Alpha Grind Review

Want a coffee that takes your energy to another level mentally and physically, without the crashes? Is it even possible? Alpha Grind thinks so, but how did it perform in our testing? We filter the details into real results right here in our Alpha Grind review.

I review a lot of supplements, including in particular plenty of nootropics, as part of my job. This is great – it means that I know the current state of the market very well. I’ve written several reviews on all the top players.

However, it means I’m not often surprised, which is a shame, because surprise is part of life’s richness, is it not? This is why I’m pretty happy writing this piece up. I’ve come across a nootropic that I’ve not reviewed before, and that I really, really like.

As well as being a nootropic fan, I’m also a bit of a coffee nut. I live on the stuff (most writers do!). Give me a coffee with a nootropic effect and, well, I feel elevated.

This is exactly what we have with Alpha Grind. It’s a coffee blend (hence the name) which combines 100% Arabica coffee with some of the best nootropic ingredients going, for optimal effects and few side effects. You can expect sustained energy, clarity and focus, and even a potential athletic bump by incorporating it into your daily routine.

Plus, it tastes nice. Really nice.

If ever there was a strong start to a review, it’s right here.

What Is Alpha Grind?

Alpha Grind, by Top Shelf Grind, combines two of my favorite things – modern coffee culture, with lovely arabica blends, and nootropics.

It’s been designed to enhance both mental and physical performance, and it does so admirably.

I felt the cognitive benefits pretty quickly (as you should with coffee, though it went far beyond what I usually experience from caffeine), and I’m pretty sure I’ve felt the benefits in the gym.

Hard training is easier – my lifts are a little heavier, my rests between sets shorter, either coincidentally or directly since supplementing with Alpha Grind.

So, it’s more than a cup of coffee – it’s a powerful tool that assists with clarity, focus, energy, growth, and overall performance.

This isn’t to say it’s revolutionary, of course. It’s far from the only game in town.

There are plenty of decent nootropic-focused coffee blends out there, like Kimera Koffee, Top Shelf Mushroom Coffee, Ryze Mushroom Coffee and VitaCup Lightning Coffee, all of which I’ve used to varying degrees success.

Alpha Grind can stand up to any of them. I felt terrific taking it. (I still feel terrific – I’ve got an optimistically half-full cup of it sat by my elbow as I type!)

It manages all this with a blend of 100% Arabica coffee beans, known for their nicer flavor and smoother caffeine kick compared to other coffee types. Arabica beans naturally contain less caffeine, which can reduce the chances of jitteriness and anxiety, which makes it better for most of us – fewer side effects, fewer peaks and troughs.

This coffee is backed up with a clever list of top-tier nootropics and performance enhancers. This includes the likes of VitaShure Caffeine, a pretty sophisticated form of caffeine that provides sustained release, ensuring long-lasting energy without the typical crash associated with regular caffeine consumption.

We’re also talking Rhodiola root extract (one of my personal favorites) and Maca Root extract, both potent adaptogens; and Senactiv, a recovery enhancer that aids in the rejuvenation of muscle cells, promoting quicker recovery and better performance.

I’ve rarely seen quite carefully curated quality in a product of its type. Top Shelf Grind deserve a pat on the back for bringing such a good product to market.

The Benefits Of Using Alpha Grind

All of this comes together to give you some pretty special benefits, all aimed at optimizing both mental and physical performance.

It begins, of course, with heightened energy levels. We’re talking about coffee, after all.

However, you get far more sustained energy from Alpha Grind than you typically do from coffee.

I didn’t have the usual crash after a few short hours that I generally get from drinking coffee. Rather, it was a gradual tapering after the four- or five-hour mark.

This is largely down to its use of VitaShure Caffeine in tandem with the natural caffeine from Arabica beans.

This synergy offers users sustained alertness without the unsettling jitters or the undesired aftershock of energy depletion.

You’re also looking at pretty ably enhanced mental clarity and focus – all par for the course for a decent nootropic, which Alpha Grind most certainly is. With ingredients like l-tyrosine, cocoabuterol, and Beta Phenylethylamine HCL, Alpha Grind directly targets the brain’s cognitive functions.

You can expect a few benefits from this. Increased clarity of thought, improved concentration, and greater problem-solving abilities should come pretty swiftly.

On top of this, they should also take you a long way towards mood stabilization, and may help to augment cognitive recovery during periods of sleep deprivation (which we all go through sometimes, hence in large part reaching for coffee!) This should all come hand in hand with a greater ability to multitask.

