Turning 50 is one of those birthdays that feels deserving of a proper celebration. Having a daughter turning 18 at almost the same time gave us even more reason to make an occasion of it, so this year Lillie and I decided to celebrate our two milestone birthdays together.
AD/Review – I was gifted Hangover Pals Recovery Gummies and compensated for creating this article. All experiences and opinions are our own.
These days, I’m not much of a drinker. In fact, three or four drinks is quite a lot for me now, mainly because I’ve reached the stage where the thought of losing the following day to a hangover is enough to put me off having that extra drink in the first place.
Lillie, understandably, was rather more enthusiastic about celebrating her 18th, and Will joined us too. So when I had the opportunity to try Hangover Pals Recovery Gummies around our birthday celebrations, I was genuinely curious to see what we would make of them. Now that Lillie is 18, we’ve started enjoying a few more grown-up nights out together, including our brilliantly chaotic night at Bongo’s Bingo Lincoln.
What are Hangover Pals Recovery Gummies?
Hangover Pals Recovery Gummies are vegan, gelatine-free vitamin gummies designed to be used around those occasions when you’ve had a few drinks and would rather not spend the following day regretting your choices.
The brand describes the gummies as supporting areas including hydration, energy, liver function, nausea and mental clarity. As with any supplement, though, I think it’s important to distinguish between what a product is designed to support and individual experience. There isn’t a magic sweet that makes the effects of alcohol disappear, of course. Drinking moderately, eating properly and staying hydrated are still important when you’re having a night out. The NHS recommends that adults who drink regularly should consume no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days.
For us, the interesting part was simply seeing how we felt the next morning.
What did we think of the gummies?
Taste is always going to be subjective, particularly in our family.
Will and I really liked the gummies. Lillie was considerably less enthusiastic, although that probably says more about Lillie than it does about Hangover Pals because she doesn’t even like Haribo or gummy sweets in general!
Initially, she wasn’t particularly keen to try them. However, the prospect of potentially feeling better the following morning was enough to make her inquisitive.
And considering how much she enjoyed her birthday celebrations, I think she was probably quite pleased she’d given them a go.
The morning after our joint 18th and 50th birthday party
This was the bit I was most interested in.
Because I don’t drink very often anymore, my three or four drinks felt like plenty. When I woke the following morning, I did that familiar tentative opening of one eye while lying very still and assessing the situation.
Head?
Stomach?
Room spinning?
And… I felt fine.
Obviously, I can’t say with certainty that the gummies were responsible. There are far too many variables involved in how we feel after drinking, including how much we’ve eaten, hydration, sleep and the amount of alcohol consumed.
But I was pleasantly surprised.
What surprised me even more, though, was Lillie and Will.
Without putting too fine a point on it, Lillie had definitely celebrated sufficiently to have earned herself a hangover! Yet she was remarkably good the following morning.
Will was perhaps an even bigger surprise. He’s usually rubbish after a night on the tiles, so watching him happily inhale a cooked breakfast the next morning without any apparent difficulty was quite impressive.
None of that proves that the gummies prevented our hangovers, of course, but all three of us feeling considerably better than I had anticipated certainly made me take notice.
Lillie has used them again since
Perhaps the most useful part of this review is that our experience didn’t end with the birthday party.
Despite not being a fan of the gummy texture, Lillie has chosen to use the Hangover Pals gummies several times since our birthday celebration.
For me, that’s probably more telling than anything I could say about them. She wasn’t particularly keen on eating them in the first place, yet she’s been willing to use them again when she’s been going out.
Would I use Hangover Pals again?
Yes.
I’m never going to be someone who goes out drinking every weekend, and these days I’d much rather enjoy a few drinks and still have a productive Sunday than spend the day hiding under the duvet.
But there will always be weddings, birthdays, holidays, Christmas parties and other occasions when I know I’m likely to drink more than I usually would. And, of course, a celebration doesn’t have to revolve around drinking at all – I’ve also shared some ideas for hosting an alcohol-free BBQ night.
On those occasions, I’d happily use Hangover Pals Recovery Gummies again.
I liked the taste, they’re convenient, and our first experience with them was certainly positive. Most importantly, I woke up after my 50th birthday celebrations feeling much better than I’d expected — and Lillie and Will did too.
Do I know that we’d have felt terrible without them? No. That’s impossible to know.
But given the choice between facing my next big night without them or having a pack ready, I’d be reaching for the gummies.
A sensible note about hangover gummies
As positive as our experience was, supplements shouldn’t be seen as a licence to drink excessively. How you feel after drinking can depend on numerous factors, including how much you’ve consumed, whether you’ve eaten and your individual response to alcohol. The NHS recommends limiting how much you drink on a single occasion, drinking more slowly, eating with alcohol and alternating alcoholic drinks with water or non-alcoholic options.