A Camberwell man has completed the first week of a thirty-day nootropic regimen costing $89, reporting a "noticeable lift in alertness" that his partner has gently pointed out is roughly the same lift he gets from his morning flat white, which he also still has.
The blend, a powder stirred into water and marketed as "cognitive support for high performers," arrived in a matte black tub with a scoop and a booklet. Its label lists lion's mane, ashwagandha, a proprietary "focus matrix," and, in smaller print towards the bottom, 90 milligrams of caffeine and 200 milligrams of L-theanine.
"I read a lot about stacking," he said. "The idea is that the compounds work together, so you get calm focus without the jitters. I've been tracking it in my notes app. Day four I wrote 'sharp.' Day five I wrote 'very sharp.'"
The tracking has been consistent, though it has run alongside his usual 7am flat white, which he said he saw no reason to stop, "because that's separate, that's just coffee." A single flat white contains roughly 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine.
His partner raised the overlap at breakfast on Thursday.
"I just said, so the focus powder is basically a second coffee with a nicer tub," she said. "He went very quiet. Then he said the theanine changes the experience of the caffeine, which is true, apparently. But he also said he'd had a headache since Tuesday, so."
The following morning, he forgot to take the blend entirely, drank the flat white, and wrote in his notes app: "Sharp. Possibly very sharp."
He has not mentioned this entry to his partner, but acknowledged it when asked.
"It's a small sample size," he said. "I'm going to finish the tub regardless. There's twenty-three days left and the scoop is quite nice."
Asked whether he would recommend the product, he said he would "probably wait until the end of the month before making a call," and then asked, a little carefully, whether anyone knew what an ordinary sachet of instant coffee cost per serve.