This cognitive boost makes Alpha Grind very useful. If ever my daughter has disturbed sleep (which means the whole household has disturbed sleep!), then a good cup of coffee and a solid nootropic will often get me to my desired word count when I get to work (and it may even be largely intelligible, though I thank my editor in large part for this!).

It’s also got a decent adaptogenic kick. Its formula includes adaptogens like Maca Root extract and Rhodiola Root, which combine to give you an added layer of support for your body’s response to stress and fatigue. This improved stress response brings its own cognitive benefits to bear, meaning clearer thinking and longer-lasting energy.

You’ll also see a drop in cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, with this kind of adaptogenic input. Lowering cortisol levels can significantly improve your health and wellbeing, leading to benefits like reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and enhanced sleep quality.

This cortisol drop should also contribute to improved metabolism, weight management, and a stronger immune response – honestly, it’s hard to stay on top of these with too much cortisol pumping through your system.

Improved cortisol management can also help in reducing anxiety and depression symptoms, thereby enhancing overall life satisfaction. This is generally a big deal to me.

Finally, Alpha Grind also focuses on supporting physical health and athletic performance.

Ingredients like Tribulus Fruit extract and Muira Puama bark extract are pretty well-known in gym-bro circles for their muscle growth and performance enhancement properties. Additionally, Rhodiola Root extract and Senactiv work synergistically to boost endurance, combat fatigue, and support muscle recovery.

As above, it certainly helped with my own lifting and recovery – I accumulated less fatigue, too, meaning more energy to run around after my three-year-old daughter (which, let’s face it, is the real fitness test in my life!).

These are all nootropic benefits. However, let’s not overlook the fact that Alpha Grind is, at heart, souped-up coffee. As such, it brings the same benefits (and downsides) that we’ll typically see from any kind of coffee consumption.

Coffee brings with it a broad range of benefits, largely stemming from its rich composition of antioxidants and caffeine. It’s its own nootropic – drinking it can lead to enhanced mental alertness and improved cognitive function, making daily tasks more manageable and boosting productivity.

The caffeine in coffee stimulates the central nervous system, reducing feelings of tiredness and increasing energy levels. Beyond its energizing effects, coffee has been linked to several long-term health benefits.

Studies suggest that regular coffee consumption may reduce the risk of certain diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, type II diabetes, and certain forms of cancer. It’s the antioxidants in coffee can help combat inflammation, offering protection against some chronic conditions.

However, it’s not all rosy, as anybody who drinks industrial quantities can tell you (I’m amongst the guiltiest of the guilty, here). There are some downsides, particularly when you drink too much of the stuff.

High caffeine intake can lead to anxiety, restlessness, and sleep disturbances. It can also increase heart rate and blood pressure, which can be particularly dangerous for anybody struggling with any kind of cardiovascular concern. Drinking too much strong coffee may also lead to acid reflux and/or digestive discomfort.

These have all hit me at one time or another – I’ve always got antacids on hand for that acid.

Alpha Grind’s ingredients go some way towards reducing this. There is plenty in there that will help you overcome the jitters and anxiety, and the energy boost will be longer-lasting and more moderate than most strong coffee. However, it is still coffee, so buyer beware.

It’s all ground coffee, so you can use it with a good degree of versatility. I like black coffee, either pseudo-espresso from a Mokka pot or a longer, cafetière brew. However, I tried it in a few different ways and, honestly, it should work perfectly well however you like your coffee.

The Ingredients

These benefits all come from genuinely one of the better coffee-cum-nootropics that I’ve seen in recent years. Broadly (very broadly) speaking, we can split these up into two categories – the nootropic, mental performance side of things, and the physical performance and… shall we say vitality, side of things?

Yes, vitality. That works. It’s certainly the impression you get from reading Alpha Grind’s ingredients list and, of course, from drinking the stuff.

So, for the former, the mental performance side of things… well, it’s all good stuff. A strong list.

Firstly, I want to talk about L-Tyrosine, one of my favorite nootropic ingredients. I suffer with depression, so it’s particularly potent for me, though it will be of benefit to most people.

It’s an amino acid that plays a crucial role in the production of dopamine and norepinephrine, neurotransmitters that are vital for cognitive function, stress response, and pleasure/happiness/reward. It also gives me improved focus, mental clarity, and an enhanced ability to concentrate under stress. Add this to coffee and the rest of Alpha Grind’s formula, and you’re onto a real winner.

