Caffeine is the most widely used legal performance aid in sport, and for good reason. It can sharpen mental focus, blunt your perceived effort, increase the strength of muscle contractions, and hold off both physical and mental fatigue. The catch has always been the taste. Caffeine is famously bitter, so most companies either dose it too low to matter — around 25mg — or mask it behind artificial flavors and acids. Neither approach actually helps you go faster. Maurten spent over two years working around that problem, using the same Hydrogel structure to encapsulate the caffeine alongside the carbohydrate. The result is a true gel with low bitterness, low sweetness, and a genuinely effective dose of both.

On the science: the majority of studies show caffeine improving athletic performance, functioning as a well-established ergogenic aid. Older research pointed to VO2Max gains, while more recent work suggests its bigger contribution is reducing fatigue, slowing performance decline, and preserving mental sharpness late in an effort. How much you need depends on how much coffee you already drink — habitual users need more to feel the same effect. For most people, 100mg is a workable dose, and it remains appropriate for those who don't lean on caffeine daily. A common guideline lands around 1 to 1.5mg per pound of body weight. Caffeine hits your bloodstream within 5 to 15 minutes, peaks somewhere between 45 and 90 minutes, and reaches its half-life three to six hours after you take it.

The practical move is to alternate. Rotate the Caf 100 with the standard Gel 100 through a long effort so you get a measured caffeine curve rather than one big spike, timing the caffeinated servings for the stretches where you need the lift most. This box holds 12 gels, enough to plan a full fueling strategy around and dial in the ratio that works for your gut and your caffeine tolerance.