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LIFESTYLE
Do Adaptogen Beverages Truly Provide Wellness Benefits?
Photo by James Yarema on Unsplash
Key Points:
Adaptogens are herbs, roots, mushrooms, and other botanicals “marketed” to help reduce stress, improve focus, support mood, and promote overall wellbeing.
Adaptogen beverages come in many forms from teas and coffees to sparkling sodas and ready-to-drink cans, containing adaptogens such as ashwagandha, reishi, lion's mane, rhodiola, and holy basil.
These functional drinks are gaining global momentum, with UK brands including TRIP, Three Spirit, Chill Spritz, and Adapt positioning them as wellness-focused alternatives to traditional soft drinks and conventional energy drinks.
While individual adaptogens have shown benefits in scientific studies, product-level research is limited.
The effectiveness of these beverages depends on the ingredient used, its form, and dose compared with those tested in clinical studies.
Details:
Research links ashwagandha to reduced stress and anxiety, holy basil to improved mood and sleep, reishi to reduced anxiety symptoms and improved vitality, and rhodiola to short-term relief from stress-related tiredness.
An ingredient’s “dosage” in a beverage matters, as doses tested in research, determines the benefit level.
A 300-600mg ashwagandha dose is effective for stress and anxiety in research, so if an adaptogen drink contains 250mg of ashwagandha per can, then it can be considered healthy.
Three Spirit’s Nightcap doesn't disclose ashwagandha or other adaptogens doses at all.
Some brands make broader performance claims than the science supports. For lion's mane,
Three Spirit claims it “improves mood, energy levels and mental health”,
Adapt Focus says it “improves focus & mood”,
Yet scientific evidence for its cognitive benefits remains inconclusive with mixed findings.
Despite being natural, adaptogens can be unsuitable for people with health conditions or on certain medications. Ashwagandha may affect thyroid function and has been linked to rare cases of liver injury.
Why It Matters: Adaptogens have long been used in herbal medicine and traditional therapies across India, China, Russia and other cultures. Their rise in beverages reflects a modern way to incorporate wellness-focused ingredients into daily routines. However, the category is full of weak formulations and vague promises. Some products use low doses for taste or cost efficiency, while others fail to disclose amounts and only market broad benefits. Check the milligram dose against research-backed amounts and whether the claimed benefits are supported by evidence. Ultimately, judge these drinks by what’s actually in the product, not what the label suggests you’ll feel.Follow us on Tik Tok
Until next week,
Visage Daily