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Coffee So Strong You Can Chew It—No Longer an Exaggeration

Perry Luckett

By Perry Luckett

As a flight facilities maintenance officer in the Air Force, I experienced more than a few cups of flight-line coffee. It’s not for the faint of heart! Often sitting neglected on the warming element of a drip brewer and snatched on the run, this stuff could take the rust off an old shovel without scrubbing. If you’re nostalgic about a similar experience or have sampled some infamous “Navy coffee,” you now have a convenient way of enjoying the blast: Go Cubes chewable coffee.

Fortunately, Go Cubes’ manufacturer, Nootrobox, has found a way of making chewable coffee a lot more consumable than what I “chewed” on the flight line. It comes in a set of individual packets, each containing four coffee cubes. The label says each packet amounts to two cups of coffee, or 50mg of caffeine per cube. Each packet contains three flavors—latte, pure drip, and mocha—distinguished by increasing shades of brown. The cubes feel like sour cola bottle gummies, but thicker, and have a faint smell of coffee to get your taste buds started.

They’re a food, an energy supplement, and a sugar bomb

Each cube contains 50mg of caffeine—about equal to a half cup of coffee, but it also sports

  • 6g of sugar—about 30% of a woman’s recommended daily allowance and 17% of a man’s. So two cubes (one cup of coffee) would give you a sizable portion of your sugar for the day.

Texture and Taste: Don't Replace Coffee but Will Do

The texture is like a Haribo gummy, and the taste is better now that Nootrobox has revised the formula to avoid bitterness early reviewers complained about. Overall, testers have enjoyed each flavor of GO CUBES, citing Mocha as the strongest flavor and very chocolate-y, Latte as relatively mild, and Pure Drip as the straightest coffee flavor. The latter tastes a bit like a darker roast, not unlike Starbucks’ normal iced coffee. Because they’re coated in sugar, though, GO CUBES are sweet—too sweet for my taste but probably ok for those who enjoy Starbucks’ caramel mochas and other frothy drinks.

Price and value test

Starting at $39 for 20 four-cube packets, or about one dollar per serving, they’re pretty reasonable for an energy boost – if you like your nutrients in candy form. Of course, you can’t compare GO CUBES to real coffee from your favorite caffeine establishment, which costs quite a bit more. After all, coffee is more than just an energy booster. People like it for its flavor variety, roasted aroma, and warm feel in the winter.

The value of GO CUBES probably comes down to three things:

  • Knowing how much caffeine you’re consuming each day because each cube has a specified amount of it.
  • Having a faster morning routine if caffeine consumption is your main interest. The cubes make getting out the door each day easier, and you don’t have to tend a coffee cup while on your way to an office or appointment.
  • Paying less for the same amount of caffeine intake (plus some nutrients). Even at four cubes a day (equal to two cups of coffee), GO CUBES add up to $2 daily — still cheaper than if you were to buy a $3 Americano every day.

Have you tried GO CUBES? What did you think? Maybe a supplement for non-coffee days or a handy caffeine fix while away from coffee sources? Let us know in the Comments section below.

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