Performance Lab Caffeine Plus held the honour of being the very first product from Performance Lab that contained caffeine or stimulants. Until its release, the range from manufacturer Opti-Nutra avoided stimulants at all costs. Indeed, they built a brand around 100% natural non-stim products.
So, why design a stim product? Marketing vagaries aside, it looks as if Performance Lab spotted a gap in the market… namely, the need for safe, balanced but effective stimulation.
Being Performance Lab, they didn’t just thrown a boatload of stimulants into a bottle and left you to struggle. No, they spent a considerable amount of time designing a product that offers, in their own words, ‘cleaner, calmer, healthier stimulation’. Namely clean alertness without the jitters.
Can it really be done? Performance Lab say so, and if this product lives up to the carefully engineered and well-thought-out products found elsewhere in the Performance Lab range, we’re inclined to believe them. But let’s investigate, shall we?
About Performance Lab Caffeine Plus
With the above in mind, let’s ask the obvious question: what sort of supplement is Performance Lab Caffeine Plus designed to be? A cognitive enhancer? An alternative to caffeine pills? Yes, and yes. We wouldn’t be going too far if we described it as a caffeine pill without the crash, thanks to its clever use of ‘smart caffeine’ (more on that shortly).
Could it also be used to aid athletic performance? Caffeine can certainly help with energy, focus, exercise intensity and endurance; it’s nothing if not versatile. Caffeine Plus may therefore help sport performance in some regard, and the bonus of its 50mg per capsule means that you can choose as much as you need on any given day. The flexibility that many pre-workouts just can’t give you.
Performance Lab Caffeine Plus’s gentle stimulant boost also comes with added ingredients for balance (L-theanine) and recovery (L-tyrosine, B-vitamins), helping you to multitask, deal with stress, boost your alertness, memory, mood and more whenever you need a helping hand. So, as we said, a clever crash-free caffeine pill.
The Formula
Performance Lab Caffeine Plus boasts a pretty clever formula:
- A gentle boost from caffeine – at 50mg caffeine per capsule, it’s strong enough for a gentle hit, but low enough to allow you to double or even triple your dose if you prefer.
- Promotes anti-anxiety and calmness with 100mg L-theanine per capsule, giving you the best of caffeine without the jitters, anxiety, or crash. The caffeine-theanine combo is known as ‘smart caffeine’
- Includes brain helping amino acids such as L-Tyrosine, 250mg, to help sustain focus and mood.
- Plus, B-vitamins to replenish those typically lost with caffeine intake, helping the nervous system deal with stress and more.
Let’s have a closer look at the ingredients and see if Performance Lab Caffeine Plus really delivers what it promises – to be ‘the most advanced caffeine formula ever developed’.
Caffeine Pill Ingredients
Natural Caffeine (50mg)
The caffeine in Caffeine Plus comes from natural sources, specifically coffea robusta seeds. Caffeine has many benefits associated with it; not only can it improve physical performance, it can also improve mental performance, boost mood, and banish fatigue. Caffeine can also help to burn calories by temporarily raising your metabolism and increasing fat oxidation during exercise.
Studies show that caffeine can help you concentrate better, learn more, and can also improve wakefulness. Subjective wellbeing has also been shown to improve after consuming caffeine. If you think of Caffeine Plus as a cognitive enhancer, then caffeine as an active ingredient is a no-brainer (pun intended!). Helping you to think better, focus more, increase your attention, and boost your mood.
Caffeine is also a common ingredient in fat-burning supplements due to its ability to increase your metabolic rate and fat oxidation. A 1990 study found that ingesting caffeine led to both increases in metabolism and increased plasma glycol levels – which is evidence of fat burning. You might want to use Performance Lab Caffeine Plus alongside a dedicated fat burner to enhance its impact. We recommend Burn Lab Pro.
Where the 50mg caffeine per capsule is useful, however, is in allowing you to choose your own dosage. Consuming two tablets for 100mg or three for 150mg, for instance, or consuming a single tablet alongside a common caffeine source such as black coffee. It puts you in the driving seat which many other caffeine pills on the market fail to do.
L-Theanine (100mg)
L-theanine is an amino acid that is found in green tea, it is often combined with caffeine because it has a synergistic relationship with it. L-theanine has been found to reduce the side effects of caffeine (jitteriness, nausea, headaches etc). It is also able to reduce anxiety, which strong caffeine pills and caffeine in general can increase.
When combined with caffeine you get all the benefits of caffeine with none of the drawbacks. Providing a clean energy experience.
L-theanine can also increase attention, making it a great supplement ingredient for studying or work, boosting the cognitive benefits of caffeine even further. Enhancing your cognition, allowing you to study better, and relaxing you. The dosage of l-theanine is spot on, with the recommended dosage being between 100 and 200mg.
