This week, Value for Money looks at four products for the morning after the night before

Emergen-C Health and Energy Booster

75 cent for one sachet

This sachet of powdery goodness was recommended to us by the staff in a health food store who assured us it was the best way to cure a hangover. While we’d hardly expect people employed in such a place to recommend a breakfast roll and some Solpadeine, we were taken by their enthusiasm, so gave it a whirl. It certainly packs in a lot of vitamin C and has seven B vitamins and the individual sachets are easy to store and transport. It’s not cheap, lacks fizziness and we had to stir the bottom of the glass to dissolve the powder, something which did not please us in our delicate state. And it tasted nothing like any tangerine we have ever had.

Verdict: Dear and flat

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Berocca Boost

€9.99 for 15 tablets, 67 cent each

This is one of the big names in morning after the night before care, and is very well regarded by a lot of people. It certainly gave us a lift and while there is no caffeine in the mix, we felt a good bit more awake after drinking a glass. It looks like lovely pink grapefruit juice – only fizzy – so we approached our first glass with something close to delight. It tasted horrible which left us feeling very sad. At 67 cent a tablet, it is almost twice the price of the very similar Boots product. We can’t help thinking we were paying extra for the brand recognition.

Verdict: Costly but effective

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Boots

€4.99 for 15 tablets, 33 cent each

We liked this straight away. It fizzes up like the bottle of champagne we probably shouldn’t have finished and it has a really sharp zing which woke up our taste buds like none of the competition. It has a nuclear orange colour that is a little unsettling. Like many own-brand Boots products, it is very cheap – certainly a lot cheaper than the bigger names and €4.99 will get you through the 12 days of Christmas and take you into the new year too.

Verdict: Good for what ails ya

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Lifeline

€2.99 for one dose

This is the most honest of the cures in that before you overindulge you have to admit to yourself that you plan to do just that. It is, the box says, “for people who like a party lifestyle” which makes it sound like a weird swinger’s drug but the reality is a lot more mundane. It contains “activated charcoal” which the great gods of Google tell us is used to stop certain poisons being absorbed from the stomach into the body. Does it work? We’re not sure. We tried it at the beginning of a night and still woke up the following morning feeling ropey, although we might have felt much worse in its absence. It is very pricey and doesn’t work for the impromptu night out (in that you won’t have thought beforehand to take it).

Verdict: Pricey

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Is there something you would like us to test? E-mail suggestions to pricewatch@irishtimes.com