By Sebastian Madlangbayan, founder of Cleonse: the world's cleanest 3-ingredient organic electrolyte.
Both brands lead with unrefined salt — Redmond Real Salt from a Utah deposit, French grey sea salt for Cleonse. From there they diverge: Re-Lyte is a 10-ingredient, zero-sugar, 810mg-sodium formula sweetened with stevia. Cleonse is three ingredients, 500mg sodium, sweetened with organic cane sugar.
I make one of these. Redmond is a good company with a real product and a longer track record than mine, and I'll say clearly where they beat me.
The shared premise
Most of this category treats salt as a commodity. You need sodium chloride, you buy sodium chloride, you list it as "salt" or "sodium chloride" and move on.
Redmond and Cleonse both reject that. Redmond mines Real Salt from an ancient seabed deposit in Utah and markets its trace mineral content — the company cites 60+ trace minerals. Cleonse uses French grey sea salt, harvested by hand-raking from Atlantic salt marshes, which carries 85+ trace minerals and the residual moisture that gives it its grey color and slightly damp texture.
Neither of us can honestly tell you that trace minerals at these quantities transform your hydration. They're present in milligram and microgram amounts. The stronger, more defensible argument is a sourcing one: unrefined salt is the whole thing that came out of the ground or the sea, and refined salt is what's left after the rest has been stripped out and an anti-caking agent has been added back. If you prefer whole ingredients, you prefer unrefined salt. That's the honest version of the pitch on both sides.
So this is a comparison between two brands that agree on the foundation and disagree on everything built on top.
The labels
Cleonse (Organic Lemonade), 3 ingredients:
Organic Lemon Powder, Organic Cane Sugar, French Grey Sea Salt
The strawberry version swaps the fruit powder. That's the entire label.
Redmond Re-Lyte Hydration (Grape), 10 ingredients:
Non-GMO Citric Acid, Sea Salt (Redmond Real Salt®), Tartaric Acid, Potassium Citrate, Natural Flavors (including Grape), Magnesium Glycinate, Magnesium Malate, Calcium Carbonate, Stevia Leaf Extract (Rebaudioside A), Coconut Water Powder
Redmond Re-Lyte Unflavored drops the flavors and stevia and runs about five ingredients.
Ten is not a long ingredient list by category standards — Liquid I.V. is fourteen or fifteen, Gatorade Zero is twelve with a dye. And the additions are considered rather than lazy: two forms of magnesium, potassium citrate, calcium carbonate, coconut water powder. That's a formulator building a broader mineral profile on purpose.
The difference between three and ten is the difference between two philosophies. Re-Lyte is trying to deliver a complete electrolyte panel. Cleonse is trying to deliver sodium, fuel, and flavor with nothing else in the packet.
The numbers
| Cleonse | Re-Lyte (flavored) | Re-Lyte Unflavored | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | 3 | 10 | ~5 |
| Sodium | 500mg | 810mg | 1,000mg |
| Potassium | — | 400mg | 500mg |
| Magnesium | — | 50mg | Yes |
| Calcium | — | 60mg | Yes |
| Trace minerals | 85+ (French grey sea salt) | 60+ claimed (Real Salt) | 60+ claimed |
| Calories | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| Carbohydrate | 26g | 0g | 0g |
| Sugar | 24g organic cane sugar | 0g | 0g |
| Sweetener | Organic cane sugar | Stevia leaf extract (Reb A) | None |
| Natural flavors | None | Yes | None |
| Citric acid | None | Yes | Yes |
| Organic | Yes — fruit and cane sugar | No | No |
| Dyes / preservatives / gums | None | None | None |
| Format | 30g stick | Stick or canister | Canister |
| Water per serving | 16 oz (473 ml) | 16–20 oz | 16–20 oz |
| Price | $33/10, $66/30, $110/60 | $40.99 / 30 sticks | $45.99 / 75 servings |
| Cost per serving | $3.30 / $2.20 / $1.83 | ~$1.37 | ~$0.61 |
| Shipping | Free, all orders | Free over $30 | Free over $30 |
| Guarantee | 30-day | Yes | Yes |
Where Re-Lyte genuinely wins
Let me get through this properly rather than gesturing at it.
More sodium. 810mg versus 500mg, and 1,000mg unflavored. If you're a heavy or salty sweater — and remember sweat sodium ranges from about 200 mg/L to over 2,300 mg/L across athletes — you may simply need more than a Cleonse stick gives you per bottle. Getting there with Cleonse means two sticks, which is 200 calories and 48g of sugar. That's a real limitation of my product for that user.
