NOCCO

No. The name says it: no carbs, no sugar. A standard 330 ml can sits at roughly 15 to 20 kilocalories, and those come from the amino acids rather than from sugar. The sweet taste comes from sucralose, a sweetener. That makes the cans easy to fit into a calorie count, and it also means they do not give you the quick carbohydrate hit that a classic sports drink provides during long endurance sessions.

Almost all caffeinated flavours contain 180 mg per 330 ml can, which is about 55 mg per 100 ml. That is more than most mainstream energy drinks. Count it against your whole day, including coffee and tea.

Start with the caffeine question, then look at the amino acids. The table below sums up the four ranges.

If you already drink coffee in the morning, the caffeine-free BCAA+ is often the more sensible second can.

Both work, and the timing depends on what you want from it. For the caffeine effect on endurance, the approved guidance is 3 mg per kilo of body weight about an hour before exercise. For a 70 kg adult that is around 210 mg, slightly more than one can. If you train in the evening, the 180 mg can keep you awake for hours, so plenty of people use the caffeinated version before a morning session and BCAA+ afterwards.

Not quite. A caffeinated can gives 3,000 mg of BCAA, the caffeine-free version 5,000 mg. A scoop of powder usually gives more, at a lower cost per gram, and lets you set the dose yourself. What you pay extra for in a can is the format: chilled, carbonated and no mixing. If you want a measured dose and caffeine you control, look at a pre-workout powder instead.

Yes, all NOCCO products are vegan, and the range is free from the common allergens including milk, gluten and soy. Two seasonal Swedish flavours, Julmust and Paskmust, do contain gluten, so check the label if you order a seasonal case. The vitamins are synthetic rather than animal-derived, which is why the caffeine-free cans also fit a plant-based diet without further checks.

The caffeinated cans are made for healthy adults. They are not intended for children or teenagers, for pregnant or breastfeeding women, or for anyone sensitive to caffeine. UK guidance sets 200 mg of caffeine a day during pregnancy, which one can already reaches. If you take medication that interacts with caffeine, or you have a heart or blood pressure condition, ask your doctor or pharmacist first. The caffeine-free BCAA+ range removes the stimulant but keeps the sweetener.

Largely, yes. A 330 ml can is mostly carbonated water, so it adds to your fluids like any other soft drink. Caffeine has a mild diuretic effect at higher intakes, so we would not build a training day's hydration on caffeinated cans alone. On hot days or during long sessions, water plus the Electrolyte variant is the more sensible pairing: magnesium and potassium contribute to normal muscle function.