You’ve been working on your presentation for hours and it feels like you are nowhere near done. You realize you’ve just read the same paragraph three times. Your phone is buzzing on the side of your laptop. It’s a message from a colleague who’s got something they need you to get back to them on. The list of things you still need to do is definitely getting longer rather than shorter. You reach for the coffee by your keyboard, take a sip, and it’s cold. There’s still half a day to go, and you could do with a change of pace.

Rethinking What You Reach for During the Day

Your drink choices are probably entirely automatic. You reach straight for a bottle of soda out of the fridge or make yourself another coffee when you need a break. There’s nothing wrong with going straight for your usual favorite, but you may find yourself looking for alternatives from time to time.

Functional beverages have come onto the market as one option for people looking to combine a normal drink with something that’s been selected for a particular purpose. These can be drinks containing botanicals, vitamins, tea extracts or functional mushrooms. The latter have been the subject of a fair amount of research into their potential effects on mental focus, alertness, and physical performance.

Getting to Know the Ingredients Behind Functional Focus Drinks

Functional mushrooms have been the subject of increasing interest as research into their potential role in human health continues. Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps are the two that form the basis of the Hits Focus Seltzer.

Lion’s Mane is an edible mushroom whose natural constituents have been investigated for their potential effect on neurological health and cognitive function. The evidence is still extremely early stage, and the results of any one study should not be taken as proof that drinking a Lion’s Mane drink in any way improves your concentration.

Cordyceps has a very different research history with a particular emphasis on its potential relationship to energy metabolism, exercise performance, endurance, fatigue and vitality. The effect of Cordyceps is dependent on the preparation, the dose and the individual circumstances.

L-theanine, an amino acid in tea leaves, provides another angle on the relationship between ingredients and attention. It’s been explored in the context of relaxation and cognitive performance, including in combination with caffeine. Some of the studies have shown potential benefits for certain aspects of attention and alertness, though the results are not definitive for all the outcomes and formulations.

Understanding the ingredients gives you a far more useful starting point than just taking the product claims at face value. It allows you to ask what the product actually contains, why those particular ingredients have been selected, and what evidence there is to support the claims.

A Different Approach to Your Daily Lift

Hits Bev Co. was set up in 2024 by four men with a broad range of experience between them: riding, racing, business, product development and raising families. The common thread that brought them together was their interest in functional ingredients, which stemmed from the realities of life and personal experiences.

Rather than settling for a drink that was either familiar-flavour or ingredient-focused, they spent over a year developing and refining their own. The end result was Hits Focus Seltzer. The formulation contains 60mg of organic green tea extract. Green tea is a source of caffeine, so that’s a relevant contribution in the context of a product that’s designed to give you a moderate lift. L-theanine is included in line with the brand’s interest in ingredients which have been studied in combination with caffeine in relation to attention and alertness. Your individual experience will be dependent on the full formulation, and your own sensitivity to caffeine.

Vit B12 and niacin, also known as vitamin B3, are involved in normal energy metabolism and normal nervous system function. Just because they are included in the formula doesn’t mean that you will experience increased energy or better focus.

Flavor Should Be Part of the Experience

Functional drinks often conjure up images of earthy mushroom, medicinal flavors, or formulae that are all about the ingredients rather than the taste. Taste is still a practical consideration. If you don’t like the taste of what you’re drinking, you’re not going to go back to it just because the ingredients are interesting.

Cherry Rush is a classic fruit combo with a bite. It’s made with real cherry and lime juice. The cherry and lime are a genuine balance of sweet fruit and tart citrus. The objective is to deliver a bright, crisp drinking experience which is far more in line with the fruit flavors you’re used to than anything that would be considered a “supplement”.

A Tropical Alternative for a Change of Pace

If you’re after something a bit sweeter with a tropical fruit profile, then Island Drop is another option. It’s a blend of real pineapple and real mango juice. The fruit flavour is smooth and refreshing.

Cherry Rush has a balance of cherry sweetness and citrus tartness, whereas Island Drop is more tropical in direction. You have the option of choosing the one that you prefer on any given day, without having to compromise between different functional formulations. Both flavors contain the brand’s standard ingredient blend.

Why Ingredient Transparency Matters

When it comes to functional drinks, the ingredients list is just as important as the claims on the front of the pack. The more transparent the information, the easier it is to compare products and understand what you’re drinking.

Hits states exactly what their active ingredients are rather than hiding them behind a vague proprietary blend. Each can contains concentrated extracts of Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps, which the brand claims are equivalent to 1,100mg of wet fruiting body of each mushroom. They also mention the use of their own proprietary emulsification technology, which is designed to improve the dispersion and delivery of the functional ingredients in liquid form.

Hits say the drinks are vegan and gluten-free, use real fruit juice and pure cane sugar, and contain no artificial ingredients or hidden sweeteners. That might be worth bearing in mind if you’re doing a direct comparison of the ingredients or have particular dietary needs.

Transparency won’t ensure that the drink will do what you want it to do. What it will do is give you a far clearer basis on which to make the judgement as to whether the formulation is in fact in line with your own requirements and values.

A More Considered Choice, One Drink at a Time

You don’t need to have a breakthrough in your concentration to appreciate a drink that’s right for you and gives you a clear idea of what’s in it. The more considered choice may simply be one of awareness around what you like, what you’re drinking, and how it fits into your day.

When you’re back at the presentation with messages still coming in and a few things still to do, your next drink doesn’t have to be another cold coffee reached for without a second thought; you can opt for something that doesn’t hide the ingredients and that you actually enjoy the taste of. It’s a drink that becomes part of your normal routine.