BlueChew MAX Reviews

ED meds have come a long way since the little blue pill hit the market. Nowadays, you can readily get them as pills, chewables, lozenges, and more. This increases convenience, but also makes it harder to know what’s right for you.1

BlueChew MAX aims to simplify the problem, offering a tablet that you can dissolve under your tongue or chew like a chewable — a kind of "choose your own adventure” approach. Both methods offer convenience, but dissolving the tablet under your tongue lets the drugs get into your system faster.2

In this review, we’ll break down the science behind these erectile dysfunction (ED) meds, as well as the available doses and pricing, so you can determine if BlueChew MAX is right for you.

BlueChew MAX combines familiar and reliable ED medications in a somewhat novel format, allowing users to choose whether they want to chew the medication or let it dissolve under the tongue. Typically, competitors offer one option or the other — not both in a single product. This flexibility allows one tablet to work for more men in more situations, making MAX more convenient than products you have to either chew or dissolve. A more accessible dose than competitors and the lowest cost in its class make it a logical starting point for most men interested in combination therapy.

At Innerbody Research, we thoroughly investigate every product and service we review, including BlueChew MAX. We’ve been covering developments from BlueChew and throughout the men’s sexual health landscape for years, with a team of researchers poring over hundreds of related scientific articles. All told, we’ve spent more than 5,000 hours in the space, and our understanding of it is second to none.

For this review, we leveraged that research and launched into a new phase, looking even more closely at the latest papers on combination ED therapies and sublingual dose delivery. We also got hands-on with BlueChew MAX to relay aspects of its customer service interface and the taste of its new medications.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

To evaluate BlueChew MAX, we compared it to the company’s other products and the products of its top competitors by using several criteria that would matter most to men: effectiveness, safety, cost, convenience, and taste. Let’s see how BlueChew MAX performed in each category.

Effectiveness

BlueChew MAX combines two phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors into one product, which research shows can be more effective than monotherapies (taking one PDE5 inhibitor at a time).3 That means there’s a much higher likelihood that MAX will work for you, especially if you’ve had difficulty performing with a single dose of Viagra or Cialis on its own.

The drugs at the heart of MAX’s combination are the generic versions of Viagra and Cialis: sildenafil and tadalafil, respectively. These are among the most widely researched drugs in the world, in no small part due to the incredible demand and the economic opportunity they presented researchers and pharmaceutical companies upon their arrival. Both have been shown to be remarkably effective at treating various forms of ED, even those with complex underlying causes.1

Another efficacy point comes not from the drugs themselves but from their delivery mechanism. You can chew BlueChew MAX the same way you can the company’s original chewable ED meds, but you can also let MAX dissolve under your tongue, reducing the amount of time it takes for the drugs to enter your bloodstream.2 This method, known as sublingual delivery, has been shown to decrease the time to an erection compared to traditional pills.4 According to BlueChew, dissolving its MAX tablets under the tongue allows them to kick in after as little as 15 minutes — much quicker than the 30-60 minutes from chewing them.

All that said, Ro and Rugiet both have products that are technically stronger than MAX while Hims is the only competitor offering a combination chewable with lower doses of either ingredient. However, as we’ll discuss later, those slightly stronger approaches can be more dangerous and costlier, making MAX a better starting point for more men.

Safety

Decades of research behind the PDE5 inhibitors you’ll find in BlueChew MAX have solidified our understanding of their safety and potential adverse effects. Both sildenafil and tadalafil boast good safety profiles for prescription drugs, though neither is without its risks. These drugs can unintentionally affect other PDE enzymes, leading to things like muscle pain from tadalafil or vision changes from sildenafil.5 6

The good news is that there doesn't appear to be a significant increase in side effect risk when you combine PDE5 inhibitors, at least at specific doses used in recent, albeit limited, research.7 That means the combination treatments available from BlueChew should be about as safe as taking either drug on its own.

But one safety concern that BlueChew, Hims, and Ro have in common arises out of inflexible dosage. MAX is available with 45mg of sildenafil and 18mg of tadalafil, with no option to increase or decrease either dose. VMAX, which swaps in vardenafil for the sildenafil, delivers 14mg of vardenafil and 18mg of tadalafil. These would be reasonable starting doses for sildenafil or vardenafil, but the tadalafil dose is on the higher side.8 9 That’s good news for efficacy, but it may limit accessibility for some men who need a lower dose for safety reasons.

As noted, all of BlueChew’s competitors have a similar problem, with Rugiet and Strut being the only ones to offer some limited dose adjustments. Comparing them side-by-side, you’ll see that BlueChew offers one of the more reasonable dose combinations, with only Hims delivering something that could make a safer starting point for men new to combination therapy.

