I don’t enjoy getting drunk. That may seem like and odd thing to say when your hobby is drinking, but it’s true. I love to try new beers, whiskeys, cocktails, etc., but I prefer to take it slow, space them out, and not wake up the next day writhing around and wishing for the sweet release of death. Sometimes, however, shit happens and when it does there’s a whole market for “hangover cures” out there ready to take your money in exchange for promises of a great morning after.

I’ve tried one of these products before and it did NOT go well. Here is that story. So when a company promoting a product called DrinkAde reached out and asked me for a review I was hesitant. Luckily, my office Christmas party was right around the corner so it felt like a good opportunity to expand our data set and get some real results. I asked for volunteers and within seconds the samples were spoken for with one co-worker even agreeing to be our control variable.

DrinkAde comes in two “flavors”, Prevention and Boost and are made with things like vitamin B, milk thistle, green tea extract, aloe vera, and something called Gotu Kola. I did a quick Google on that last thing and it seems like it’s been used to prevent pretty much every disease or ailment under the Sun so I’m not really sure what purpose it serves but it can’t hurt, right?

Per the fact sheet we received with the products “BOTH are intended for use for use before drinking and during drinking to help prevent hangovers.” The primary difference is that the “Boost formula has 189mg of natural caffeine (about two cups of coffee) and extra B-12 so it’s great if you are staying out late at night or want an ADDED boost of energy and rehydration the next morning”. Boost is berry flavored while Prevention is limeade.

In order to test different scenarios within our formal scientific study we tried three different variations of the DrinkAde formulas. Some only used Prevention during the Christmas Party, others only used Boost, and Kate and I drank Prevention at the party while also using Boost the next morning. With all that decided, we did a quick cheers and began our evening.

While the fact sheet from DrinkAde recommended chilling them because “we often hear feedback that it tastes better when consumed cold”, this didn’t happen. The two guys that drank the Boost flavor had the most adverse reactions to the taste, while Team Prevention didn’t really have many complaints.

The night continued, many drinks were drank. Work trivia happened with shots involved for incorrect responses, and the open bar got quite a workout. Let’s see how our test subjects faired then we’ll attempt to draw a conclusion from the results:

Co-Worker 1 aka “The Shot Dumpster” – Team Boost – “Im still drunk but not hungover the next day. It does work surprisingly well though, i should feel way worse than i do about last night. None of the crappy feelings from drinking all night, just the still being drunk part from drinking gallons of alcohol.”

Co-Worker 2 – Team Prevention – “About the exact same without the drink, head hurts.”

Co-Worker 3 – Team Prevention – “Was still feeling the beer this morning… but otherwise not feeling too hungover, which is good for a Collette night.”

Co-Worker 4 – Team Boost – “After a night of drinking I almost always wake up with a headache but not today. Pleasantly surprised by this product.”

Control – “I didn’t get a hangover so I guess I didn’t drink hard enough.”

Kate – Prevention followed by Boost the next morning – A text including a gif of someone slowly putting on sunglasses.

This isn’t the easiest study to draw a solid summary from as results are all over the place. Here was my experience:

I used the Prevention during the Christmas Party before drinking about a million Makers and Cokes, a few shots, and even an Old Fashioned after I got home. I woke up in rough shape, but not quite as bad as I expected. After about 10 minutes of thinking about life I was able to get up and drink the Boost that I had in the fridge. I don’t know if it was the hangover or what, but the Boost tasted much worse than the Prevention. You don’t drink these things for taste, you drink them for results.

Within about 15 minutes I started feeling MUCH better, I had energy and even started planning a trip out into the world. I was able to go to Vanessa House and finish out my work day (my company has remote Fridays) and even had a small beer.

With all of that being said and after talking to my co-workers here’s the best summary I can come up with:

The fact that the Boost has the added caffeine and Vitamin B seems to make it the superior product of the two. While it’s much harder to determine if Prevention truly did have any impact, it could have, but it’s just so hard to tell with so many other variables at play. I will say that Prevention can’t hurt, but don’t use it as an excuse to drink more than you normally would, that won’t do anybody any favors. My biggest takeaway is that drinking the Boost the next morning was 100% effective for me and going forward it’s something I’ll keep on hand for that very reason. Well done on that one DrinkAde.

We would love to hear your results in the comments if you’ve tried these products, or have any others you would like to recommend. And as always, if you are a company with a “hangover cure”, drop us a line as we would love to try your solution.

Disclaimer: These products were provided at no cost to Barrels and Mash with no strings attached.