How many cups do you have a day?

One? Two? Eight? Whatever the answer, it's undeniable that coffee is a big part of our lives. You'd have an extremely hard time walking around any major city without seeing a coffee shop on every corner of every street, dozens of people with disposable cardboard cups in their hands, and a group of lads with laptops fighting for the lone plug socket in their local Starbucks. For many, it's not just the need for the caffeine kick - it's the ritual of going out for a latte with a mate, spending your day working in a cosy corner of a coffee shop, or trying a new brew to see if it takes your fancy. There's a whole culture around coffee that we can't ignore. So what if one day we decided to get our caffeine kick from somewhere else? Specifically, from a chewable, flavoured coffee cube that gives you all the hit of caffeine without the trials and tribulations of actually drinking a coffee? Let me just preface this by saying that I'm not a caffeine addict. Despite the fact that I tend to spend most of my days feeling either mildly sleepy or fairly exhausted, I try to keep my coffee intake to max two cups a day. Any more than that and I find myself feeling far too buzzed, sick, and anxious. It's not a good look and I would not recommend it. My coffee consumption is more based around that crucial first cup of the day once I get into the office. Anything else caffeine based really only passes my lips when I'm meeting friends, waiting for a bus, or if I'm bored. And honestly, if I'm feeling exhausted, drinking a cup of instant black coffee is that last thing I want to put my stomach through. In those cases, I'd be far more likely to reach for an energy drink which is, at best, questionable, but that's the life I live and I am not ashamed of my choices. However, when I read a review for Go Cubes chewable coffee cubes I was a little more than intrigued. So, I decided to test them out myself for a week and see what the craic was. The product The idea behind Go Cubes is simple enough. Instead of putting coffee in a cup, you put it in your pocket. Each cube contains 50mg worth of caffeine - the equivalent to about half a cup of coffee. Each individual pack comes with four cubes in it so I guess the idea is that the average person consumes about two cups of coffee a day and that one pack will do you for that amount of time. Go Cubes come in three different flavours - pure drip, latte, and mocha. The cubes themselves are made from sugar, water, caffeine, and some other bits too. They cost $15.00 for a box of six packs, or 24 cubes. The look Picture an Oxo cube. You got it? Cool, well that's what these coffee cubes remind me of. Except they're chewable so naturally they've got a jelly-like feel to them. They're probably a bit bigger than an Oxo cube too. You'd definitely be able to stick a full one in your mouth no bother but I usually ate mine in little bits because I've got a small mouth and also, not going to lie, I was a little unsure what to expect on my first try. The taste The first cube I tasted - in absolute bits on a Monday morning, might I add - was the latte one. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting but the strength of the cube took me by surprise. I had orginally gone for the latte flavour because I didn't want something too intense first thing in the morning but, sure look, that was what I got. And, yeah okay, they're literally called coffee cubes, so what was I expecting? The second cube I went for later that day was the mocha flavour. It was a lot less strong probably due to the chocolate addition which was nice. That one went down a lot easier than my first go and by the end of the week, it ended up being my go-to. Once the mocha box ran out (I was of course sharing with the rest of the Her girls, I'm not a monster), I was mildly devastated. I had become attached to my mocha coffee cubes. I liked their less-intense taste, their jelly-like feel, their comforting addition to my desk. The effect Let me just say that whatever your opinion on how these cubes taste, they get the job done. Like, really. After eating my first cube, I left to go catch the bus to work and I was proper buzzing. Like, couldn't-stand-still buzzing. After my second cube, the effect was less severe but it was still there and I was very appreciative of this. I wasn't as wired as my first go, but I was definitely alert and able to work a lot easier than I would have been if I'd have had zero caffeine. The caffeine kick happens almost instantly too, which is nice. For me, there are few things worse in this world than sitting at your desk with an hour or so left of work, feeling absolutely drained. You don't want to go make a coffee because effort. You don't want that slow burn of caffeine that comes with sipping a coffee that leaves you awake all night. Coffee cubes got rid of this issue for me and instead gave me a very decent hit that lasted a few hours. The more I ate of them, the more I appreciated how quick and painless they were. I didn't need to go anywhere, make anything, expend any energy. I just sat at my desk, popped a cube, and felt instantly alert. Sound, to be honest. The final thoughts  Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my week on coffee cubes. They didn't taste exactly how I had expected, but they gave me caffeine hits that were ideal for me - quick and intense without making me feel unwell. I only drank one cup of coffee over the course of the week, and that was just because I didn't think it would be acceptable to whip out a cube in the middle of Clement & Pekoe. And I probably missed out on more than a few coffee dates, but caffeine is more important than friends... right?