“There’s obviously something there,” said Function Drinks CEO Alex Hughes. “But it’s not where we wanted to take our product line. Life is too fast-paced.”
Maybe, but that might be the argument for taking a little time out. And recently, a few products have begun to creep into the discussion that address that area directly: nascent juice company M13 has a calm/detox formula with schizandra berry extract and chrysanthemum flowers, as well as standard functional brain helpers like ginseng and ginkgo. Blue Cow (take that, Red Bull!) Relaxation Drink is even intended to “reduce the negative effect of caffeine,” reduce stress and ease nervousness. R&R is a new drink that features valerian and Tryptophan, that post-Thanksgiving sleep inducer. Some, like Dreamerz, are more directly addressing sleep, that ultimate state of relaxation, via melatonin. Others encourage tranquility through valerian root or kava-kava.
But there is a pair of ingredients becoming more popular in the market that may have the potential to lift calm to the next level: L-theanine and GABA. Popular in other cultures and headed for mainstream uses in the U.S., if either of these amino acids become well known, there’s a distinct possibility that the snoozer might soon stop being the loser.
Thinking about L-theanine
As if green tea, with its purported fat burning and antioxidant properties, didn’t have enough going for it functionally these days, say hello to L-theanine. The amino acid is believed to have the dual effect of bringing on a feeling of calmness within users, but also allowing them to focus on the task at hand – truly a “killer app” in the task-oriented U.S.
Even Hughes, whose Function Drinks are intentionally geared away from calm, admits “L-theanine has awesome science behind it.”
There’s also a lot of money riding behind L-theanine these days. In 2007, the FDA affirmed an assertion by the company Taiyo International that its L-theanine product, Suntheanine, is Generally Accepted as Safe (GRAS). Since then, the company has moved to make deals with a number of food and beverage companies. The product is already available in b-relaxed and Blue Cow. In the not too distant future it’s easy to predict that manufacturers will start noting the presence of L-theanine in their own products, in much the way that tea makers rushed to promote their levels of EGCG after Coke’s Enviga used the “fat burning” amino acid, present in many teas, as the basis for its marketing pitch.
L-theanine’s properties have led it to be used in many different ways. PepsiCo has combined it with Yerba Mate – a stimulant – in “Enlighten,” part of its latest iteration of SoBe Life Water.
Others see the so-called “tea effect” as the key to drawing the line between a calming beverage and one that puts consumers right to sleep. When Bill Dolan and Mario Glover were developing R&R, which uses Tryptophan, among other things, to provide instant relaxation, they also turned to green tea – and L-theanine – to help provide mental sharpness.
“If you think about it, a lot of people already go to alcohol because it creates instant relaxation, but it creates kind of a mushy mind,” Dolan said. “With us, you get a change in attitude, but you become mentally sharper over the next few
hours.”
Gabbing about GABA
GABA is an amino acid that is already a key part of brain function, as it is considered by clinicians to be the brain’s major inhibitory neurotransmitter – that is, it plays the role of guide in the brain, helping to direct the flow of various ions across neural synapses. Drugs or substances that increase the amount of GABA in the brain have been known to have relaxing effects.
GABA has been used in supplements in the U.S. already, but not for relaxation purposes. As an amino acid, it’s been popular among bodybuilders for several years as part of a series of supplements that are believed to combine to enhance strength and muscle mass. That kind of functionality could hurt GABA’s acceptance, according to Morgan.
“If it’s pretty popular in the sports nutrition industry, that might have a bit of a negative connotation,” he said. Another issue is that studies have not yet concluded that ingested GABA is a bioavailable compound. In other words, while there is proof that there are substances that can make consumers feel better by stimulating an increase in the body’s manufactured GABA, that doesn’t necessarily mean that GABA, when taken as a supplement, is going to provide the same effect.
Physical effects aside, GABA has definitely caused a financial effect in Japan, where its status as a calm inducing functional product means that, as an ingredient, it has crossed over from chocolate into a number of beverages, including the Coca-Cola Co.’s blockbuster Georgia Coffee drink.
Datamonitor’s Productscan indicates that at least 15 new GABA-enhanced beverage products have come onto the market in Japan since last January. But the big debut in the U.S. isn’t expected until next year, when Jones Soda rolls out its own GABA drink. The company bought the U.S. rights to Pharma GABA, a naturally-produced form of GABA manufactured by the Japanese company Pharma Foods International. The company has a shell web site set up for its GABA initiative, but it’s still tinkering with the product, according to Jones Soda executives.
GABA’s potential may lie in other consumer packaged good sectors, of course, and Jones could still get beaten to the punch, especially with the first drinks delayed almost a year from what was supposed to be a January 2008 introduction. But the company has made it clear it believes in the compound’s potential, and if its phenomenal growth in Japan finds a similar cultural hook in the U.S., there could be plenty of opportunities for food and beverage to provide relaxation across a variety of delivery media.