I find that coffee wakes me up way better than energy drinks, even when there is more caffeine in the energy drink, and the effects also seem to last longer. Is that a thing people can experience? Or is something wrong with me and/or I’m imagining it?
Same. I also have a different experience with tea (tend to get a more even distribution of “energy” throughout the day whereas coffee gives me a jolt). I understand that it has something to do with how we metabolize the caffeine molecule in different contexts (which includes how it is carried into our bodies).
I read a thing several years back that argued for a distinction between caffeine and theine—the name for the molecule as it appears in tea. This is because, iirc, caffeine is found in the oils of the coffee bean and theine is found in the tannins of the tea leaf. The human body metabolizes oils and tannins differently, resulting in different absorption times (for lack of a better term). When it comes to energy drinks, the caffeine is either synthesized or isolated from a carrier (oil or tannins) and is thus metabolized differently from both coffee and tea.
My wife cannot drink coffee. But she can drink strong teas fine (including matcha, which has a higher concentration of theine/caffeine than coffee). She seems to be sensitive to the oil-based metabolic process (which is supposedly quicker than with tannins) and it gives her brain fog and an inability to concentrate (plus shakes).