Wakey has been on the market for a short time, with the claim to sell "the most powerful energy pouch on the market". Wakey pouches come in 50, 100 and 200 mg of caffeine, with 13 added vitamins and minerals. The purpose of this article is to compare Wakey to SZN with as little bias as possible, to help you understand which product may be better suited for your individual and specific needs. For this showdown we have selected the Wakey 100 mg pouches to compare against SZN.
Wakey pouches offer 100 mg of caffeine per pouch, alongside a "mineral mix" of 13 vitamins and minerals. SZN contains 100 mg of caffeine paired with four B-vitamins. At a glance Wakey looks like the fuller label. Read on and you will find one of the oldest tricks in the supplement book.
Wakey's panel lists each ingredient per pouch, then per 100 grams, then as a percentage of the daily reference intake. The percentages, such as 32.4 % for magnesium and 32.3 % for vitamin C, refer to the per-100-gram column. A pouch weighs 0.8 grams, so 100 grams is about 125 pouches. Per pouch, every vitamin and mineral on the label sits below half a percent of the daily intake.1
"The most powerful energy pouch on the market."
Identical to SZN's dose, and the only ingredient on the Wakey label with a meaningful amount. It clears the 75 mg per serving that the EU-authorised alertness claims are based on, so this part of the label holds.6
"13 vitamins and minerals."
Per pouch: B12 0.005 µg, B1 0.002 mg, B5 0.004 mg, vitamin C 0.9 mg, and so on down the list. Each is a fraction of one percent of the daily intake. A product needs at least 15 % per serving before it may claim any benefit from a vitamin. Wakey's vitamin C would need to be 13 times higher to reach that line.1, 7
32.4 % magnesium · 32.3 % vitamin C
Those figures are true for 100 grams of pouch material, which is roughly 125 pouches. Printed next to a per-pouch column, they read as a strong daily serving. To reach 32 % of your daily magnesium from Wakey you would need to consume more than 100 pouches in a day.1
Ingredients are listed by weight, highest first.
On the Wakey can the mineral mix, all 13 vitamins and minerals together, appears at the very bottom of the ingredient list. By weight there is more acesulfame K in a pouch than the whole vitamin and mineral blend combined.1
Credit where due. Wakey's caffeine is properly dosed and identical to SZN's, it packs 20 pouches per can, and it offers three strengths. As a caffeine pouch it works. The question this article raises is what the other 13 ingredients are for, when none of them reaches a dose that can do anything.
SZN through the same lens. Five ingredients, every one disclosed on the label and dosed at or above the level the claim requires. No proprietary blends, no trace inclusions, no per-100-gram percentages.
Measured values first, then the things you only learn by using both. The second group is our judgement from using both products, flagged as such, not a lab value.
| SZN | Wakey | |
|---|---|---|
| Measured values | ||
| Price per can, single3 | $12.00 | Not sold singly |
| Price per can, bulk / subscription3 | $6.47 | $7.00 |
| Servings per can | 15 | 20 |
| Caffeine per pouch Tie | 100 mg | 100 mg (50 and 200 mg available) |
| Vitamins & minerals | 4 at 104–125 % DRI | 13, each under 0.5 % DRI per pouch |
| Pouch weight4 | 700 mg | 800 mg |
| Pouch pH | pH-neutral | Not stated |
| Third-party tested | Yes · Eurofins5 | No |
| Sweeteners & flavour | Erythritol, sucralose, acesulfame K. Natural flavours | Xylitol, acesulfame K. Artificial flavours |
| Label transparency | Every amount, declared per pouch | Percentages declared per 100 g, not per pouch |
| Our assessment Experience | ||
| Dosing | 5 of 5 ingredients properly dosed | 1 of 14 ingredients at a meaningful dose (!) |
| Scientific evidence for the formula | Strong | Weak |
| Pouch size Tie | Slim | Slim |
| Pouch feel | Soft, premium | Gritty |
Both brands use a slim pouch. Wakey's is slightly heavier at about 800 mg and noticeably grittier in the mouth. SZN's 700 mg pouch is moist and soft, designed to sit under the lip without irritation and keep releasing for around 90 minutes.
Drawn to volume from stated weights · same mm scale · silhouettes illustrative
Adding active ingredients to a pouch is a very interesting prospect. The pouch acts as a carrier that lets an ingredient reach your bloodstream faster than travelling through the entire GI tract, by passing through the oral mucosa. This is known as buccal absorption.
For it to actually work, the active ingredient needs to meet certain criteria. Otherwise it is just going to sit under your lip doing nothing. Several ingredients in Wakey's mineral mix cannot pass the oral mucosa at all: minerals such as magnesium, zinc and iodine are absorbed in the gut, not through the lip. The vitamins that could pass are present in amounts too small to matter. What crosses the mucosa from a Wakey pouch is 100 mg of caffeine.
Passive diffusion through the mucosa favours molecules under roughly 500 daltons. Larger molecules largely stay in the pouch until swallowed.
Mineral salts such as magnesium, zinc and iodide are charged ions. They are taken up by transporters in the gut, not by diffusion through the cheek.
Crossing the mucosa is not the same as doing something. A vitamin at a fraction of a percent of the daily intake crosses just fine, and still does nothing measurable.
Additionally, minerals such as magnesium, zinc and iodine are absorbed through transporters in the gut, a route the pouch bypasses completely. What crosses the mucosa from a Wakey pouch is 100 mg of caffeine.
Read more: sznpouches.com/pages/science
SZN contains four vitamins and reaches over 100 % of the daily intake for each. Wakey lists ten, each below half a percent per pouch. Put another way, an SZN pouch contains 500 times more vitamin B12, 750 times more vitamin B1 and 1,250 times more vitamin B5 than a Wakey pouch. Selling a supplement at these levels is legal. Claiming anything for them is not: both the EU and the US require at least 15 % of the daily intake per serving before a vitamin may carry a health claim. Vitamin C reduces tiredness and fatigue, an authorised EU claim. Wakey misses that threshold by more than 90 % and would need 13 times more vitamin C per pouch to reach it.
SZN is manufactured in Sweden, considered by many to be the birth nation of the pouch, and is third-party tested by one of the world's leading laboratories, Eurofins. This way you can be certain that each pouch contains what the label says. Wakey is a Danish company that also manufactures in Sweden, without third-party testing.
Both brands generate a lot of strong customer feedback, both for the product but also for the customer support & service. As everyone's tolerance level to caffeine is unique, some users are bound to "feel nothing", no matter if they pick SZN, Wakey, or any other caffeinated pouch. Due to this, SZN offers a full 30 day money-back guarantee, so that anyone can order and try the pouches out.
Wakey matches SZN on caffeine and stops there. Its 13 vitamins and minerals sit at trace amounts, presented with percentages that only hold for 100 grams of product. SZN puts four B-vitamins above the daily intake in every pouch, declares every number per pouch, and proves them with a third-party certificate, at a lower price per can.