Cost

Comparing BlueChew MAX to its closest competitors, we find that no other company offers a comparable product for a better price per dose. Even electing for Hims’ extended billing and shipping periods — essentially paying up front for up to five months’ worth of chewables — isn’t enough to bring the cost per dose down below BlueChew’s best offering. And since that offering from BlueChew only requires a one-month subscription to its 24-pack, it’s a more accessible option for more people.

From there, comparisons favor BlueChew even more. Here’s a simple chart to break down the costs:

As you can see, nothing really gives BlueChew a run for its money for cost. Some value considerations (e.g., Rugiet Ready's addition of apomorphine) might affect the cost assessment for certain men, but most would do better to start with a simpler formula with sufficient doses of reliable ingredients for less money. Even the $5 shipping fee tacked onto every BlueChew order isn’t enough to upset that advantage.

On top of that superior price, Innerbody readers also have access to a first-month discount using code INNERBODY, which knocks $20 off the first month of any plan they choose.

Convenience

Looking around the marketplace, it’s clear that BlueChew MAX presents the most convenient option in a small sea of chewable ED medications. BlueChew was the first to market with chewable ED drugs you could get through the company’s site with a convenient and free medical consultation. And the company has stayed at the cutting edge as the market has evolved.

Since BlueChew’s chewable ED medications became popular, numerous other companies have created similar products, including Ro, Hims, Rugiet, and Strut. Among those brands, several have experimented with sublingual lozenges in lieu of chewables. So, consumers had a choice: they could get chewable meds or they could get sublingual meds. MAX is both in one pill, giving you the flexibility to take it however you please in a given situation.

For example, suppose things are moving more quickly toward intercourse than you’d anticipated. Well, in that case, letting the MAX tablet dissolve under your tongue will have you ready faster. In testing, our team found that the pills typically dissolved in well under five minutes — far faster than lozenges from Rugiet or Ro.

In another case, you might not have the luxury of letting a tablet sit under your tongue for a few minutes — perhaps the conversation is too good or there’s kissing to be done. In that case, quickly chewing and swallowing MAX would be more convenient. This is a level of flexibility only offered by BlueChew.

Taste

Over the past several years, our team has had the opportunity to taste every major chewable and lozenge that’s come to market, and while none of them taste exceptionally great, BlueChew is generally ranked highly among our testers.

When you open the package, the aroma is familiar, especially if you grew up reaching for candies like SweeTarts or Smarties. It’s bright and fruity. When you pop the tablet in your mouth, the taste is nearly identical to those candies, though a medicinal note creeps in pretty quickly.

Despite that lingering bitterness, BlueChew chewables are decidedly less medicinal and easier to enjoy compared to chewables from Hims or lozenges from Ro and Rugiet. And BlueChew gets extra points in that its MAX tablets dissolve much more quickly than Rugiet or Ro lozenges, so you don’t have to taste them for as long if you don’t enjoy them.

BlueChew MAX is a prescription combination ED medication delivered in a convenient chewable tablet that you can also let dissolve under your tongue to achieve a faster effect. BlueChew made a name for itself offering safe and convenient online doctor and prescription access for men seeking ED treatment long before the recent telehealth revolution made such outfits commonplace.

Today, BlueChew has several products in its lineup, but its MAX chewables are among its most convenient and most likely to work, even for men who’ve had limited success with monotherapy approaches to Viagra or Cialis.

MAX also has an alternative product called VMAX, which replaces MAX’s sildenafil dose with a dose of vardenafil, a nearly identical PDE5 inhibitor that has a slightly lower side effect risk. This option is mostly for men who already know they prefer vardenafil or for the very small number of men who may experience a vision disturbance from sildenafil's collateral inhibition of the PDE6 enzyme. Most other men will do fine with original MAX.6

BlueChew MAX uses two PDE5 inhibitors to make it possible for men with ED to achieve an erection sufficiently hard for penetrative sex. But to understand how PDE5 inhibitors make this possible, it helps to quickly review how a healthy erection forms in the first place.

When a man without ED encounters sufficient stimulus, blood flow to the penile tissue increases.10 There, its accumulation increases pressure, causing the penis to expand. Central to this process is a nucleotide called cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), which regulates increased penile blood flow.

Phosphodiesterase-5’s role is to degrade cGMP, allowing the erection to subside after climax. But inhibiting PDE5 in the first place can allow cGMP to build up, creating an environment where there’s far less resistance for an erection to form.11 And that’s exactly how PDE5 inhibitors like the drugs in BlueChew’s MAX and VMAX work. They allow your body to have a normal erectile response to stimuli by ensuring a healthy supply of the cGMP it needs.

