Stimulants Different stimulation from energy drinks versus coffee

[Neuroprotection]

As I’ve said before, I love caffeine for its energising and mild antidepressant effects. interestingly, I’ve noticed the two main sources of high-dose caffeine, Coffee and energy drinks (monster) have considerably different effects in terms of type of stimulation, duration of action and effects on mood etc.
I’ll start with coffee as that’s what I’m now using daily. it produces very mild stimulation in small quantities, with larger amounts producing slightly elevated mood and excitement along with strong jittery feelings and anxiety. there’s also usually nausea and peripheral effects like high heart rate if I drink a lot of coffee. The effects of coffee seem very short lived, especially the positive effects.

With energy drinks, e.g. sugar-free Redbull or sugar-free monster, The stimulation was rather different. there was considerably more mental stimulation and mood elevation, sometimes approaching mild euphoria. if I drank more than 500 mL of such energy drinks, I would get a very strong urge to move about. also, peripheral stimulation from energy drinks is more noticeable, but unlike that from coffee, is not uncomfortable. also, I don’t really get nausea from drinking High amounts of energy drinks. last but not least, Energy drinks give me a much longer period of stimulation with extended positive effects and little to no negative effects.

You may be wondering why I switched to coffee if energy drinks were far better. basically, it was a combination of factors, but mainly encouragement from my mother Who feared that energy drinks would destroy my teeth and I can’t really disagree with that. also, others around me noticed I lost too much weight when drinking energy drinks regularly.

Does anyone else have experience with both of these caffeinated beverages and do you think there is a considerable difference?

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

I drank coffee every day from the age of 12 til I was like 29.

I LOVED black coffee. It was also something I had to have with every other drug I did.
Doing some heroin? Gonna have a cup of coffee with it.
Doing some pain pills? Gonna have a cup of coffee with it.
Railing a few lines of speed? Gonna have a cup of coffee with it.

Then one day I just woke up & coffee was repulsive to my palate. So was hot water in general.
So I switched to energy drinks because I started craving cold & bubbly upon waking, instead of hot & tarry.

Now I find coffee makes me feel gross. Leaves behind a dried out gross taste in my mouth. Gives me bouts of nausea. And the caffeine content of a cup is just never enough to get me to wake up. So now I'm pretty grumpy on days I wake up with no energy drinks. It kinda sucks in a way cause it means spending more money to get my morning fix.

I'd agree with everything you said about the differences though. I have noticed I've started having teeth problems, but I'm aslo 35 & have never been to a dentist, so I can't say it's the energy drinks fault.

 

[G_Chem]

Coffee takes some figuring out to make it work well. I can’t drink black normal arabica coffee, I feel it for maybe an hour then get groggy as fuck.

First one must look at robusta beans. These are often used blended with arabica to get espresso. But if one can stand the taste of straight robusta, the energy and duration of effects is MUCH better.

Next the roast. Arabica can work well if roasted lightly. White bean coffee is roasted 50% of normal and usually gives energy for 4-6hrs. The only downside is once again the taste isn’t like normal coffee that people become attached to.

And finally fats, they help slow down the absorption of the caffeine. It’s also best to slow sip the coffee instead of chugging it. Might involve some enzyme inhibition I’m not sure.. I’ll add alot of coconut oil and tiny amount of almond milk to help emulsify it.

When done right I can fairly consistently get 4-6hrs out of coffee instead of the measily 1hr I’ll get if not done right.

-GC

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

An arabica / robusto mix roasted to medium roast and brewed @ a coffee to water ratio between 1:2 to 1:3 @ 90 to 96 C and ~ 9 BAR is a sweet spot for your goal.

Lavazza sells a suitable whole bean mix at a reasonable price that is widely available.

 

[kiely]

I just do a shot of espresso. A small shot it goes down fast. You chase it with some water, sparkling water always, and sometimes with a thin slice of lemon and you are all set !! It's good. Goes down fast and does the job. No stomach burn from a long slow drink of Reg's. (To me)


edit: But I would much prefer an energy drunk these days.

 

[burn out]

Have you tried tea?

 

[kiely]

Have you tried tea?

Ohhh tea is awesome !!!

And again with lemon and honey. It's great ! Hot or with Ice.

edit: It's definitely not the burst of an energy drink. But is a smooth taper and very nice.

 

[G_Chem]

Tea to me is a very different effect. Even with fats I’ll maybe get 2hrs max of stimulation, before I get a groggy sedated effect.

The upside is tea seems more euphoric when you’re on the up, particularly black tea. It does feel good.

The only tea that gives me long lasting stimulation is certain brands of kombucha. Not sure why..

