GO Cubes: Caffeine in bite-sized gummies without the need for coffee
Not a big fan of drinking coffee but want a bit of a caffeine boost before a race or during a workout? GO Cubes are an intersection between gummies and coffee. For triathletes, that means there’s another option for fuelling on those longer rides and runs or for that mid-day pick-me-up.
GO Cubes ship to Canada and come in four packs including pure, mocha and latte flavours. The three, from Triathlon Magazine Canada‘s experience, are nearly indistinguishable and are very strong in terms of taste. GO Cubes are by no means the only alternative for caffeine. There are caffeine pills, energy gels and other options if coffee upsets your stomach.
The packaging reads, “GO Cubes combine finely-brewed taste with a special blend of ingredients that enhance caffeine for focused energy on the go.” Put simply, they’re jelly cubes with caffeine. GO Cubes are vegan and gluten-free.
GO Cubes are made by San Francisco-based Nootrobox.
One positive we found from having GO Cubes is that, since they’re gummies, there’s little to no associated mess with consuming them whereas gels sometimes can be sticky. Unfortunately, GO Cubes come in tougher-than-normal plastic packaging making it trickier to open while on the go.
GO Cubes are bite-sized gummies convenient to take on a long run, for that mid-run caffeine boost, in your purse or backpack or tucked away in your office desk. Each cube contains approximately half the amount of caffeine as a regular cup of coffee.
In terms of nutritional facts, two GO Cubes (22 grams) contain 70 calories, 15 mg of sodium, 12 grams of sugar and 17 grams of carbohydrates. The cubes also contain a vitamin B complex and L-Theanine, which is found in some teas, in an aim to eliminate the anxiety associated with a coffee buzz.
A box of 20 packages, which include four jellies each, retails for US$59 plus an extra US$5 in shipping. Since an entire box contains 80 jellies, the price per cube is about $0.80, more than the cost of an average cup of coffee if one was to brew it themselves – two cubes equals a cup of coffee – but significantly less than buying a coffee in stores.
Six packs of gummies come at a cost of US$23 plus shipping. The founders, a pair of computer scientists, came up with the idea for chewable cubes because they thought the taste of coffee was inconsistent from one cup to the next.
