Zicam Cold Remedy Original + Nighttime RapidMelts Combo Pack, 25 Count

Why it's worth it

Twenty citrus daytime melts and five grape nighttime ones, all of which dissolve on your tongue without water. Zinc is the only over-the-counter ingredient with solid meta-analytic support for shortening a cold, and these are built for the moment you first notice one.

The evidence for zinc is unusually good for a drugstore product. A Cochrane meta-analysis of 28 randomized controlled trials found that zinc lozenges started within 24 hours of cold onset cut average duration by about a third, from 7.1 days to 4.8. That's more than two days of your life back, which is the kind of result nothing else on this page can claim.

Timing is the entire product. These work in the window where you're not really sick yet — the scratchy throat on the drive home, the odd tiredness after lunch. That's when you start, then continue every two to three hours. Wait until you're properly congested on day three and you've missed it. Keeping a box in a drawer before you need it is the only way to actually hit that window.

From our review of 7 cold and flu home care kits

What we like

• +The evidence for zinc is unusually good for a drugstore product
• +Timing is the entire product
• +The format is built around that urgency
• +The 20-to-5 split tells you how to think about it

What to know

• –The window is unforgiving
• –Zinc is famously hard on some stomachs
• –The label sets a minimum of 12 years old, so this does nothing for the younger kids in the house