-GC

 

[Keif' Richards]

Yea there are differences from form to form regarding their effects.

Tea, for instance contains both Caffeine and the eponymous L-Theanine, the latter of which has a synergistic effect with Caffeine with effects reported as a more-relaxing end effect, which makes sense. Theanine on its own is known as a mild herbal sedative. I believe this is why many prefer tea over Coffee.

Energy drinks these days often contain more than Caffeine. While Caffeine is the main constituent of these, more and more these days, energy drinks contain substances widely-known and described as "Nootropics". Let's take a look at the energy drink in question, Monster.

Monster energy drink contains, to name a few, Panax Ginseng, L-Carnitine and Taurine in addition to other peripherally involved ingredients like Sugar, which we also know modulates our minds and bodies. One monster has ~80% of the daily value for sugar.

The three above substances can and have been shown to have effects upon the mind and body. These all are going to contribute to the enjoyment of the effects of the drink. Coffee is essentially just Caffeine. With this in mind, it's easy to say why someone might prefer an energy drink to Coffee.

There are lots of new drinks out there with more and more different things in them.

 

[foodcrisis]

i always get noticably more energy/speedy feeling from coffee. i've been brewing starbucks brand coffee about the same as they do at the shops, and usually two cups is enough for me in a day. i use more cream than most people, sometimes sugar and sometimes not. i really like the taste with the creamyness.

i've tried chugging like four red bulls in a row. i've tried some other energy drinks too, and all the additional stuff with the caffeine never really hits me. i'm definitely a coffee person. definitely hits me harder. surprised to see so many energy drink people in this thread. i thought it was mostly geared towards kids.

 

[smokeymcpot42088]

lol I haven't drank anything but bluebull cut mixed with simply lemonade at a 2 lemonade to 1 bluebull ratio for the last 3 days. Brushin the teeth alot. Caffeine is plenty stimulant for me and I do find the effects enjoyable. Good for you going sugarfree. They got us all good, carreine is cheap lol.

 

[Neuroprotection]

I drank coffee every day from the age of 12 til I was like 29.

I LOVED black coffee. It was also something I had to have with every other drug I did.
Doing some heroin? Gonna have a cup of coffee with it.
Doing some pain pills? Gonna have a cup of coffee with it.
Railing a few lines of speed? Gonna have a cup of coffee with it.

Then one day I just woke up & coffee was repulsive to my palate. So was hot water in general.
So I switched to energy drinks because I started craving cold & bubbly upon waking, instead of hot & tarry.

Now I find coffee makes me feel gross. Leaves behind a dried out gross taste in my mouth. Gives me bouts of nausea. And the caffeine content of a cup is just never enough to get me to wake up. So now I'm pretty grumpy on days I wake up with no energy drinks. It kinda sucks in a way cause it means spending more money to get my morning fix.

I'd agree with everything you said about the differences though. I have noticed I've started having teeth problems, but I'm aslo 35 & have never been to a dentist, so I can't say it's the energy drinks fault.

Thanks for that information. Interesting to know someone’s had a similar experience to me regarding energy drink stimulation. I would however, encourage you to be extremely careful with them and don’t make them a daily habit. They are highly corrosive to your teeth due to their extreme acidity/ high content of citric acid. my mother, who has little School education and can hardly speak English used to tell me about the extreme acidity of energy drinks and she theorised that the high acidity somehow contributed to their addictive/psychoactive effects. I later found out she was correct. apparently, caffeine citrate carries less caffeine by weight than anhydrous caffeine, but is still far more potent, because of how quickly it enters the system. I also remember reading that caffeine citrate can hang around longer in the system, though I’m not sure How accurate that is.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

Thanks for that information. Interesting to know someone’s had a similar experience to me regarding energy drink stimulation. I would however, encourage you to be extremely careful with them and don’t make them a daily habit. They are highly corrosive to your teeth due to their extreme acidity/ high content of citric acid. my mother, who has little School education and can hardly speak English used to tell me about the extreme acidity of energy drinks and she theorised that the high acidity somehow contributed to their addictive/psychoactive effects. I later found out she was correct. apparently, caffeine citrate carries less caffeine by weight than anhydrous caffeine, but is still far more potent, because of how quickly it enters the system. I also remember reading that caffeine citrate can hang around longer in the system, though I’m not sure How accurate that is.

Yikes!
I've been drinking energy drinks every morning for the past 6 or 7 years non, give or take here or there when I'm broke or don't have any.
I feel like I need enormous amounts of caffeine every morning to get my gut moving & metabolism to kick into gear.
But I also find smoking in the morning does this too. So smoking + caffeine has always been my morning combo fix.