Specifically, MAX relies on a combination of two PDE5 inhibitors: sildenafil (generic for Viagra) and tadalafil (generic for Cialis). VMAX retains the tadalafil but replaces the sildenafil with vardenafil.

To get the clearest sense of how these drugs perform, let’s look at each individually:

BlueChew MAX is only available in one dosage: 45mg of sildenafil and 18mg of tadalafil. VMAX replaces the 45mg of sildenafil with 14mg of vardenafil while keeping the 18mg of tadalafil. For sildenafil and vardenafil, these are pretty standard starting doses, but the 18mg of tadalafil is higher than the typical 10mg starting point for most men taking it as needed.

That may sound a little constricting, especially considering that branded Viagra is available in 25mg increments up to 100mg and generic sildenafil is often prescribed in 20mg increments up to the same — much more flexible ranges for dialing in efficacy. But this issue is not unique to BlueChew; most chewables and lozenges have limited dosing options. Here’s a quick comparison:

As you can see, BlueChew MAX lives in a comfortable spot that’s neither the strongest nor the weakest among competitors. Combined with a lower price than those other companies, MAX and VMAX become clear top choices for men seeking chewable combination therapies.

Taking BlueChew MAX is incredibly convenient — probably the most convenient ED medication our team has ever encountered. The ability to choose whether you want to chew the tablet or let it dissolve is something no other companies offer. It also dissolves so much more quickly than alternatives that you can take it pretty discreetly, even as you’re getting very close to the bedroom.

Our testing team all considered the taste to be better than competitor products, though it still carries an unmistakably medicinal flavor behind the sweet fruitiness it also provides. It’s possible it could be made to taste better, but not without the addition of more sweeteners and flavoring, which might not be good for every user. There’s also a degree to which the medicinal flavor could increase safety if there are kids around. That’s because the pills aren’t kept in any childproof packaging. If they tasted too good and fell into the hands of a curious child, it could prove dangerous.

BlueChew MAX and VMAX are both bright blue in color, and our testers found that the dye temporarily transferred to the tongue whether they chewed or dissolved them. But the color faded relatively fast. If you have the opportunity to brush your teeth after taking MAX, that would quickly remove the coloring.

MAX and VMAX work more quickly than traditional pills or chewables if you let them dissolve under your tongue. Traditional methods typically take 30-60 minutes to kick in, but sublingual dissolution allows the drugs to pass through oral membranes and more quickly enter the bloodstream, resulting in an onset of action as short as 15 minutes.

In testing, it took an average of just under five minutes for the tablets to dissolve completely, which means you’ll need about 20 minutes from the time you pop one in your mouth to the time you’re ready for intercourse.

BlueChew MAX and VMAX are outstanding choices for men who’ve had difficulty achieving the erectile performance they desire when taking one ED medication on its own. Combining medications should improve outcomes without increasing side effect risks, so this is a logical next step for men in that situation.7

Of course, men who are already combining medications in a traditional pill format could also consider switching to MAX for the convenience that its chewable/dissolvable format offers. You don’t need a glass of water to take it, and the individually wrapped doses are easy to carry around for an evening out.

Who might want to look elsewhere?

Despite being a top product in its class, MAX isn’t the best fit for everyone. The most important group in this sense comprises men who’ve never tried an ED medication. There’s no reason to start with a combination therapy when you aren’t sure whether a monotherapy would suffice. It’d be better for most men to start with one of the drugs included in MAX and see how it works on its own.

It’s also not a great idea to consider MAX if your goal is to find an ED medication you can take daily. MAX and VMAX are not formulated for daily consumption.

Fortunately, BlueChew offers these drugs on an individual basis, as well as daily tadalafil options. You can discover more about those offerings in our complete BlueChew review.

There’s one other case in which MAX would be a poor fit for certain men, and that’s if the doses don’t suit your needs. MAX and VMAX are each only available in one set dose. MAX provides 45mg of sildenafil and 18mg of tadalafil. VMAX provides 14mg of vardenafil and 18mg of tadalafil. If those doses are too high or too low for your specific needs, there’s no way to adjust them. That would force you back into monotherapies or toward traditional pills for a combination approach.

BlueChew MAX and VMAX are as safe as any other prescription PDE5 inhibitor, which is to say that they’re very safe. The drugs they contain definitely have known side effects, but these risks are so well documented that it’s easy to identify and isolate potential adverse effects that can crop up.15

What’s more, BlueChew requires you to go through its network of physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners to receive a prescription, and you’ll be able to communicate with them throughout the process if you develop any symptoms or concerns.

