There are days when I feel like my brain has taken a long lunch without telling me. One minute I’m answering emails with laser focus, the next I’m deep down a TikTok rabbit hole, mouth agape, watching compilations of cats falling into swimming pools. It’s a familiar pattern. Drifting. Refreshing inboxes that don’t need refreshing. Losing focus the moment something shiny appears.
This, so I'm told, is where London Nootropics comes in. The brand makes adaptogenic coffee blends designed to give your brain a gentle nudge in the right direction. Nothing weird (well, aside from having essence of mushroom in your morning brew), just natural ingredients that aim to support focus, calm, and energy, depending on what your day demands.
But does it actually do anything?
Well, in the spirit of curiosity and mild self improvement, I tried three of London Nootropics’ Adaptogenic Coffees for a week. Here’s what I noticed.
Less procrastinating
My mid morning routine usually involves drifting away from whatever I’m meant to be doing and into the gravitational pull of my phone. This week, that impulse loosened its grip. I still had the occasional urge to wander off mentally, but it felt easier to stay tethered to the task in front of me. The Flow Coffee, with its Lion’s Mane mushroom and Rhodiola Rosea, seemed to give my concentration a bit more backbone. Instead of bouncing between tabs, I found myself sticking with work for longer stretches. Less faffing about, more actually getting things done. A refreshing novelty.
An undercurrent of calm
This one surprised me. I wasn’t suddenly floating around the house in a robe humming softly to myself, but there was a distinct lowering of the usual background buzz. A sense of calm that sat quietly in the corner all day. Zen Coffee, which uses Ashwagandha and L theanine, felt like the grown up in the room gently keeping things level. I still had deadlines and everyday stresses, but they didn’t spark that low level anxiety that usually hangs around like static. It was subtle, but noticeable in the way my mood held steady rather than veering off course.
Increased energy
This wasn’t the frantic, heart-racing, I’ve-misjudged-the-third-espresso type of energy. It was smoother and more usable. I didn’t leap out of bed singing, but I also didn’t wake up feeling like someone had replaced my bones with wet rope. Mojo Coffee seemed to take the edge off the usual sluggishness. I felt a bit brighter in the mornings and less drained by early evening. Enough pep to carry me through the day without feeling wired or jittery. A steady, balanced lift that made everything feel a fraction easier to take on.
More power
Outside of work, I’m either on a bike or in the gym. Over the past week, I noticed a small but welcome shift. My legs felt a touch more willing on climbs, and my gym sessions had fewer of those confusing moments where everything suddenly feels inexplicably heavier than it ought to. Whether it’s the cordyceps and Siberian ginseng in the Mojo Coffee doing something tangible or simply a psychological boost, I can’t say. What I can say is that I didn’t have a single weak session. And for a weedy cyclist attempting to lift weights, that’s practically a miracle.
What brain fog?
Here’s the headline result. My mind felt sharp. Not in a cinematic, solving advanced equations on a blackboard after all the kids have gone home sort of way, but in a reliable, clear-headed, pleasantly switched on way. Tasks that normally dissolve into fog stayed in focus. I wasn’t zoning out mid-sentence or forgetting what I’d opened a tab for. Across the week, clarity felt like the default setting rather than a fleeting moment. For anyone who spends their day juggling emails, deadlines, calls and the occasional minor existential crisis, that’s no small thing. It made me more productive and, frankly, a little less chaotic.
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