 

[Neuroprotection]

Yikes!
I've been drinking energy drinks every morning for the past 6 or 7 years non, give or take here or there when I'm broke or don't have any.
I feel like I need enormous amounts of caffeine every morning to get my gut moving & metabolism to kick into gear.
But I also find smoking in the morning does this too. So smoking + caffeine has always been my morning combo fix.

Maybe try to look for a drink with a lower acidity or otherwise try to avoid sipping on the drink for too long and rinse your mouth out/brush your teeth immediately after drinking it. speaking of the caffeine/nicotine combo, that brought back some strong nostalgic memories for me. due to my circumstances, I am basically an opportunistic tobacco user, stealing the odd Phew cigarettes from my father when he used to smoke. I justifyed this to myself on the basis that my father Directly received my finances but wouldn’t approve of me smoking or using any tobacco product. I would wait till no one was home, gulp down a can of sugar-free monster and wait for the buzz to kick in. then I would light a cigarette and take huge deep breaths, finishing it in less than a minute. I would then often chase it down with another monster. cigarettes alone already give me immense euphoria, but caffeine from energy drinks took it to a whole new level. this routine would give me a strong short lived period of intense euphoria, followed by a prolonged afterglow which lasted several hours.

I can’t wait to try this combination again in future, though I will probably replace energy drinks with caffeine pills and cigarettes with nicotine pouches or very high strength Swedish snuss, hopefully the Siberia brand, which contains 45 mg of nicotine Per piece.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

Only time I got REALLY noticeable effects from any caffeine containing product was when I first time ever (I think I was 13) ate a whole box of guarana. Got me rather speedy. Nowdays I drink coffee in the morning to start bowel movement and maybe for SLIGHT effects (hard to notice it with everything else anyway) or tea cut I like it and I think I get SLIGHT effects from it too.

When I ate a lot of guarana at 13 I had no caffeine tolerance so who knows, that might ruined coffee for me? You know like with ephedrine for those who did it like that. You take 150 – 200mg and get noticeable high but after a few times it just fades out and lower doses feel, just, just like I guess coffee feels to most people.

But I’ll tell you when I can definitely notice caffeine, when it’s cut into stims or emphatogens. And with exception of adding just a bit to MDMA (if occasions calls for more stimy high) I hate when it’s added to amphs or coke, just hate it. Enough that I don’t want to take such stuff at all even if it otherwise pretty good.

 

[Neuroprotection]

Only time I got REALLY noticeable effects from any caffeine containing product was when I first time ever (I think I was 13) ate a whole box of guarana. Got me rather speedy. Nowdays I drink coffee in the morning to start bowel movement and maybe for SLIGHT effects (hard to notice it with everything else anyway) or tea cut I like it and I think I get SLIGHT effects from it too.

When I ate a lot of guarana at 13 I had no caffeine tolerance so who knows, that might ruined coffee for me? You know like with ephedrine for those who did it like that. You take 150 – 200mg and get noticeable high but after a few times it just fades out and lower doses feel, just, just like I guess coffee feels to most people.

But I’ll tell you when I can definitely notice caffeine, when it’s cut into stims or emphatogens. And with exception of adding just a bit to MDMA (if occasions calls for more stimy high) I hate when it’s added to amphs or coke, just hate it. Enough that I don’t want to take such stuff at all even if it otherwise pretty good.

That’s because caffeine really should never be mixed with any other dopaminergic stimulants. whilst caffeine is neuroprotective alone through the blockade of adenosine receptors, when combined with traditional psychostimulants it results in dramatically enhanced neurotoxicity including more severe neuroinflammation according to a study I read. it also boosts unpleasant peripheral and central effects like heart rate, vasoconstriction and anxiety. if I ever get my hands on methylphenidate or a related traditional dopaminergic stimulant, I would make sure to abstain from caffeine for at least a month before doing it. this isn’t to avoid neurotoxicity, but rather so I can truly compare for myself, how caffeine and traditional psychostimulants differ.
I actually get really annoyed when people suggest adding caffeine to potentiate Adderall or ephedrine, in my opinion it’s just unnecessary, dangerous and stupid.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

As I’ve said before, I love caffeine for its energising and mild antidepressant effects. interestingly, I’ve noticed the two main sources of high-dose caffeine, Coffee and energy drinks (monster) have considerably different effects in terms of type of stimulation, duration of action and effects on mood etc.
I’ll start with coffee as that’s what I’m now using daily. it produces very mild stimulation in small quantities, with larger amounts producing slightly elevated mood and excitement along with strong jittery feelings and anxiety. there’s also usually nausea and peripheral effects like high heart rate if I drink a lot of coffee. The effects of coffee seem very short lived, especially the positive effects.

