Recess Drinks Review
SS Editor
About Recess
Recess is a hemp-infused sparkling beverage, full of adaptogens and natural ingredients. Offered in Original and Mood varieties and six tasty flavors, the beverage contains 10mg of broad-spectrum hemp and produces a slight calming effect for the brain and body.
Featured in PopSugar, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Thrillist, and other notable publications, the brand has caught the attention of many thanks to its dreamy packaging, lip-smacking flavors, and effective mix of soothing ingredients. Today, the company boasts more than 92k followers on Instagram.
If you’re looking for a drink that does more than fill you with carbonation, you may have found the right brand.
To be sure, we invite you to take a look at this Recess drinks review. We’ll reveal crucial information about the company’s balancing drink, customer feedback, information on promotions, answers to FAQs, and more.
Overview of Recess
If there is a single person on this planet whose life isn’t stressful, we’d love to know what their secret is. For everyone else, stress, anxiety, fear, and pain can all be daily occurrences. It’s not all bad, of course, but unfortunately, health and mental conditions—and even high amounts of stress—can make life that much harder.
Ben Witte, the founder of Recess, was all too familiar with an abundance of stress and anxiety. He had been experimenting with CBD and adaptogens in his own diet for years with much success. So, he set out in 2018 with co-founders Justin Hauser and David Hess to create this company.
Initially launching just three flavors, the brand has branched out into six, now offering Original Recess, Recess Mood, and a variety of stick packs and tubs in Recess Mood Powder.
The NYC-based brand’s beverages are designed for daytime use, meaning they’re suitable for pre-work anxiety, date-night jitters, or anytime you just need to take the edge off.
Before we get into exactly what’s inside the brand’s calming cans, this Recess drinks review will fill you in on its pros and cons.
Pros
- CBD-infused beverages in six yummy flavors
- 2 types of drinks: Recess & Recess Mood
- All-natural, organic ingredients
- Low in sugar and calories
- Multiple ways to save
- Stunning packaging, marketing, and website
- Free shipping to most states
Cons
- Not everyone may feel the effects of the drink
- Does not ship outside of the US (and not to some states)
In a crazy busy world such as this, we need all the help we can get to battle stress—and that help should always come from natural sources. Recess drinks are a natural, healthy way to help show your body and brain a little love.
Within each drink, you’re getting 10mg of hemp, a small dose, but just enough to soothe nerves and take the edge off of the pain. You’re also getting adaptogens in the form of L-theanine, as well as natural mood boosters like lemon balm and ginseng.
You may have read that the brand offers a Mood line as well. We’ll be sticking to the original formula in this Recess drinks review, but to give you a crash course in all things Mood-related, just know that the drink still contains adaptogens, but instead of hemp, you’re getting serotonin-boosting magnesium.
The brand’s hemp drinks have about 15-20 calories each. They’re pretty low in sugar (4-5 grams) and made with all-natural fruit and extracts, you know, stuff you can feel good about consuming.
In the next section of this Recess drinks review, we’ll introduce you to the brand’s beverages and what you can expect in terms of flavor and ingredients.
Recess Drinks Review
Tasty. Good for you. Stress-busting. Low calorie. What more could you ask for in a daytime beverage? Below, we’ll walk you through five of Recess’s best-selling flavors, along with a sampler pack that combines them all (plus one bonus option).
Keep in mind that Recess drinks are primarily sparkling water with a hint of natural sweetness, so while these flavors sound concentrated, they’re super light and taste like a slightly sweeter version of flavored sparkling water.
Let’s kick things off with a moody beauty, Black Cherry.
Recess Black Cherry Review
Dark and dangerous with a soft heart, Recess Black Cherry is a primarily sweet flavor with a juicy depth that tastes like an indulgent dessert.
The cherry tea infusion is made with dried cherries, and the drink also uses cherry juice and tart cherry powder to make the flavor tangy and concentrated. Each can holds 63mg of potassium and is lifted with a little monk fruit extract for added sweetness.
Get an 8-pack for $40 or a 12-pack for $50.
Recess Peach Ginger Review
Peach and ginger are like that couple that constantly vibes off one another. One is ultra-sweet, the other, a little spicy, and together they make a powerful duo that seems like they could take on the world.
Recess Peach Ginger is made with real dried peaches, peach juice concentrate, and peach nectar for an authentically southern-tasting beverage. A swift kick of ginger finishes off this delectable beverage.
Enjoy an 8-pack for $40 or a 12-pack for $50.
Recess Coconut Lime Review
Such an iconic, refreshing flavor. The sweet, nuttiness of coconut shines through this drink, brightened up with fresh lime and undercurrents of vanilla-like pear.
Made with coconut chips and coconut water, this island-like beverage is a delicious pick me up on rainy afternoons at the office and lazy Sundays alike.
