Ever since I turned 25, I get really bad hangovers. Not like the ones in college, where I’d just lay around for an hour and then recover. I’m talking full-day, heartburn, headache, light sensitivity and desperately needing a nap.

Cazey likes to tell me that he doesn’t get hangovers, which is especially obnoxious when I’m lying around helplessly hungover.

What’s most annoying is that my hangovers are unexpected. Once I drank four beers over the course of five hours and woke up with a splitting headache. A few weeks later, I drank at least four tequila drinks before switching to a beer or two and woke up ready for the day.

The increased hangover struggle has led me to stock up on Pepto tablets, coconut water and Gatorade. While all of that is well and good enough, who wouldn’t want something specifically for a hangover?

DrinkAde is just that. It’s a little shot that promises to get rid of hangovers. When I first heard about it, I thought to myself, That’s a bit ambitious to promise.

What Is DrinKade?

DrinkAde is actually two different shots (drinking shots; no syringes here). The first is the preventive shot: you take it before you go out (or while you’re going hard if you forgot to do it before, which you probably did). It’s limeade flavored, 3.4 oz, contains no caffeine or gluten (if that’s *not* your thing). Other ingredients (which seem like they might do something) are aloe vera, green tea extract, and potassium.

The second shot is a booster. You drink it the next morning when you get up (or while you’re still lying in bed). We suppose it’s for if the preventive shot didn’t do the full job or you just challenged your soul and body that much last night. The booster is berry-flavored (it tastes better than the limeade according to Cazey!) and has 189 mg of caffeine, which that will get most people going.

Both shots are only 5 calories.

My First DrinkAde Experience Review

When I got invited to a Fifth and a Friend (where you’re to a friend and need to drink a fifth for the uninitiated), I knew this was the perfect opportunity to test out DrinkAde. As I shoveled Chipotle down my gullet to get something in there to absorb alcohol, I paused to take the limeade prevention shot.

The taste kind of raddled me, but I was ready for the drinking event. We went and grabbed a bottle and headed over to the party. Over the course of the evening, I drank two large rum drinks and a couple Guinesses.

Then we ate a pizza, chugged water and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up with some trepidation. There’s no way I won’t be hungover, I think to myself. I blink open a few times and chug some water. I was parched. While my head felt a bit tired, it wasn’t throbbing. My stomach wasn’t turning.

I had avoided the hangover.

I had not, however, avoided being really tired. I was on-the-fence about drinking the Boost Drinkade, but didn’t want to drink them both since I had a limited supply and knew there would be more times to come where I needed it. I think in this case had I drank it, I would have been scot-free (and scotch-free, get it? This is Cazey’s joke). I also think eating before and after drinking, plus mixing water into my regime helped significantly, so I’d suggest not just relying on DrinkAde (see experience #2).

My Second DrinkAde Experience

A few weeks later, I went to a beer festival. Since I am an adult, I thought I would be responsible so I didn’t drink the preventative DrinkAde. However, the beer festival led us to get some Mexican food and margs, and I decided to go-big. After a day of beer, a marg and extremely limited water intake, I knew this was my preventative moment.

I chugged the berry-flavored booster shot and fell asleep on the sofa nearly immediately after.

The next morning, I woke up feeling hungover. My head was throbbing and I was incredibly tired, so I drank another one. I’m not sure that was the best idea because I don’t know if you’re supposed to drink that many within 24 hours, but I needed to be ready-to-go because I was doing Thanksgiving with my boyfriend’s family.

I was not as hungover, but I was still absurdly tired. Thankfully, we were driving two hours away, so once I slept for two more hours, I woke up truly not hungover.

Cazey’s Take

As Sara mentioned, I am rarely hungover (I count my hangovers in this lifetime on one hand). DrinkAde sounded promising to me, but not necessary. Similar to Sara, I failed to take the preventive and booster shots together in all cases. That is, twice I went out drinking and forgot to take the preventive shot beforehand, but I certainly took the booster the next morning.

On the first occasion, it was Thanksgiving morning. I needed to drive myself two hours down to Virginia Beach for a family dinner. The night before had been…well…a lot. I honestly didn’t feel like drinking or eating anything (though I maintain I was not hungover, *eye roll*). That’s what I appreciate about the size of DrinkAde bottles - 3.4 ounces is doable even if you don’t feel like consuming anything.

Via the power of DrinkAde (and an additional Venti iced Americano several hours later), I made it to Virginia Beach and through a weekend with my family. That’s almost more miraculous than curing hangovers!

The second time I took the DrinkAde booster was Monday morning, also a daunting challenge for a hangover-prevention cure all. Needless to say, I was not hungover and had a bit of extra pep to my step. However, I didn’t finish my PhD that day! (But no one promised I would!)

After that, I only had the limeade preventive shots left. In both cases, I consumed these once I had already started drinking. Whoops? Actually not. DrinkAde says you can have these while drinking because sometimes drinking just happens; it isn’t planned. In both cases, I didn’t wake up with a hangover. Surprise!

Our Overall DrinkAde Review

Back to Sara: While my hangover wasn’t entirely gone after one dose (or two), the second time I tried it I was significantly less hungover than I think I would be without it. I also didn’t drink water that drinking event nor did I eat a lot of food the next morning to soak it up.

Because I get VERY hungover and am used to drinking coffee every morning (so the caffeine isn’t abnormal for me), I’m a tough use-case. DrinkAde definitely got rid of some symptoms of my hangover, but because a lot of my hangovers are mostly centered on being incredibly tired, even if I get rid of the hangover headache, I quickly get a sleepy headache.

Cazey generally supports the use of DrinkAde. He’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from Sara because he never really suspected he’d get a hangover, but he liked the jolt of caffeine and the sense that there was some extra protection just in case he did have one too many tequila shots (and bottle of wine).

Both of us also support the addition of food and ample water consumption before, while, and after drinking. We especially think that greasy pizza or loaded sandwiches are great if you are awake past 1 AM. But why not throw DrinkAde into the mix? It certainly doesn’t hurt!

Locally, you can grab DrinkAde at GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe if you want to give it a go like us! You also can grab some online here and use code SAVE20 to get 20% off.

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