A cross between a nicotine pouch and an energy drink: What to know about caffeine pouches

NBC News

4 days ago

David Gomez, a school resource officer for the Boise County Sheriff's Office in Idaho, started noticing caffeine pouches last spring. Students were using the pillow-shaped pouches, which can contain more than 200 milligrams of caffeine, alongside nicotine pouches like Zyn.
They'll use them either as a disguise for nicotine pouch usage — caffeine and nicotine pouches often look virtually identical — or a complement to it, Gomez said.
'They'll use the Zyn pouches that they put in their lip, and then they'll take a caffeine pouch,' he added. 'They don't care what it is they're putting in their lip.'
The use of caffeine pouches among teens is still relatively rare. But some experts and educators have concerns that that could soon change. Teen-friendly marketing of these products is spreading on social media. And Richard Mumby, the marketing executive who helped launch the e-cigarette Juul, which was widely blamed for sparking a teen vaping epidemic, is back with a caffeine pouch startup called Wip.
Wip joins a growing market drafting off the popularity of nicotine pouches and trying to sell Americans on a new alternative to caffeinated beverages.
Caffeine is part of 'the fabric of many Americans' everyday lives,' Mumby told NBC News — but he argues there's room for improvement.
Wip and its competitors are pitching caffeine pouches as a convenient, portable and affordable alternative to caffeinated drinks. A cross between nicotine pouches and energy drinks, they are placed between the lip and gums to quickly deliver a hands-free hit of caffeine. Pouches typically last anywhere from roughly 20 minutes to an hour, but their caffeine buzz can linger longer.
Wip's pouches come in flavors like mint, strawberry kiwi and sour cherry, and each one contains either 100 or 200 milligrams of caffeine — the latter being roughly equivalent to two cups of coffee, or half the amount of caffeine most adults can safely consume in an entire day, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The health effects of caffeine pouches are not well-studied. But not all experts are sold on this new form of caffeine delivery.
Rob van Dam, a professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health who studies caffeine, voiced concerns about the potency of some pouches on the market, particularly for consumers who are not used to them. 'It may be a bit different than coffee,' he said. 'It may hit faster, and you may overdose, in a way, more quickly.'
The potential appeal to teens is another concern, given the existing popularity of nicotine pouches and energy drinks. (Philip Morris, which makes Zyn, has previously told NBC News that 'Zyn's marketing is directed toward legal age nicotine users who are 21+.') While there are no federal age restrictions on the sale or use of caffeine, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that teens consume no more than 100 mg of caffeine per day — or, even better, avoid using it at all, said Dr. Mark Corkins, chair of the AAP's Committee on Nutrition.
Youth caffeine use came under increasing scrutiny following high-profile reports of death and serious injury among young people who consumed Panera Bread's heavily caffeinated Charged Lemonade, which the brand discontinued in 2024 as part of a 'menu transformation.' Separately, medical visits related to kids drinking other caffeinated beverages are also on the rise: From 2022 to 2023, America's Poison Centers charted a 24% increase in calls related to energy-drink consumption among people younger than 20. And the rate of pediatric emergency room visits related to caffeine usage roughly doubled between 2017 and 2023, although such visits remain rare, according to data from Epic Research.
'Caffeine, in general, is an area we are very concerned about,' Corkins said. 'Pouches are just another delivery form.'
A growing market — and an ethical 'gray zone'
Caffeine pouches aren't entirely new. The brand Grinds started selling coffee pouches about 15 years ago, initially targeting the niche market of baseball players who wanted an alternative to chewing tobacco. At first, business 'was like flying a plane into headwinds,' said co-founder Patrick Pezet. 'No one knew what pouches were. It was totally foreign.'
Business has increased steadily over time, growing by 20% to 50% each year since the company launched, Pezet said. Especially in the last five years or so — in parallel with the rise of the popular nicotine pouch brand Zyn — there's been a dramatic shift in the public's awareness of and willingness to use mouth pouches, Pezet said. (Wip said in a press release that almost half of adults ages 18 to 40 are interested in using pouches for energy.)
Caffeine pouches are still a small market, particularly compared to the multibillion-dollar U.S. coffee industry or even the nicotine pouch industry. Still, Pezet said, his company has a growing customer base, mostly made up of adults who want an alternative to nicotine products.
Another sign of growth: an explosion of competitors. 'We keep close tabs on the entire market,' Pezet said. 'There's probably 50 to 60 total caffeine pouches or energy pouches out there. Two or three years ago, that number was a couple dozen.'
As the market proliferates, it has given rise to a 'gray zone' of legal but ethically dubious promotion to young people, Pezet said. (A blog post on Grinds' website says 'there is absolutely no age restriction on purchasing or using Grinds Coffee Pouches,' but Pezet said the brand directs its marketing toward customers 18 and older.)
In some social media posts, creators explicitly promote caffeine pouches to students. 'Can you pop a lower decky in school?' asked an influencer in one TikTok post about pouches from the brand LyvWel, using a slang term for mouth pouches. 'One-hundred percent, guys. You can use the lower deckies in school. You don't have to be 21 to buy them.'
A representative for LyvWel said the post was not created, approved or sponsored by LyvWel. 'Although caffeine products are legally available to anyone who can purchase tea, coffee, or energy drinks, LyvWel was created specifically as an alternative for adult nicotine pouch users,' the representative wrote in an email. 'We do not market to teens.'
Some TikTok creators who review and promote caffeine pouches appear to be teenagers themselves, although it is not clear whether their posts have been approved by the brands they mention.
