pre-mixed formula. With this being said, creatine mixed into coffee will have a fairly similar basic formula to many pre-workout supplements on the market. 

All in all, coffee is a great choice to mix creatine with. Not only will it dissolve creatine better than water, if you take sugar in your coffee, the added carbohydrates will help you absorb the supplement better. Also, coffee and creatine mimics many basic pre-workout formulas. While creatine doesn’t have any immediate acute effects, because of its saturation effects and the energizing effects of caffeine, this simple homemade mixture may serve as a convenient and cheap substitute for pre-workout. 

Creatine is also often included in pre-workout supplements despite having no immediate acute effects. Because you likely won’t be taking pre-workout everyday, we recommend taking creatine on its own instead of alongside a pre-mixed formula. With this being said, creatine mixed into coffee will have a fairly similar basic formula to many pre-workout supplements on the market. 

All in all, coffee is a great choice to mix creatine with. Not only will it dissolve creatine better than water, if you take sugar in your coffee, the added carbohydrates will help you absorb the supplement better. Also, coffee and creatine mimics many basic pre-workout formulas. While creatine doesn’t have any immediate acute effects, because of its saturation effects and the energizing effects of caffeine, this simple homemade mixture may serve as a convenient and cheap substitute for pre-workout. 

If you’re looking to try out a high quality creatine supplement, our top pick is Creatine HMB from Transparent Labs. Like all of Transparent Labs products, this is a high-quality, research-backed supplement made with all-natural ingredients. 

In each serving you can expect 5g of Creatine Monohydrate, which is on the higher end of the recommended daily dose. 1 serving of Creatine HMB everyday will likely fully saturate your muscles within 2-4 weeks, leading to noticeable benefits. 

On top of its creatine content, Creatine HMB also features HMB and Vitamin D. Similar to Creatine, HMB has shown noticeable effects on improving strength and lean body mass when taken alongside resistance training. However, plenty of other studies do not support its use as an exercise supplement, making its effectiveness debatable at best (in our opinion - so far too much controversy around it to say it works for sure). Also, Vitamin D is one of the most useful vitamins an athlete can take, as it has benefits ranging from muscular strength, to bone health, and disease prevention.

Also, while most creatine supplements only come with 1 unflavored option, Transparent Labs offers an impressive 11 unique flavors to choose from, giving you plenty of variety. Also, as mentioned above, it is formulated without any artificial ingredients whatsoever.

The only minor downside to this product is that it comes at a premium price of around $1.50 per serving. With many more basic creatine supplements being less than a dollar per serving this may seem a bit pricey. While the inclusion of HMB may be debatable, the inclusion of Vitamin D, as well as all the different flavor choices still make this a great overall supplement.

Creatine is one of the most popular and effective sports supplements on the market for its significant effects on exercise performance. Some great choices for mixing creatine include warm water for better solubility, fruit juice for better absorption, and coffee for an extra hit of stimulation. Remember that what you choose to mix creatine with comes down to a matter of personal preference. Any liquid should work as long as you’re consistently getting 3-5g a day. 

If you’re looking for a high-quality creatine supplement, our top pick is Transparent Labs Creatine with HMB for its solid formula and flavor selection. Do you currently take creatine, or are you looking to try it? What do you mix your creatine with? We’d love to hear your answers in the comments below!

Also read:

• Best Creatine for Cutting
• Best Creatine for Women
• Best Creatine for Skinny Guys
• Creatine Powder vs Pills
• Creatine vs Bcaa
• What Happens When You Stop Taking Creatine
• Foods That Contain Creatine

References:

• Richard B. Kreider, Douglas S. Kalman, Jose Antonio, Tim N. Ziegenfuss, Robert Wildman, Rick Collins, Darren G. Candow, Susan M. Kleiner, Anthony L. Almada & Hector L. Lopez , "International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine" Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 14, no. 18 (2017)
• Richard B Kreider, Douglas S Kalman, Jose Antonio, Tim N Ziegenfuss, Robert Wildman, Rick Collins, Darren G Candow, Susan M Kleiner, Anthony L Almada, Hector L Lopez, "International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine," National Library of Medicine, (2017).
• G. R. Steenge, E. J. Simpson, and P. L. Greenhaff, "Protein- and carbohydrate-induced augmentation of whole body creatine retention in humans" Journal of Applied Physiology, https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jappl.2000.89.3.1165 (accessed Sep 1, 2000).
• Jasmine S Thomson 1, Patricia E Watson, David S Rowlands, "Effects of nine weeks of beta-hydroxy-beta- methylbutyrate supplementation on strength and body composition in resistance trained men" National Library of Medicine, (May 2009), 23(3):827-35.
• Javier Sanchez-Martinez 1, Alejandro Santos-Lozano 2, Antonio Garcia-Hermoso 3, Kabir P Sadarangani 4, Carlos Cristi-Montero 5, "Effects of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate supplementation on strength and body composition in trained and competitive athletes: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials" National Library of Medicine, (Jul 2018), 21(7):727-735.
• "Vitamin D" Harvard University Home, https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-d/ (accessed March 2023).