A full mineral panel. Cleonse has no meaningful potassium, magnesium or calcium. Re-Lyte has 400mg potassium, 50mg magnesium and 60mg calcium per serving. If your goal is broad electrolyte replacement rather than sodium plus fuel, Re-Lyte covers more ground. I'd add that sodium is by far the electrolyte you lose most in sweat and the one that matters most acutely — but "most important" isn't "only."
Zero calories. For rest days, sauna, fasted training, keto, or anyone managing intake, 0 calories beats 100. This isn't close. If you're not doing work that needs fuel, Cleonse's sugar is a cost with no benefit.
Much cheaper at scale. $0.61 per serving unflavored is the best price-per-clean-serving I've found in the category. $1.37 for flavored sticks beats my $2.20. I'm more expensive, and organic fruit powder and organic cane sugar in a 30g stick is why, but the customer doesn't have to care about my cost structure.
Longer track record. Redmond has been mining and selling salt since 1958. I started Cleonse a lot more recently. That's worth something.
A truly sweetener-free option. Re-Lyte Unflavored has no sweetener at all. Cleonse always has sugar in it. If you want zero sweetener of any kind, I don't have a product for you and they do.
Where Cleonse wins
Three ingredients versus ten. If your reason for shopping unrefined salt is that you want to recognize everything in the packet, three is three. No citric acid, no tartaric acid, no natural flavors, no stevia. The fruit powder supplies the flavor and the acidity.
No stevia. This is the most common reason people write to me. Some proportion of people taste steviol glycosides as bitter or metallic, and the perception is partly genetic — it isn't fussiness. The aftertaste also lingers, because stevia binds and releases from taste receptors more slowly than sucrose. Mid-workout with a dry mouth, that lingering finish is the thing that makes people stop drinking. A drink you don't finish doesn't hydrate you. Re-Lyte Unflavored avoids this, but then you're drinking unflavored salt water.
Real carbohydrate as fuel. 26g of carbohydrate is roughly an hour of moderate fueling. Past 60 to 90 minutes of continuous work, exogenous carbohydrate measurably preserves performance — that's about as settled as sports nutrition gets. Glucose also pairs with sodium at the SGLT1 transporter in the gut, the mechanism behind oral rehydration formulas. With Re-Lyte you get sodium and then fuel separately. With Cleonse it's one bottle. More on this in do electrolytes need sugar.
Certified organic fruit and sugar. Re-Lyte is not organic. Cleonse uses certified organic fruit powder and certified organic cane sugar.
More trace minerals in the salt. 85+ in French grey sea salt versus the 60+ Redmond claims for Real Salt. I want to be careful here: these counts come from each company's own sourcing data, they're measured at trace levels, and neither number should drive your decision. But if you're comparing unrefined salts on their own terms, that's the comparison.
Actual fruit, not flavors. Re-Lyte lists "Natural Flavors (including Grape)." Cleonse lists organic lemon powder or organic strawberry powder. "Natural flavors" is a legally defined catch-all that can cover a lot of undisclosed compounds — legal, standard, and also the point at which you stop being able to know what's in the drink.
Free shipping on everything, with no $30 threshold, and a 30-day guarantee.
Real Salt vs French grey sea salt
Since this is the shared premise, it deserves its own section.
Redmond Real Salt is mined from an ancient inland seabed in central Utah, deposited by a sea that dried up long before industrial pollution existed. It's crushed and screened, not washed or refined, so it retains its mineral content and its pinkish flecks. Redmond's argument for it is purity by geology — a sealed deposit can't contain modern contaminants because it was buried before they existed.
French grey sea salt — sel gris — is harvested from coastal salt marshes in Brittany, primarily around Guérande, using a method essentially unchanged for a thousand years. Seawater flows through a series of shallow clay ponds, evaporating under sun and wind, and paludiers hand-rake the crystals from the clay floor. The grey comes from the clay; the moisture is retained because it's never kiln-dried. Its argument is minimal processing — nothing removed, nothing added, harvested by hand.
Both are unrefined. Both retain trace minerals that refining strips out. Both are meaningfully different from a refined table salt that's been washed to 99.9% sodium chloride and dosed with an anti-caking agent.
Which is better? Genuinely, I don't think there's a defensible answer, and anyone who gives you one confidently is selling. They're different sourcing philosophies — sealed ancient deposit versus living coastal marsh — and both are honest ones. I chose grey salt for its mineral count, its moisture, and the fact that hand-harvesting is a supply chain I can point to. Redmond chose Real Salt for reasons that make sense for them.
Which should you buy?
