San Francisco entrepreneurs Geoffrey Woo and Michael Brandt have come up with a revolutionary way for coffee lovers to get their early morning caffeine fix — chewable caffeine cubes. Each 35-calorie bite-sized Go Cube is the equivalent of drinking roughly half a cup of coffee.

So if you’re running late with no time to brew a fresh cup of joe, just pop two cubes and you’re good to go.

With a texture similar to gum drops, each cube contains 50 mg of caffeine, 10 mg of vitamin B6, and 100 mg of L-Theanine, an amino acid found in green tea. B6 helps aid cognitive function, while theanine helps reduce the anxiety associated with a pure caffeine buzz. They also contain about six grams of sugar per cube, and come in three different flavors — pure drip, latte, and mocha.

Brandt and Woo used crowdfunding to raise nearly US$40,000, and are set to release Go Cubes internationally — priced at US$20.7 for six packs of four. That works out to about US$1.73 per cup of coffee, which is cheaper than what you get at most coffee shops.

According to their Indiegogo page, “The amount, concentration, and ratio of each compound in Go Cubes were significantly drawn from double-blind, peer-reviewed journal studies that statistically demonstrate the compound’s efficacy and safety.” They have used a theanine-caffeine ratio of 2:1, which significantly improves the cognitive performance and alertness, beyond just each compound stand alone.

As fantastic as this sounds, you can’t really shake off the feeling that Go Cubes is just a fun way of marketing brain-enhancing drugs. But that’s the perception Brandt and Woo are trying hard to fight. They want to make nootropics — chemical supplements that make people smarter and more alert — user-friendly, so that’s why they’ve chosen to package them as candy instead of pills.

But they are quick to add that Go Cubes are not a substitute for hard work, and should be used only to enhance potential and get into a productive state of mind.

旧金山创业者杰弗里· 伍和迈克尔· 勃兰特发明了一种革命性的方法来满足咖啡爱好者一大清早对咖啡因的需求——可嚼的咖啡块。每块“来一口”咖啡含有35卡路里，咖啡因含量相当于半杯咖啡。

所以，如果某天你睡过头来不及泡杯新鲜咖啡的话，只要嚼两块就能出门啦。

质地类似橡皮软糖，每块“来一

口”含有50毫克咖啡因、10毫克维生素B6和100毫克的茶氨酸（绿茶中也含有此类氨基酸）。维生素B6可以提升人的认知能力，茶氨酸则可以减轻咖啡因导致的焦虑。每块咖啡中也含有大约6克糖。咖啡块有三种口味：纯味、拿铁和摩卡。

勃兰特和伍通过众筹募集了接近4万美金，现在“来一口”咖啡块将全球推

广。每盒“来一口”有四块，每六盒的价格为20.70美元，按杯算的话相当于每杯咖啡1.73美元，比大部分咖啡店都便宜。

他们在Indiegogo众筹网页面上介绍:“每块咖啡的净含量、浓度和各项成分比例都以已发表的经同领域专家认可的双盲试验结果为依据，表明各项成分安全有效。”

茶氨酸和咖啡因的比例是2:1，可以大大提高人的认知反应能力，比单独使用这两种成分的效果好。

虽然听起来很棒，但或许你还是觉得“来一块”不过是巧妙推销一种提神醒脑的药物罢了。但是这种看法正是勃兰特和伍渴望消除的。他们希望能生产一种人们乐于接受的增强智力和反应力的聪明药。所以他们的产品看起来更像糖果而不是药片。

不过他们很快补充说，咖啡块并不能代替个人努力，只能用于激发潜能和活跃思维。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【一杯咖啡】yībēi kāfēi a cup of joe a cup of coffee

    【益智药】yìzhì yào nootropics drugs acting on the mind, in such a way as to improve cognitive function