The best energy drinks of 2024 and what to look for, according to a nutritionist

From health shots to herbal teas, the taste of ginger has become synonymous with health drinks, so it’s no surprise to see it cropping up in this Grass and Co option. It’s the dominant flavour, overpowering the lime, but the overall experience is still fairly subtle – more like a flavoured sparkling water than an in-your-face energy drink. As someone who doesn’t have too much of a sweet tooth, this was something I enjoyed.

The drink has a refreshingly recognisable ingredients list too; the main ingredient is water, followed by apple concentrate and lime juice. You’ll also find 74mg of caffeine inside each can to lift your energy levels, and shiitake mushroom extract – a nootropic, or brain supplement, included to help energy release.

Beyond this, the drink also has added vitamins B9 and B12, with the latter involved in helping the body release energy from food, as well as natural holy basil and iron. When I drank a can at lunchtime on a work day, it left me alert rather than fidgety. It didn’t cause me to crash a few hours later either, which can’t be said for many other mainstream energy drinks.

Drinking caffeine within an eight-hour window of your bedtime can seriously hamper sleep quality, The Sleep Scientist founder Sophie Bostock told me during a recent interview. As such, I try to steer clear of the stuff after lunchtime.

Happily, Holland and Barrett’s mango and yuzu energy kombucha is caffeine-free, making it a more suitable mid-afternoon refreshment option. It contains ashwagandha extract, which has been linked to lessening stress and improving sleep quality, as well as kombucha – a fermented tea drink reputedly able to help with gut health and function.

As a mango fan, I was initially a bit disappointed by the background role this flavour played. But the ever-intriguing taste of kombucha proved to be a worthy substitute which I found incredibly refreshing.

The drink didn’t give the same easily recognisable energy boost as the caffeinated drinks on this list, but it still provided an enjoyable post-lunch pick-me-up.

Your average energy drink comes in a chunky 500ml can, crammed with 150mg or more of caffeine and boasting a bizarre mix of ingredients, many of which you’ve never heard of. I enjoyed the Myvegan sparkling energy drink because it played things a bit straighter. It takes its flavours from fruit juice and serves up a more conservative 83mg of natural caffeine – roughly the same as a cup of coffee – per 330ml drink.

This resulted in a less artificial taste, not unlike a slightly fizzy squash, and drinking it at my desk left me energised without wanting to climb the walls. For this reason, I think it would suit someone who doesn’t like the intense sweetness of many energy drinks, but fancies a little energy boost occasionally during the day or around their workouts.

The inclusion of hydrolysed pea protein means you also get a 6g helping of the muscle-building macronutrient with each can. Sure, this doesn’t stand up to the 20g-plus offered by most protein powders, but I found it was still a welcome helping hand towards my daily target.

Added nootropics, vitamins D, B6 and B12, and coffee-like caffeine levels earned this Acti+ offering a spot on our list. Nootropics are believed to improve cognitive function, making this a tempting option for those looking to have a productive afternoon at work.

Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body – nutrients essential for keeping bones and muscles in good nick, according to the NHS. And vitamins B6 and B12 help the body store energy from food and release energy from food respectively, among other functions.

After drinking Acti+ natural clean energy, I found my energy levels were gently lifted for a few hours, but they didn’t plummet when the effects wore off.

The best way to describe the drink itself is like a seltzer – sparkling with subtle underlying fruit flavours. I found it easy to drink, and a refreshing lunch break tipple.

Perple takes the standard energy drink formula and flips it on its head. It’s not fizzy, there’s no caffeine, and it only contains natural ingredients. It also stands out from the crowd by coming in a recyclable cardboard carton, made from 60 per cent plant-based materials. So why is it on this list?

As someone who trains first thing in the morning, I often struggle to squeeze in a meal before a session. Perple allowed me to slurp on its 30g of fast and slow-release carbohydrates on my way to the gym, and didn’t lead to any bloating or discomfort during 90 minutes of varied CrossFit programming. The blood orange option wasn’t to my taste, but I liked how authentic the golden mango flavour was, actually tasting like the fruit rather than a candied imposter.

This lines up with what backer Sebastian Vettel had to say, with the four-time F1 world champ finding the drink “was the first in my 16-year F1 career to have kept me energised right until the end of a grand prix, without any stomach problems”.

With the ingredients coming from natural sources, it’s fairly high in sugar (22.4g), so not one to down at your desk. But before running, gym sessions or sports of up to 90 minutes, it can be handy to have in your gym bag, containing bonus electrolytes via coconut water to help you stay hydrated throughout.

Perple again goes against the energy drink grain with its endurance mix – free from caffeine and fizz. This time it comes in a smaller 200ml carton, recommending recreational exercisers mix either 50ml (if you’re exercising for up to three hours) or 100ml (if you’re exercising for more than three hours) with 200-300ml of water and drink this every hour.

The former provides 20g of carbohydrates and 721mg of electrolytes from concentrated coconut water to keep you fuelled during endurance events. The handy resealable carton is also easy to chuck in a bag or pocket when you’re on these escapades.

Like the Perple sports drink, the flavours were hit and miss with me, and the blood orange wasn’t a favourite. But the summer berries option was far more enjoyable.

So, if you’re an endurance athlete fed up with gels and other supplements filled with maltodextrin and the like, this fuelling and hydrating energy drink is worth keeping on your radar.

If you like the sweet shop-esque flavour profile of classic energy drinks but you want to swerve the questionable caffeine levels, this inclusion is for you. The watermelon flavour tastes more like something from a pick and mix selection than a plant, and is sure to satisfy those with a sweet tooth.

But it offers roughly half the caffeine content (106mg) of a standard can of C4 performance energy, includes 12g of immune system boosting vitamin C, and contains Cognizin – a supplement, also known as citicoline, which is intended to support brain health.

I tried it during the work day, and it did give me a second wind of energy shortly after lunch, with only a slight lull instead of a dramatic crash when the effects wore off.