Advantages
- These give you anytime anywhere caffeine. Pick an energy mint and you get freshened thoroughly – caffeine, minty-ness everything in one. Who doesn't like a fresh and recharged guy?
- They fit in a pocket – no dependency on coffee shop, no hassle of making yourself a cup, no worry in carrying the mug around – just pop one in your mouth and run to the boring meeting. These will help you keep up (Meetings have the power to overpower a caffeine kick generally)
- They are fun and good tasting
Ok so is everything good about these? Na.
The disadvantages
- They actually don’t give the exciting feeling of a good hot cup of coffee. It’s like you pop a mint and assume you got your caffeine fix as there is no tangible characteristic which reinforces the waking up or coffee.
- It doesn't smell coffee. It’s a big setback for me. I am not a selfish lover of love coffee not just for its caffeine. The experience of drinking coffee is also what matter for me and that is blatantly missing. I like the taste of mint though. But it ends up being a mint than a caffeine kick
- It has many of the contents of an energy drink and has extracted caffeine which is not a very good thing to be. As consumption of too much of energy drinks is not a good idea so is this.
Portion control is based on will power. The candy is small and handy. So you could on a hard day overdose yourself on caffeine.
Counter the disadvantages like this
- Stick to normal coffee. Reserve these for those power packed spurts of energy or boring meetings or interviews where you need a burst conspicuously
- Drink lots of water. Excess caffeine will need water to safely move out of system. You are not a plant to suck water in automatically so it’s your duty to provide the body with water.
- Limit consumption. Exert moderation
What are the brands?
I know POW is a brand. A small tin costs Rs. 85/- . It might not be available in a normal grocery store but you can find it in candy shops or good bakery shops which stock foreign goods like perfumes etc. Buy them from ebay here
Its sugar free. I don't know if it revitalizes you mentally and physically. It works for normal addicts. For heavy addicts i doubt it would
Please do post any other brands you know for the benefit of other readers.
Comments and brick bats are welcome