Be transported to an easy-breezy place with an 8-pack of Recess Coconut Lime for $40 or a 12-pack for $50.
Recess Blood Orange Review
The blood orange is a mysterious thing. It’s sweeter than the traditional orange but has the same zesty finish and perky scent.
Recess Blood Orange is a dependable favorite, blending the tang of orange zest and orange oil with juicy pear and blood orange concentrate to create a full, addicting flavor.
Round out the day with an 8-pack of Blood Orange for $40 or a 12-pack for $50.
Recess Pomegranate Hibiscus Review
Synonymous with juicy, the tart pomegranate is known for its potent, power-packed flavor.
An ideal pair for the delicate floral notes of hibiscus, this tropical drink is bursting with fresh tastes of lemongrass and ginger that lift up the profile of this otherwise sweet and tart combination.
Pick up an 8-pack of Recess Pomegranate Hibiscus for $40, or a 12-pack for $50.
Recess The Sampler Review
Don’t you just love a good mix pack? The Sampler gives you the best of all the flavors previously mentioned in this Recess drinks review, plus Recess Blackberry Chai, an exotic, spicy tea with undercurrents of sweet, bursting blackberry.
In this pack you’ll get:
- Coconut Lime
- Black Cherry
- Blood Orange
- Peach Ginger
- Blackberry Chai
- Pomegranate Hibiscus
This one is quite the deal, offering a 6-pack for $30 and a 12-pack for $50 (value of $60).
Does The Recess Drink Get You High?
Not exactly. If you’re new to the world of CBD, you may think you’re experiencing a high, but technically, it’s not classified as one. CBD isn’t psychoactive like THC is, so it’s impossible for you to get high.
What hemp extract does instead, is produce a calming feeling. Users say that pain and anxiety go away, focus increases, and so does productivity.
Each Recess sparkling water only has 10mg of hemp extract, which is quite a small dose. This is an ideal dose for those new to CBD as the effects shouldn’t be overwhelming.
How Much Recess Can You Drink?
Since there’s just 10mg of hemp extract per drink, depending on your needs you may find that you can consume 4-5, or even more—there’s no limit on how many you can drink per day.
Considering the average dose for CBD tincture is between 20mg-1,500mg per day (depending on medical condition and body weight), the amount you consume is totally up to you.
Recess is quite low in calories, so you can technically have 10 and still come in under the number of calories you would drink in a typical soda.
Is Recess Caffeine-Free?
The only Recess flavor that has caffeine is Blackberry Chai. The brand uses black tea to mimic the authentic flavor of chai, which adds a negligible amount of caffeine—about two hundred times less than what you would actually consume in a cup of coffee.
Who Is Recess For?
First and foremost, Recess is a drink for adults. It should not be consumed by children, nor should it be by women who are pregnant or nursing. With that out of the way, the hemp-infused beverage is for anyone else who needs a little more calm in their life.
Recess CBD drink can be enjoyed any time of the day, and many find that drinking it before work in the morning helps them feel calm and start the day with a level head. It has just 10mg of hemp extract, so those new to CBD beverages shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by the calming effect.
Comparison: Recess vs. Sweet Reason Beverage Co.
We all want a little less worry and a little more of an easy-breezy attitude, which is why it comes as no surprise the number of brands on the market who sell products that do just that. We’re talkin’ hemp and adaptogens—two elements that work to reduce stress, ease pain and inflammation, and rewire our brains for the better.
In this section of our Recess drinks review, we’ll be doing a quick comparison between our featured brand and a competitor, Sweet Reason Beverage Co. Let’s just get into it, shall we?
Right off the bat, there are some clear visual differences in the brand’s products, namely one is sold in glass, the other in an opaque can, and one uses popping colors, while the other keeps things simple and clear.
Learning that our competitor also has 10mg of hemp extract per drink, we noticed that the flavors are pretty different. We’ll show you exactly what’s in one of its beverages and see how it stacks up against Recess.
Sweet Reason Beverage Co.:
- Strawberry Lavender (daytime)
- 12 oz
- Ingredients: carbonated water, natural flavors, hemp extract
- 5 calories, 0 carbs, 0 sugar
- 10mg broad-spectrum hemp extract
- 6-pack $24—normally $30 ($4-$5/bottle)
- Peach Jasmine (nighttime)
- 12 oz
- 20 calories, 5 carbs, 5 sugars
- 30mg broad-spectrum hemp
- Ingredients: carbonated water, peach juice, honey, calming blend (incl. chamomile, Ashwagandha, ginseng, and more)
- 6-pack $32—normally $40 ($5.30-$6.25/bottle)
Recess:
- Peach Ginger
- 12 oz
- 20 calories, 5 carbs, 4 sugars
- 10mg broad-spectrum hemp extract
- Ingredients: a ton, including filtered water, peach tea infusion (hibiscus, ginger, rose hips, chicory root, etc.), peach nectar, ginseng, L-theanine, lemon balm
- 79mg of potassium
- 8-pack $40 ($5/can)
From our product search, we found out that Sweet Reason Beverage Co. has two different varieties of drinks, one for day and one for night. The nighttime version has 30mg of hemp extract, which is intended to bring you a greater calming effect.