L-Tyrosine (250mg)
Another ingredient that combines excellently with caffeine. Taking high doses of caffeine can reduce levels of catecholamine which can affect mental performance (even as caffeine improves it). L-tyrosine can help your body to recycle catecholamine and restore your levels to the ideal state. It also helps you to concentrate more, think better, and is an ideal choice to reduce stress during stressful events or help alertness after sleep deprivation. This is the recovery aspect of Performance Lab Caffeine Plus.
B-Vitamins
It’s obvious that every single ingredient in Performance Lab Caffeine Plus has been carefully chosen to perform a very specific role. Now it’s the turn of the B-vitamins, NutriGenesis® Caffeine Balance B-Complex – B2, 6, 9 and 12. These B vitamins in particular seem to drop with caffeine intake and replenishing them is important.
They act as a counterbalance to caffeine, to help handle the body’s stress, contribute to healthy homocysteine levels (caffeine raises the latter, which can contribute to brain fog and memory issues) and optimise energy. They act as the balance portion of Performance Lab Caffeine Plus.
Pros of Performance Lab Caffeine Plus
- Clever combination of ingredients: caffeine and l-theanine, caffeine with L-tyrosine
- Improves focus, mood and attention during work or study
- None of the common drawbacks of consuming a caffeine pill
- Modest amount of caffeine allows you to choose the right dosage for you
- Can be taken with more traditional caffeine sources
- Can be used for improving work/studying
- Can be combined with other Performance Lab supplements (such as Performance Lab Mind or Performance Lab Energy)
- The NutriGenesis® process ensures the B-vitamins within Caffeine Plus are more bio-available.
- As always, Performance Lab’s products are 100% vegan, natural and eco-friendly.
Cons of Performance Lab Caffeine Plus
- Caffeine dosage is low when you compare it to a traditional caffeine pill – which typically includes 100-200mg of caffeine, though we like the freedom this gives you to choose to double or triple your dose.
- You may need two servings or more to feel the effect.
Safety/Side Effects
Performance Lab Caffeine Plus should be a safe product. After all, the whole emphasis of the product is ‘ultramodern caffeine for cleaner, calmer, and healthier stimulation.’
L-Theanine is an incredibly safe supplement with ridiculously high dosages still safe when tested on rats. L-Tyrosine can have some side effects, when taken at 150mg/kg (so 9g for a 60kg person) l-tyrosine can cause increased blood pressure and heart rate. However, that is a ridiculously high dosage. You would have to take 36 Caffeine Plus tablets to get 9g, which would incidentally contain enough caffeine to kill you!
Caffeine is the only ingredient likely to cause any side effects, with high doses being associated with heart palpitations, high blood pressure, nausea, anxiety, jitteriness, upset stomach, and insomnia. But the l-theanine and l-tyrosine in this product would be able to mitigate most of these issues, and you would have to take a lot of these tablets to see any issues.
How to Take It?
The beauty of Performance Lab Caffeine Plus is that you can make up your own dosage – we like to have one capsule in the morning with our coffee, and then another Caffeine Plus (no coffee) in the afternoon. That’s enough to give us a kick awake in the morning and keep us focused for the rest of the day.
You can play around with how Caffeine Plus works best for you – just be aware that the daily healthy maximum caffeine dosage per day is around 400mg. Don’t forget to add up all your separate caffeine doses throughout the day. Taking one Nutricap (50mg) with a double espresso (120mg), for instance, will give you a 170mg caffeine hit.
Combining it with coffee is certainly the most economical option to preserve your capsules . There are 30 capsules in a tub.
Who Takes Performance Lab Caffeine Plus?
Anyone can take this supplement, there is no specific benefits that are applied to a certain demographic. The people who would see the most benefit from taking Caffeine Plus would be people who don’t habitually use caffeine, as the results would be superior. Caffeine Plus could benefit students and professionals alike, anyone wanting a cognitive boost or even a physical one.
Caffeine Plus could potentially even work for anyone wanting to lower their alternative caffeine intake.
Performance Lab Caffeine Plus: More than Just a Caffeine Pill
Caffeine Plus by Performance Lab is subtle and well thought out rather than just trying to fry your central nervous system as efficiently as possible. Truth be told, it’s more than just a caffeine pill.
With its modest dose of caffeine, allowing you to adjust your dosage, and its brain-protecting amino acids and B-vitamins, it’s a healthier, cleaner choice when you need an energy boost or a cognitive aid.
For that reason, we like this product. This shouldn’t really surprise us being as it comes from Performance Lab, a range that has proven time and again its commitment to quality, safety, and effectiveness.
We think Caffeine Plus would be great on its own but even better paired with a stim-free nootropic stack such as Performance Lab Mind, or Mind Lab Pro, for all-around total brain health and support. Or with stim-free Performance Lab Energy for a full-on energy boost.
Where to Buy
All Performance Lab products are only available from the official website. You can enjoy a 5 or 10% discount if you buy in bulk.