Buy Re-Lyte if: you're a heavy or salty sweater who needs 800mg+ per serving; you want potassium, magnesium and calcium alongside sodium; you want zero calories; you're on keto or training fasted; cost per serving is the deciding factor; or you can drink Unflavored and want the cleanest cheapest option in the category.
Buy Cleonse if: you want the shortest possible label; stevia doesn't work for you; you're training more than an hour and want fuel and sodium in one bottle; you want certified organic; you'd rather have actual fruit than natural flavors; or you want a drink you'll finish.
Buy both if: you're like a lot of people I talk to. Re-Lyte or Re-Lyte Unflavored on rest days and in the sauna, Cleonse on training days. They're not really competing for the same slot in a week.
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Shop CleonseFrequently asked questions
Does Re-Lyte have stevia? Yes. Redmond's flavored Re-Lyte Hydration lists "Stevia Leaf Extract (Rebaudioside A)" on its current label. Re-Lyte Unflavored contains no stevia and no sweetener of any kind. Cleonse contains no stevia in any flavor.
How many ingredients are in Re-Lyte? The flavored version lists ten: non-GMO citric acid, Redmond Real Salt, tartaric acid, potassium citrate, natural flavors, magnesium glycinate, magnesium malate, calcium carbonate, stevia leaf extract, and coconut water powder. The unflavored version is around five. Cleonse is three.
Is Redmond Real Salt better than French grey sea salt? Neither is clearly better. Both are unrefined and retain trace minerals that refining removes. Real Salt is mined from a sealed ancient seabed in Utah and Redmond cites 60+ trace minerals; French grey sea salt is hand-harvested from Atlantic salt marshes and carries 85+. The difference is sourcing philosophy, not a meaningful performance gap.
Does Cleonse have as much sodium as Re-Lyte? No. Cleonse has 500mg per 30g stick; flavored Re-Lyte has 810mg and Re-Lyte Unflavored has 1,000mg. Cleonse is a moderate dose designed to be drinkable in volume and stacked across a long session. If you need 800mg or more in a single bottle, Re-Lyte is the better fit.
Which is cheaper, Cleonse or Re-Lyte? Re-Lyte, clearly. Re-Lyte flavored sticks run about $1.37 a serving and Re-Lyte Unflavored is about $0.61. Cleonse ranges from $3.30 a stick at the 10-pack down to $1.83 at the 60-pack. Cleonse ships free on every order with no threshold; Redmond's free shipping starts at $30.
Why doesn't Cleonse have potassium and magnesium? Because adding them would mean adding ingredients — potassium citrate, magnesium malate and so on — and the product is built around a three-ingredient constraint. Sodium is the electrolyte lost in the largest quantity in sweat and the one most worth replacing acutely. That's a real trade-off, and if a full mineral panel is what you want, Re-Lyte delivers it and Cleonse doesn't.
Keep reading
- What is French grey sea salt? (And the truth about trace minerals)
- Cleonse vs Just Ingredients: an honest electrolyte comparison
- Cleonse vs Cure Hydration: an honest head-to-head
Cleonse: three ingredients, 500mg sodium, 85+ trace minerals from French grey sea salt, no stevia. $33 for 10 sticks, $66 for 30, $110 for 60, free shipping, 30-day guarantee. See the product.
Related: Cleonse vs LMNT · Electrolytes without stevia · What is the cleanest electrolyte
Editor's note and sources
I founded Cleonse, one of the two products compared here. Redmond Re-Lyte figures were read from Redmond's own current public product pages in July 2026 and the ingredient list is quoted verbatim from the Grape flavor; other flavors vary slightly. Trace mineral counts are each company's own sourcing claim and are not independently verified here. Formulas and prices change — check the label you're holding.
- Redmond Life — Re-Lyte Hydration: https://living.redmond.com/products/re-lyte-hydration
- Redmond Life — Re-Lyte Hydration 30ct Stick Packs: https://living.redmond.com/products/re-lyte-hydration-stick-packs-30-ct
- Re-Lyte Hydration listing with sweetener and Real Salt mineral claim (The Feed): https://thefeed.com/products/redmond-re-lyte-hydration-electrolyte-powder
- Sweat sodium ranges, Precision Fuel & Hydration: https://www.precisionhydration.com/performance-advice/hydration/how-to-estimate-sweat-salt-loss/
- Sodium-glucose cotransport and fluid absorption, Scientific Reports 2020: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-64818-3
- Jeukendrup A., carbohydrate intake during exercise, Sports Medicine 2014: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-014-0148-z
Nothing here is medical advice. Cleonse supports hydration; it does not treat, cure, or prevent any condition.