Beta Phenylethylamine HCL backs up the L-Tyrosine very nicely. It works as a bit of a central nervous system stimulant, increasing levels of dopamine and norepinephrine.

This compound can improve mood, foster a sense of wellbeing, and increase focus, essentially acting as a natural antidepressant and cognitive enhancer. Again, it’s a pretty profound inclusion for those of us who struggle with low moods. It also works pretty terrifyingly well in concert with caffeine.

Ah, caffeine, my best friend in this life. You get a couple of different sources of caffeine in this formula: caffeine from coffee bean extract, and higher quality, VitaShure®, at 60% caffeine. These give you the invigoration you want from caffeine, just longer-lasting and far less harsh.

This is further smoothed out by our next two ingredients, Cocoabuterol® cacao bean extract (20% cocoa alkaloids) and L-Theanine, another amino acid.

First up, Cocoabuterol®. It’s derived from cocoa beans, and is very rich in bioactive compounds including theobromine, which offers mild stimulant effects without the nervousness or jitters often associated with caffeine. It should go a long way towards smoothing out the caffeine crash all too often associated with drinking strong coffee.

L-theanine, meanwhile, is perfect for anybody looking to mellow out a bit. It’s a calming amino acid found in green tea that helps to bolster focus and mental alertness whilst, at the same time, dimming down anxiety and jitteriness. It should certainly contribute towards boosting cognitive function and stress response.

We’ve also got some Citicoline here, which is a real gem of a nutrient for the brain, supporting its health and cognitive ability. It’s been shown to help us improve our concentration levels, how attentive we are, and memorizing things.

Better still, it also helps encourage neuroplasticity. What is this exactly? In simple terms, it’s the ability for our brains to learn. In complex terms, it’s all about rewiring our brains to learn or relearn, and how our brains communicate. It’s really interesting, and it happens every day in our lives – so this addition is a sparkler in the formula.

Finally, in this part, we have Huperzia Serrata extract, a well-known cognitive enhancer that I’ve taken plenty of over the years in various leading nootropic products.

It stymies acetylcholine breakdown. Acetylcholine is a crucial neurotransmitter for learning, memory, and muscle contraction, so keeping it from breaking down is crucial for nootropic benefits.

It also segues nicely into the physical performance and vitality-enhancing side of things, which begins with Muira Puama bark extract. Traditionally used for its aphrodisiac qualities, it supports energy levels and stamina, and may aid in muscle strength improvement.

This Muira Puama bark extract is very ably backed up by both Tribulus fruit and Maca Root extracts.

Tribulus helps to enhance libido and testosterone levels, alongside supporting muscle growth, recovery, and overall physical performance. Meanwhile, Maca Root is a potent adaptogen, known for boosting energy and stamina, and perhaps even granting you a healthier libido.

It also has mood-enhancing effects, contributing to a sense of wellbeing.

And, speaking of adaptogens, you also get Rhodiola Root extract, which is a solid adaptogen that helps the body adapt to and resist physical, chemical, and environmental stress. It enhances physical performance, reduces fatigue, and improves resilience to stress.

Finally, Alpha Grind includes Senactiv®, a newcomer to the sports nutrition market. It is thought to promote more efficient energy production at the cellular level, as well as supporting recovery by preserving muscle cells and promoting the regeneration of new cells.

Honestly, it’s as good a list as I’ve seen in a long time for the dual purposes we’re looking for from Alpha Grind.

Verdict

Needless to say at this point, I really like Alpha Grind.

Firstly, it makes a pretty decent cup of coffee. You can brew it how you like, though I got best results going with cafetière – personal preference and nothing more, as I just enjoyed the taste. I drank it black, though you can make it however you like.

It made for a pretty decent flat white brewed using a Moka pot and velvetizer, and a decent iced coffee – again with the Moka pot, this time just blended with milk, ice, and syrup.

Either way, though, you’ll get some decent benefits above and beyond what a simple cup of joe will usually offer. This will include improved clarity and focus much more so than what you would expect of a good cup of coffee, greater energy, with none of the caffeine crash as it hits its half-life, and even a good little athletic boost in the gym.

Not sure whether to try it or not? Top Shelf Grind also offer a 30-day money back guarantee with a refund if you don’t love it – it would be kind of crazy not to try it (unless your healthcare provider advises otherwise, of course).

It’s going to become a bit of a staple in my supplement cupboard, I reckon.