Guarana, the NEW caffeine?

[Floris_Queal]

Hi guys,

After my recent blog about caffeine, I have now put my sights on guarana. It has caffeine, but the other components (of this natural seed from South America) give it even more positive qualities.

You've probably seen guarana on the label of some energy drinks, or you might have added some to your tea for an extra boost. Or you might have just read about it on the blog.

What are your experiences with guarana?

[koffie]

My aunt used to bring raw guarana powder back from time to time when going to Brazil, and always gave me some, but it's been a while since she went there. I still have a small amount somewhere - but not sure if it's still suitable for consumption.

The effects were pretty nice, very comparable to cafeine, but you're a bit but more focussed, active for a longer timespan and have no real withdrawal symptoms when not consuming it for a day or 2 - unlike cafeine, but that could just be due to my cafeine consumption, never consumed as much guarana, and almost always, it was combined with cafeine throughout the day.

The taste wasn't all that, I ended up making tea from it, mixing it with orange juice or even redbull or coffee. When going out, combining it with a small amount of alcohol kept me going all night without ever having the need to go for "other" stuf, while still being able to function pretty normally the next day.

Combining with alcohol is probably not that healthy, and you have to be careful with the doses when dealing with raw powder - but probably a lot better than the illegal alternatives (although at that time, guarana's legal status was unclear).

[Floris_Queal]

Very cool to hear! Also interesting to hear that you had no withdrawal with guarana versus caffeine (alone).

Maybe other people too have an experience with using it at night, I would find it interesting to see what the effects would be and if you won't just stay awake even after you hop into bed.

I guess that drinking it in an energy drink (maybe in conjunction with alcohol) is also what keeps some people going on the dance floor

[paradonym]

Guarana is just an natural appearance of caffeine. As artificially created caffeine is cheaper most companies mainly use artificial caffeine.

It was pretty much a trend for me about 1 or 1 1/2 years ago. So much that I tried (and still have) pills filled with guarana (and synephrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synephrine - which one should pre very careful with).
Taking that as a pill is a bit overkill for me - for others probably normal or wanted that way:
The days get longer - even if it's only 160 mg of caffeine - but in pills. At the evening you inner body clock is loosing about 2-3 hours - which I feel on the next day - even more tired then.
But in general - I think guarana could be the better caffeine - even if it's for me much stronger.

(We have an smoothie bar here - they offer guarana for an upcharge - they took 1 1/2 tablespoons - that was a pretty horrible night for me)

You can't really compare energy drinks with guarana drinks - as the sugar (or sugar replacement contents) do more with your body. I think it only makes sense to compare energy drinks with powdered guarana (probably put into non-sugary drinks - even if it doesn't dissolves well).

That could be the problem for Queal - pure guarana without any additional chemical dissolving-helper contents doesn't do well in fluids - as it tastes rather bitter and like sandy water then.
In general I think guarana could be the better choice - especially in "vegan" or "fully organic" trend products - like Queal's neighbours Joylent or powders like Bertrand do.

For me personally I have to take special care about it - caffeine is a cap on about 160-200 mg a day for me - with guarana, more than a teaspoon a day would be my border.

[Floris_Queal]

Thanks for the reply paradonym. And good to hear that you know exactly how much caffeine you can tolerate yourself. And you're definitely right about the energy drinks, many more things in there.

[borilla]

i brought back several kg of guarana powder from the north of Brazil. There they use it for many things. I remember recipe like mixing one small spoon of powder with honey or tea.
The first time i did it it was way to strong.
I am still looking for the best use of it actually...

[Floris_Queal]

Dosing of Guarana can sometimes be difficult. It's good to know how concentrated it is (sometimes it's 10X more caffeine than other times). And I take the Boost (our product that contains Guarana) with tea (or Queal) most of the time.