With energy drinks, e.g. sugar-free Redbull or sugar-free monster, The stimulation was rather different. there was considerably more mental stimulation and mood elevation, sometimes approaching mild euphoria. if I drank more than 500 mL of such energy drinks, I would get a very strong urge to move about. also, peripheral stimulation from energy drinks is more noticeable, but unlike that from coffee, is not uncomfortable. also, I don’t really get nausea from drinking High amounts of energy drinks. last but not least, Energy drinks give me a much longer period of stimulation with extended positive effects and little to no negative effects.

You may be wondering why I switched to coffee if energy drinks were far better. basically, it was a combination of factors, but mainly encouragement from my mother Who feared that energy drinks would destroy my teeth and I can’t really disagree with that. also, others around me noticed I lost too much weight when drinking energy drinks regularly.

Does anyone else have experience with both of these caffeinated beverages and do you think there is a considerable difference?

I tried red bull at least once. I did not like the taste as it tasted like bubble gum and cough syrup. I did not notice it to be super stimulating.

Black tea and yerba mate are much more stimulating to me, than coffee is and I used to drink 1 liter of coffee a day. Greek/Turkish coffee and coffee made in a moka pot is delicious. The Melitta blotter paper filter coffee isn't bad either. The only coffees I drink black are Greek/Turkish-including Greek frappe, some types of espresso, and sometimes coffee from Mexico, Ethiopia, and El Salvador. Otherwise I make a latte.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

That’s because caffeine really should never be mixed with any other dopaminergic stimulants. whilst caffeine is neuroprotective alone through the blockade of adenosine receptors, when combined with traditional psychostimulants it results in dramatically enhanced neurotoxicity including more severe neuroinflammation according to a study I read. it also boosts unpleasant peripheral and central effects like heart rate, vasoconstriction and anxiety. if I ever get my hands on methylphenidate or a related traditional dopaminergic stimulant, I would make sure to abstain from caffeine for at least a month before doing it. this isn’t to avoid neurotoxicity, but rather so I can truly compare for myself, how caffeine and traditional psychostimulants differ.
I actually get really annoyed when people suggest adding caffeine to potentiate Adderall or ephedrine, in my opinion it’s just unnecessary, dangerous and stupid.

Drinking caffeine on Methylphenidate, Dexedrine/Adderall or Amphetamine is not that neurotoxic, unecessary, or dangerous. Many millions of people have done this and they are fine. Coffee, tea, and yerba mate are neuroprotective.

Methylphenidate, Dexedrine and Adderall are not neurotoxic the way METHamphetamine is. I never took ephedra or real ephedrine as I had super easy access to good pharmaceutical Methylphenidate, Dexedrine, and Adderall. Thanks doctors! I never took any street speed sulphate, crank, crystal, ice/meth/shards. It was well known even the more pure shards/ice/tweak still have cuts that dealers put in, chemists or cooks use different toxic chems, and everyone I know who snorted meth even ice/shards said it burned like snorting pure ammonia.

There was or is desoxyn but it is extremely difficult to find, more difficult to get prescribed as most doctors and psychiatrists do not prescribe it, and most pharmacies IME working in various pharmacies as a tech do not have it, don't stock it, don't want to order it, etc.

 

[elgoucho9]

Surely all the other active ingredients in the energy drinks are what makes it different to coffee.

It's not just one active compound in most energy drinks, more like multiple active compounds.

 

[G_Chem]

That’s because caffeine really should never be mixed with any other dopaminergic stimulants. whilst caffeine is neuroprotective alone through the blockade of adenosine receptors, when combined with traditional psychostimulants it results in dramatically enhanced neurotoxicity including more severe neuroinflammation according to a study I read. it also boosts unpleasant peripheral and central effects like heart rate, vasoconstriction and anxiety. if I ever get my hands on methylphenidate or a related traditional dopaminergic stimulant, I would make sure to abstain from caffeine for at least a month before doing it. this isn’t to avoid neurotoxicity, but rather so I can truly compare for myself, how caffeine and traditional psychostimulants differ.
I actually get really annoyed when people suggest adding caffeine to potentiate Adderall or ephedrine, in my opinion it’s just unnecessary, dangerous and stupid.

If I was flushed with tons of proper stimulants I would agree, but when you’re trying to get the most out of 5-10mg d-Amphetamine you add things in. I actually find the combo of coffee and Adderall to be a great one, but just have to watch the dosage.

-GC