便宜又省时的可嚼咖啡块

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 cuppa joe, just pop two cubes and you’re good to go.

来自洛杉矶的企业家杰弗里·伍和迈克尔·勃兰特最近提出了一种革命性的方法用以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。它看起来虽小，但咖啡因含量相当于半杯咖啡。所以，如果某一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。

Go Cubes are 100 percent vegan, made of a special blend of compounds that improve memory and alertness. 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.

“来一口”咖啡块的成分不含肉类。它的配方很特殊，可以用来增强记忆力和反应能力。它外表看起来像水果泡泡糖，但每块都含有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带来的焦虑现象。每块咖啡中也含有大约6克的砂糖。咖啡块有三种口味：滴滤、拿铁和抹茶。

Brandt and Woo used crowdfunding to raise nearly $40,000, and are now all set to release Go Cubes internationally – priced at $20.70 for six packs of four. That works out to about $1.73 per cup of coffee, which is cheaper than what you get at most coffee shops.

勃兰特和伍通过众筹募集了接近4万美金，现在“来一口”咖啡块已经准备好推广到全球。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，这可比大部分咖啡店都便宜多了。

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 standalone.”

他们在Indiegogo众筹网页面上的数据显示，“每块咖啡的净含量、浓度和各项成分比例等都是经过全程保密和同行审阅得到的。这些数据也证明了咖啡块效果明显并且对人体无害。”在制作时，茶氨酸和咖啡因的比例是2:1，“只消一块咖啡，就可以大大提高人体认知和反应能力的效果。”

“Our goal with Go Cubes is to combine what people love about coffee to make a cognitive-enhancing product that’s delicious, shareable, convenient, and affordable,” they revealed. “We take pride in quality products and a brand that is both smart and down-to-earth.”

他们说：“我们生产咖啡块就是为了迎合人们对咖啡的热爱，继而生产出一种能有效提高认知能力、价廉味美又方便携带和分享的产品。如今我们拥有优质的产品和醒目又实用的品牌，这让我们感到骄傲。”

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.

虽然听起来很棒，但或许你还是觉得“来一块”不过是用巧妙的方式推销一种提神醒脑的药物罢了——换汤不换药。但是这一观念正是勃兰特和伍所渴望打破的。他们希望能生产出一种增强智力和反应力又对人体无害的益智食品。在产品包装上，他们用糖果包装取代了原来的药片包装，也是出于这样的考虑。

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. “In principle, I can reach that state on my own,” Brandt said. “When I first started using nootropics, what I thought was really cool is that they can help me reliably get into that state. I can take full advantage of that time every time.”

不过他们很快补充说，咖啡块并不能代替艰苦的劳动，它只能用于提神醒脑和激活思维。勃兰特说：“其实凭我自己的意志也能达到那种状态。但当我第一次吃益智药物的时候，我发现它确实可以有效地帮助我达到那种状态，这让我觉得很酷。每当这时候，我的效率就特别高。”