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Koru Strips - Awaken Mind and Body

While the energy/caffeine product market began humbly as just drinks, the sector has exploded in the last few years and new non-drink products continue to come out. With this in mind, we’ll be checking out Koru Energy Strips today. Koru Energy strips promise to “Awaken [the] Mind and Body” and offers people caffeine through tiny strips, similar to the popular Listerine breath strips. Their site explains how the caffeine enters the body faster by being absorbed through the tongue’s mucus membrane, but doesn’t seem to say how MUCH caffeine is in each strip. (Worry not, we sent off an email requesting this information, hopefully they’ll get back soon.) Now that we have a little background on how it works, let’s put try it out!

The Koru Strips come in a small plastic pouch with a face that looks like something you’d find in a Mayan ruins. The face is adorned with designs and prominently displays his tongue, which is where the strips go. Upon ripping open the bag, I found that the pouch contains four smaller packs, and more importantly, a sticker! Yes, they have included a sticker!

Koru Energy Strips and Sticker

The sticker comes with a warning on the back warning us not to stick it on your tongue, and explains that only the strips go on your tongue. If only I had checked the warning sooner… Anyway, each smaller pack (four smaller packs come in each large pack) has one strip. The strip is small and rectangular, and is smooth and white colored, with “KORU” watermarked across it.

The strip dissolves pretty fast once you put it on your tongue. It seemed to be a little minty at first, but it’s actually mildly licorice flavored. I’m talking old school licorice, not the red Twizzlers stuff. The taste isn’t overwhelmingly strong though, so don’t be put off if you don’t like licorice. After it dissolved, I felt a slight kick and felt more alert. The packaging says if you need to take more than one, then do so. So I took a second. I’m starting to feel it a little more, but I’d still like to no for sure how much caffeine is in these strips.

"Don't stick this on your toungue"

Overall, Koru Instant Energy Strips are a pretty sweet product and it’s a clever idea. They’re small and convenient, they act fast, and they’re not nasty tasting or anything like that. If you want to grab some strips for yourself for 2.99 GBP (it’s a foreign based company) at the Koru site or get them from the kind folks at Chemical Evolution who sent us the sample for $2.99.