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Caffeine-Free + “Energy” isn’t the most obvious match made in heaven, but hear us out.
In our never ending quest to stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed during long days in front of a computer, we’ve learned the value of a B vitamin. From injections to sparkling water, B12 vitamins are the lifeblood of hangover cures and productivity boosts. If you’re not B12ing at some point during the day, are you even trying?
Basically, between Hiballs and gummies, we’re mainlining B12 like the Gummy Galaxy depends on it. (It does.)
Olly
Before we dive into the gummy at hand, let’s say hello to Olly, the progenitor of Daily Energy. If you’ve seen the boxy Olly bottles lining the shelves of just about every box store known to man but you aren’t sure what all the fuss is about, we can can assure you Olly delivers. It’s flashy and fun, but we still get results, from their Collagen Rings to their Goodbye Stress.
Olly is the gummy vitamin juggernaut these days, and we love both their unique ingredients and flavors. They’re pretty prolific, crafting everything from immunity to beauty gummies.
In all honesty, we always seem to have more Olly gummies in daily rotation than just about anything else.
We do wish they were organic and vegan-friendly, but they’re affordable and you can basically find them everywhere. They pretty much cracked the code on the not-your-Boomer vitamin thing, and it feels like the world has never looked back.
They’re kind of like the LaCroix of gummy vitamins.
Daily Energy Ingredients
This is a maverick ingredient line up. We weren’t surprised to see B12 vitamins stuffed in here, but we were pretty astonished to see that the dosage is 300 micrograms of B12 (that’s 12500% of your DV!).
For comparison, Olly’s other B12 gummy is their Laser Focus, which takes you on a real journey with just 50 micrograms of B12. We thought that was a lot, but the Daily Energy is a whole ‘nother level.
CoQ10
You might be familiar with CoQ10 as an old school heart helper. But it’s way more than that!
If you remember biology class, you’ll remember that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. And CoQ10 is an integral part of the mitochondrial energy production that powers your entire body. Not only in your muscles,1 but all your organs, especially your brain!
And we’ll be honest, sometimes it feels like our brains need a swift kick in the mitochondrial pants.
CoQ10 won’t give you a huge burst of energy on its own, like caffeine. But supplementing with it can help keep your cells firing on all cylinders.
There’s not a ton of CoQ10 in the Daily Energy: 30mg per two gummies. Most straight-up CoQ10 supplements give you at least 100mg, often more. So consider these gummies just a little top-off.
Goji Berry
We primarily associate goji berries as a topping on our fancy granolas from back in the early aughts. A much beloved super food, we don’t see much of it out and about anymore. We had thought that goji berries had fallen out of vogue, like carob replacing chocolate and soy milk as the go-to milk replacement.
But here is the return of the goji, and it’s a sight for sore eyes! We love a good superfood, and tbh, those fancy fair trade sustainable bags of goji are a little pricey. We prefer it in a passionfruit tasting gummy anyway.
We think of goji berries as mighty little antioxidants, but our handy Olly bottle informs us that they’ve been “used for centuries to help maintain a steady flow of energy.”
We’ve only found one study that looked at the effects that goji berries have on energy levels, and it does seem like people who drank goji juice did self-report higher levels of energy.2 There’s not a ton of research out there around goji & energy, otherwise.
But you can’t spell goji without go, we guess!
Effectiveness
After the intense rush of energy we experience from talking just one Laser Focus gummy, we braced ourselves for whatever these Daily Energies might have in store for us with their whopping 300 micrograms of B12.
But unexpectedly, these don’t give us the same jitters that the Laser Focus gummies do! They actually provide a clean, clear focused energy that lasts for a couple of hours.
Maybe it’s the addition of the CoQ10 and/or the goji berries that take the edge off the B12? We’re not sure exactly how this works, but we’ll take it. We actually prefer these to the Laser Focus.
Especially when it comes to those energy dips in the late afternoon. The daily post-lunch slump when you have a few hours still left in the day, but when you’re also trying to avoid late-in-the-day caffeine.
(We typically eat just one gummy at a time, because we find that’s pretty effective for us. Especially if you’re getting B vitamins elsewhere, do you really need to pop two gummies for 12500% of your DV?)
These feel made specifically for the mid-day doldrums, and we’re always happier when we pop one in our mouths.
And speaking of popping it in our mouths…
Tasting Notes
YUM.
Olly is a flavor dominator, from their eerily accurate Collagen Peach Rings to their super dreamy Blackberry Zen to (our new fave) the mouthwateringly tangy Hello Happy sour worms.
These are a perfect, juicy, ripe Passionfruit. If you like the Passionfruit LaCroix sparkling water, imagine that, but distilled into a plump and delectable gummy.
But with more CoQ10 and less “natural essence”. This will be our final LaCroix reference of this review.
Final Thoughts
If you really want to ramp things up for your work day sans caffeine, definitely consider picking up some Daily Energy, or Olly’s other B12 productivity blaster Laser Focus.
We find that the Laser Focus can be a wee too intense for us sometimes, and have found ourselves reaching for the Daily Energy more often than not. It’s got the get up and go(ji), without some of the frenetic buzz we get with the Laser Focus.
Oh, plus there’s no come-down like there is with an afternoon coffee.
Honestly, these have quickly become an indispensable part of our daily energy arsenal. ⚡️
