IN Brief:
- Vybey has launched Collagen + Energy in Mixed Berry and Lemon & Lime variants.
- Each 330ml can contains 8g marine collagen protein, 75mg natural caffeine, Lion’s Mane, L-theanine, electrolytes, magnesium, and vitamin B12.
- The launch reflects the shift toward multifunctional beverages that combine energy, focus, hydration, and nutrition cues.
Vybey has entered the functional soft drinks market with Collagen + Energy, a lightly carbonated drink range produced for the UK market.
The new line is available in Mixed Berry and Lemon & Lime. Each 330ml can contains 8g marine collagen protein, 75mg natural caffeine from guarana, 150mg L-theanine, 300mg Lion’s Mane, electrolytes, magnesium, and vitamin B12. The range contains no added sugar and is positioned around clean energy, calm focus, daily recovery, and light hydration.
The launch moves Vybey beyond its existing nutrition products and into a soft-drinks category that is becoming increasingly crowded with multi-benefit formats. Energy, hydration, beauty, protein, focus, nootropics, gut health, and recovery are converging in cans and bottles that look closer to mainstream soft drinks than traditional supplements.
Manufacturing these products is more complicated than the pack format suggests. Collagen must remain stable in a lightly carbonated drink without creating excessive viscosity, sedimentation, or off-notes. Caffeine and botanical extracts can introduce bitterness. Minerals may affect solubility and taste. L-theanine and Lion’s Mane add further formulation demands, particularly when combined with acidity, carbonation, and a clean flavour profile.
The use of a sparkling can places the drink closer to mainstream soft drinks than to protein shakes or powder-based beauty products. That creates a higher sensory bar. Consumers may tolerate thickness in a shake or functional shot, but a carbonated can is expected to be clean, refreshing, stable, and easy to drink chilled.
Collagen continues to move from supplement formats into everyday food and beverage applications. Powders, bars, shots, waters, dairy drinks, and beauty-positioned beverages have already widened the ingredient’s reach. Vybey’s formulation brings collagen into a hybrid energy and hydration format, adding another example of functional ingredients moving out of single-benefit products.
The same production pressure is visible across the nutrition-led ingredient sector. Dairy functionality and precision-fermentation work has shown how protein performance, texture, bioactives, and process stability are shaping the next generation of food and drink applications. Vybey’s range uses a different ingredient system, but the production requirement is similar: functional ingredients must remain stable, drinkable, and commercially repeatable.
Functional beverages are now competing for several occasions at once. A product may be used as a coffee alternative, a pre-workout lift, a desk-side focus drink, a recovery product, or an alcohol-free social option. That versatility is commercially attractive, but it forces manufacturers to balance caffeine level, sweetness, mouthfeel, acidity, ingredient load, pack size, and serving experience.
Ingredient interactions become the limiting factor. Magnesium can bring mineral notes. Botanical extracts may vary by batch and require tight specification control. Protein can react to heat treatment, pH, and storage conditions. Carbonation alters perceived sweetness and acidity while adding pressure requirements for filling and packaging.
The can format supports barrier protection and chilled convenience, but it adds its own validation demands around internal pressure, corrosion control, filling hygiene, closure integrity, and shelf-life performance. Any visible sediment, flavour drift, or texture change would undermine the functional proposition quickly.
Vybey’s move into functional soft drinks reflects a market that is no longer satisfied with single-purpose energy or hydration products. The products that scale will be those that hide the formulation complexity behind a simple drinking experience. Collagen + Energy enters that race with a high ingredient load and a format built for everyday consumption rather than supplement-style use.
