Research
Energy balance
Liquid creatine and effervescent creatine salts (like tricreatine citrate) do not provide superior muscle creatine uptake or performance benefits compared to creatine monohydrate.
You don't need liquid or effervescent creatine. Powder creatine monohydrate is just as effective, cheaper, and more stable.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
there is no evidence that these delivery forms provide a superior performance benefit... liquid creatine supplementation has no effect on muscle phosphagen levels and therefore may have no ergogenic value... supplementation of TCC in an effervescent form does not augment whole body creatine retention more than CM alone.
Why this rating
Based on specific studies cited in the review.
Source
Analysis of the efficacy, safety, and regulatory status of novel forms of creatine
Ralf Jäger et al. · Amino Acids · 2011
DOI 10.1007/s00726-011-0874-6
narrative_reviewCited 174×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Creatine monohydrate (CM) is the most effective, safe, and well-studied form of creatine for increasing muscle creatine/phosphocreatine and enhancing anaerobic exercise capacity, with no newer forms demonstrating superior efficacy or safety.Strong
- Creatine ethyl ester (CEE) is less stable than creatine monohydrate in acidic environments and does not promote greater muscle creatine gains or training adaptations compared to CM.Good
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