Force Factor Total Beets Drink Mix Review

NO3-T is a branded form of standardized inorganic nitrates — the actual precursor your body converts, via the nitrate-nitrite-nitric-oxide pathway, into nitric oxide. It matters because nitrate is the active that the human trials dose by (Wylie 2013, PMID 23640589), and most beet products rely entirely on whatever nitrate happens to be in the beet, which is variable and undisclosed. By adding a named, standardized nitrate source on top of beet root, Total Beets is explicitly targeting the NO pathway with the precursor rather than hoping the beet mass carries enough. That's the single biggest reason it ranks #2 — it's doing the thing the science says matters.

Not fully, and this is the honest limitation. Adding standardized NO3-T nitrates is a real step beyond a plain powder, but Total Beets still doesn't print a TOTAL nitrate figure per serving — so while you know there's a named nitrate source in the mix, you can't reconcile it to the millimole doses the trials used. It's more transparent than a plain undisclosed-nitrate beet product, but less transparent than a concentrated extract that states a nitrate percentage (Toniiq, #4, discloses ~56 mg/serving). So: better-targeted than most, but the exact dose is still not verifiable.

On beet mass alone, 3 g is modest — bulk organic powders deliver 4-5 g per serving. But beet mass is only a proxy for nitrate, and Total Beets compensates by adding standardized NO3-T nitrates on top, so the targeted-active picture is better than the raw beet number suggests. The honest framing: don't judge this product by its 3 g of beet, judge it by the fact that it stacks a named nitrate source onto that beet. For a daily NO/blood-pressure drink that's a sensible design; if you specifically want high beet mass for an endurance dose, a higher-gram powder or a disclosed-nitrate extract is the better tool.

Both run through the same nitrate-to-NO mechanism, and Total Beets' added-nitrate design suits either, but the practical answer is consistency-driven. For blood pressure, a moderate daily dose taken every day is what moved the numbers across trials (Webb 2008, PMID 18250365; Siervo 2013, PMID 23596162), and a flavored daily drink makes that realistic. For endurance, the added NO3-T is a point in its favor versus plain powders, but because the total nitrate isn't disclosed you still can't be certain you're hitting the ~6.4-13 mmol the endurance studies used (Wylie 2013) — so dose it 2-3 hours pre-exercise and judge by perceived effort. Strong daily-support pick; reasonable but unverifiable endurance pick.

It's a flavored, sweetened drink mix, not a single-ingredient beet. That's a deliberate trade for taste and compliance — it mixes easily and is pleasant to drink daily, which helps you actually sustain the dose. But it does contain sweeteners and natural flavor, so if an additive-free product is your priority, a plain organic powder (KOS #6, Nutricost #4) or flavorless capsules (NOW #3, Toniiq) are cleaner. The choice is the usual beetroot trade-off: a tasty fortified drink you'll keep taking, versus a pure ingredient you have to tolerate.

They're aimed at the same goal from different angles. SuperBeets (#1) is the recognized brand-default — fermentation-processed concentrated beet crystals, built around NO activity, with the best taste and broadest trust, but no added nitrate source and no disclosed nitrate. Total Beets' distinguishing move is adding standardized NO3-T nitrates on top of beet, which explicitly puts the NO precursor in the formula, at a lower per-serving price (~$0.90 vs ~$1.30). SuperBeets wins on brand recognition and flavor; Total Beets wins on targeting the active pathway with a named nitrate source and on value. Neither discloses total nitrate, so both ultimately ask for some trust.

1. [1] Wylie 2013 PMID 23640589 — Beetroot juice and exercise: pharmacodynamic and dose-response relationships. 8.4/16.8 mmol nitrate raised time-to-exhaustion ~14%/~12%; 4.2 mmol did not. Establishes that nitrate is the dose-dependent active — the reason Total Beets' decision to ADD standardized NO3-T nitrates (rather than rely on beet mass) is the right design, even though the total still isn't disclosed.
2. [2] Webb 2008 PMID 18250365 — Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective, and antiplatelet properties of dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite. ~500 mL beetroot juice lowered blood pressure ~10/8 mmHg ~3 hours post-ingestion via bioconversion of nitrate to nitrite. The mechanism behind Total Beets' blood-pressure positioning — the added NO3-T nitrates feed the same nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway.
3. [3] Siervo 2013 PMID 23596162 — Inorganic nitrate and beetroot juice supplementation reduces blood pressure in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pooled RCTs: inorganic nitrate / beetroot significantly reduced systolic blood pressure (~4-5 mmHg). Confirms the blood-pressure effect is real and replicable across studies — relevant since Total Beets supplies both beet and added inorganic nitrate.