Drinks For Thought: Nootropic Beverages Offer Brain Benefits

Last year, the U.S. market for energy drinks stood at $13.4 billion; according to retail intelligence service Mintel, that’s a 5.6 percent increase over the previous year. Coupled with cold brew coffee’s increasing popularity and growing sales for functional beverages of various types, it’s easy to suggest that consumers are seeking beverages that can provide both physical and mental fuel throughout the day. But within that rise in functional drinks — which contain familiar callouts to clean ingredients, low sugar, and steady caffeine levels — a handful of startups, some taking their cues from Silicon Valley, have been asking a different question: What if you could hack your brain? Enter nootropics, sometimes called “smart drugs,” a niche but rising segment of the supplements industry that is extending its reach into beverage via shots and energy drink alternatives that promise consumers better focus, better memory, and improved overall mental function. Buoyed by a global brain health supplement market that is expected to reach $11.6 billion by 2024, brands of this type see an opportunity to disrupt the larger functional and energy drink sets. “Nootropics” is typically used as a catchall term for a large variety of different drugs, adaptogens, and synthetic compounds that deliver users some form of cognitive benefit. Some, like tea-derived L-theanine, have been widely known and used in beverages for decades. But the promise of boosting brain function has helped inspire a growing subculture of consumers who experiment with different compounds and “stacks,” the name for the combinations of different nootropics that deliver specific effects and benefits when they interact. On Reddit, the r/nootropics community currently has more than 156,000 subscribers, offering information and discussion of different nootropics and how they can be paired for optimal effect. Charles Lankau, co-founder of Synapse, an early stage “natural cognitive […]

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