'Viral, organic social-media marketing'
Dr. Robert Jackler, a professor emeritus at Stanford Medicine who studies tobacco-industry advertising, sees echoes of Juul in Wip's marketing. Wip is active on TikTok and Instagram — two platforms used heavily by young people — and features athletes and fitness influencers in its posts, a combination that Jackler said is 'patently youth-oriented' and reminiscent of the lifestyle-focused, influencer-driven marketing campaigns that Juul ran under Mumby, now the Wip CEO.
Such marketing prompted multiple lawsuits alleging Juul purposely targeted underage customers. Juul executives have repeatedly denied that allegation and have not admitted wrongdoing in legal settlements. But the company's product became nearly synonymous with youth vaping at a time when almost 30% of high school students used e-cigarettes.
'[Mumby] is doing the same kind of viral, organic social-media marketing that he did with Juul,' Jackler said.
'We take responsible caffeine consumption and responsible marketing of our product seriously,' a Wip spokesperson said in a statement provided to NBC News. 'While there are no legal age restrictions on caffeine products, we have adopted marketing guidelines that exceed the age-related standards set by the American Beverage Association for most common energy drinks. Wip is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18, and our guidelines ensure the product is marketed responsibly. We proactively train all external partners on our marketing guidelines so there is education and alignment at every layer of our business.'
Despite their spread online, caffeine pouches do not seem to be nearly as ubiquitous in schools as Juul was at its prime, nor as either energy drinks or nicotine pouches are today. An estimated 64% and 5% of teenagers have tried energy drinks and nicotine pouches, respectively, while there is little data on youth caffeine pouch usage.
Dylan Lippold, a middle school teacher in Wisconsin, said he remains more concerned about energy drink consumption among his students. 'I would walk into a class and see five or so kids drinking [an energy drink] in the morning,' he said. 'That's a little concerning that a middle schooler needs that much caffeine to get going for the day.'
Health concerns
Caffeine is often seen as a harmless, or even beneficial, stimulant — and within reason, it can be. Although most experts agree it's possible to become dependent on caffeine, it's not considered as addictive as nicotine. And in addition to providing energy and mental clarity, caffeine consumption can come with significant health benefits, studies conducted among adults have shown.
'In population studies, people drinking three or four cups of coffee per day have a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, like coronary heart disease and stroke,' van Dam said. 'But going beyond that, like more than five cups of coffee per day, we do not see the same benefits.' And, he noted, it's not clear whether the caffeine in energy drinks or pouches carries the same benefits as classic coffee.
At high levels of consumption, caffeine can cause side effects that range from relatively benign (anxiety, jitters, GI distress, difficulty sleeping) to more worrisome (heart palpitations, high blood pressure, increased heart rate). In rare cases, heavy caffeine consumption can cause fatal complications, including cardiac arrest, studies show.
For children and teenagers, who are typically smaller and weigh less than adults, the thresholds of safe caffeine consumption are lower. The AAP recommends against pediatric caffeine usage not only because of the potential for toxicity, but also because kids who need to use a lot of caffeine probably aren't getting enough sleep, Corkins said. 'Even if you get a stimulant, it's not a substitute for sleep,' he said.
Research also suggests that children who consume more than 100 mg of caffeine during a school day are more likely than those who don't to struggle with self-control and behavioral issues.
For users of all ages, caffeine pouches, like nicotine pouches, may pose a threat to oral health, added Jackler, who in addition to studying tobacco marketing is an ear, nose and throat doctor. Routinely placing a foreign substance between the lips and gums may lead to gum recession and dental problems, so 'it's not necessarily an optimal way of taking in your caffeine, especially if it's something you're doing all day,' Jackler said.
Consumers should also be aware that caffeine pouches may not be tightly regulated, van Dam said. While the FDA has cracked down on the sale of 'pure and highly concentrated' caffeine products — like tubs of caffeine powder that contain thousands of servings that users must measure out themselves — caffeine pouches are regulated 'as either dietary supplements or conventional foods, depending on their composition and marketing,' an FDA spokesperson said. Supplements typically do not go through FDA review and approval before being sold to consumers.
Labeling is another concern, Jackler said: Some energy pouches on the market do not clearly state how much caffeine they contain.
Even with accurate labels, the potency of some caffeine pouches raises eyebrows. Two-hundred milligrams of caffeine is 'really the maximum amount that's being recommended in one sitting,' van Dam said, and some brands meet or exceed that amount in a single pouch.
The pouch industry isn't alone in that; energy drinks and coffee drinks can also pack in huge amounts of caffeine per serving, often also without clear labeling. But these products are both more familiar to consumers and easier to pace, in that people can stop sipping if they start to notice side effects, van Dam said. A caffeine pouch, by contrast, delivers a concentrated dose of caffeine fairly quickly, and 'once it's absorbed, it's absorbed,' he said.
Research also suggests that consuming nicotine and caffeine at the same time can compound their negative effects on the heart — a concern, given that some users alternate between nicotine and caffeine pouches.
Given these dangers, Jackler fears what could happen if caffeine pouches go the way of nicotine pouches, 'where kids put in four pouches in the upper lip and three pouches in the bottom lip,' he said. 'Young people, particularly, think that if a little bit helps, they're going to take even more.