Our competitor has a sale going on now which puts them on par with Recess, but normally, it’d be more expensive, and considering its nighttime version has triple the CBD, it’s understandable that it would be.
Recess Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
Just finished reading the previous section of this Recess drinks review? Then you know that one drink costs around what a beer does. That’s a fair price for a beverage that will help your body and mind, but before being totally sold, we need to know if it actually does what it claims to do.
It’s all well and good that Recess may help reduce stress, so let’s find out if it truly does. Below, you’ll read a variety of feedback gathered from around the web that shed some light on what the brand’s hemp-infused drinks are really like.
There aren’t a ton of ratings for this brand found online, but there are a lot of exposure pieces about its drinks. Sifting through a couple, we were able to find some vital pieces of information about their effects and taste.
A Recess drinks review on Healthline revealed what the effects of drinking a can of the hemp beverage felt like. After sipping, Yuen, the reviewer said, “I slowly become very aware of my body’s movements but not the aches. It’s the same understated feeling I get when I’m looking at the ocean, lost in a wave of momentum.â€
Very poetic, but we get the notion. Relaxing, but not in an overly powerful way.
There are a few reviews (just four) on Google that give the brand a 4.3/5-star average. One happy customer wrote, “I feel pleasantly centered and at peace. IT WORKS!†Others comment on the delicious taste and it seems like taste isn’t an issue here, but there was one brought up about the effects.
It read, “I experienced no internal shift one way or another after one can, so I drank another. I drank a total of 4 cans in a work day and there was no change, significant or otherwise.†Everybody is different and 40mg of CBD (four cans) may not be enough for some people to experience effects.
The brand’s founder said that Recess is a daytime drink, so it’s meant to have a very light effect.
The thing about hemp extract is that it’s experienced differently by everyone. Heavy CBD users, weed smokers, or those with bigger body compositions may not feel the effects of 10mg of hemp. It’s a very small amount that’s meant to produce a subtle calm, not have you sink into your chair and stare into space.
Is Recess Worth It?
Though there isn’t a ton of feedback found online, what we did come across told us all we needed to know—that experiences vary. Not everyone will experience immediate effects from Recess drinks, but that doesn’t mean your body isn’t benefiting from them in one way or another.
With that said, without those immediate effects, the hope of experiencing less stress in the future may not be worth the $5 a can price tag. But, for those intrigued by CBD-infused beverages, we think that this company serves as a solid option—a majority of the feedback we found did note at least a subtle calming effect.
Plus, we can’t help but acknowledge the brand’s aesthetic, as shown in its product packaging, marketing, and website. Calming pastel colors, fluffy clouds, and a subtle ‘90s vibe—Recess drinks are definitely Instagram-worthy. And, why not indulge in something that treats your eyes as much as it treats your body?
We definitely think that Recess is worth trying at least once. If you end up loving it, subscribe and you’ll save $10 off every order.
Recess Promotions & Discounts
Just because something is worth the buy, doesn’t mean a few discounts here and there aren’t appreciated!
Throughout this Recess drinks review, we kept an eye out for every last deal the brand has to offer. Here’s what we discovered:
- Subscribe & Save $10 on each order
- Give $10 to a friend, get $10 when they use your code
- Free shipping to most states
Where To Buy Recess
You can always buy the brand’s hemp bevvies directly through TakeARecess.com, but they’re also sold at tons of shops across the US, like The Vitamin Shoppe. A full list is available on the Where to Find page.
FAQ
Where is Recess made?
We couldn’t find exactly where the brand’s drinks are made, but we do know Recess’s headquarters is located in NYC.
What is Recess’s Shipping Policy?
Recess currently only ships within the US, but not to the following states:
- Alaska
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Mississippi
- Puerto Rico
Orders are sent via ground shipping and take about 2-7 business days to arrive. Shipping is free to most states.
Once your order is sent out, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a tracking link. Click the link to see where your order is on its journey to you.
What is Recess’s Return Policy?
If you aren’t totally happy with your order, you can return it within 14 days of delivery. To start a return, send an email to the address shown in the next section of this Recess drinks review.
How to Contact Recess
We hope that you found all of the information you came looking for and more in this Recess drinks review. If you still have questions, send the brand an email at hello@takearecess.com.