That said, it’s helpful to look directly at potential side effect risks for anyone interested in trying these drugs.

BlueChew offers its MAX and VMAX prescriptions in monthly subscriptions that contain 4, 8, 12, or 24 doses each, depending on your level of sexual activity. The price is the same for either prescription. Buying more per month reduces the cost per dose, and readers can access a further discount for their first month by using the code INNERBODY at checkout.

Here’s how it works out:

As you can see, it’s far more economical to opt for a larger shipment of 12 or 24 doses if you have the extra money to spend up front. And since BlueChew makes it relatively easy to pause and resume your subscription, you can stock up on a 24-pack even if you end up needing a few months to get through it.

It’s worth noting that all BlueChew orders are subject to a $5 shipping fee, which marginally increases your cost per dose. That said, as we explored in our cost section above, the increase isn’t enough to undercut savings compared to the competition.

BlueChew MAX is a pretty specific product. It’s not the best place to start for men who’ve never tried ED meds, nor are its doses flexible enough to accommodate everyone. Even its flavor could be divisive, depending on preferences. It makes sense to explore viable alternatives to BlueChew MAX and VMAX so that you can make an informed decision about next steps in your ED journey.

Other BlueChew products

Fortunately for BlueChew, its catalog isn’t limited to MAX and VMAX. In fact, the subjects of this review are more recent additions to a lineup that includes sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil as monotherapies. BlueChew even offers a chewable daily tadalafil, the doses of which are more conservative than those seen in its combination treatments.

These treatments all share the same chewable convenience as BlueChew MAX products, but they aren’t engineered to also dissolve under your tongue. So these other options are subject to first-pass metabolism and will take 30-60 minutes to reach their full effect — a bit slower than the 15 minutes or so you might expect from the sublingual MAX and VMAX pills.

Any BlueChew product is eligible for the INNERBODY discount code, as well, and monotherapies are less expensive to begin with, so they’re a fine choice for men new to ED medications who aren’t quite ready to break the bank in search of a remedy.

Similar products from competitors

BlueChew isn’t the only game in town when it comes to chewable ED pills or sublingual lozenges, either monotherapies or combinations. It may offer the best value on the market for a chewable combination therapy, but that doesn’t automatically make it your best option.

The biggest reason to look to BlueChew’s competition for a combination chewable is that they all offer different dose options. Some even give you more than one option for doses within their combination catalog. Specifically, Rugiet and Strut give you dose flexibility, with Strut offering much better prices between their similar formulas and Hims carrying ED meds in combination with various tangentially related ingredients, like hair loss medication.

So, if you want to try a combination therapy that’s a little less potent or contains ingredients to tackle other ailments simultaneously, Hims is a better starting point. If you want to go all out and include higher doses and more ingredients like oxytocin and apomorphine, Strut’s the place to start (similar products but better prices than Rugiet).

Traditional ED pills

Just as dosing considerations could send you away from BlueChew and into the chewable and lozenge catalogs of its competitors, so could they keep you from considering any chewable combination or monotherapy in the first place. Even the weakest chewables and lozenges start at higher doses than traditional pills, and if your ED is minor enough or if you experience any side effects at higher doses in a chewable form, you might need to work with something less potent.

But dosing considerations are only part of the story. Traditional ED medications are also far less expensive than compounded chewables and lozenges, especially if you’re sticking to a monotherapy.

For example, a 5mg daily tadalafil dose is pretty common and reliably effective in its traditional pill form. But that same 5mg dose can work for many men on an as-needed basis. So, you could sign up for a traditional 5mg daily tablet from Hims, where the daily medication is available at a discount, and then opt for a longer billing cycle, essentially having several months shipped to you for an even bigger discount. All told, you could bring your cost per dose down to $1.07. Even if you found you needed 10mg instead of 5mg, you’d still be saving money several times over with each dose.

Talk therapy

While it may not come as a surprise to men who suffer from ED that the condition can create negative emotional consequences, including depression, anxiety, and isolation, it may be surprising to many that up to 40% of ED cases are psychological in the first place.18 19

Fortunately, whether your ED is psychogenic in origin or otherwise contributes to poor mental health, talk therapy has been shown to make a difference. In one recent study from 2020, researchers found that cognitive behavioral sex therapy performed nearly as well as sildenafil in treating men with non-organic ED.20

It’s early days for talk therapy approaches targeting ED, but the European Society of Sexual Medicine recently published a series of position statements aimed at codifying practices to help patients in need.21 And with the continued rise of online therapy options to seek treatment from the comfort and privacy of the home, it’s a good time to explore the mental health angle — on its own, or in conjunction with prescription treatment.