便宜又省時的可嚼咖啡塊

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.
來自洛杉磯的企業家傑弗裏·伍和邁克爾·勃蘭特最近提出了一種革命性的方法用以滿足咖啡愛好者一大清早對咖啡因的需求——可嚼的咖啡塊。每塊“來一口”咖啡含有35卡路里。它看起來雖小，但咖啡因含量相當於半杯咖啡。所以，如果某一天你睡過頭來不及泡杯新鮮咖啡的話，只要嚼兩塊就能出門啦。

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.
“來一口”咖啡塊的成分不含肉類。它的配方很特殊，可以用來增強記憶力和反應能力。它外表看起來像水果泡泡糖，但每塊都含有50毫克咖啡因、10毫克維生素B6和100毫克的茶氨酸（綠茶中也含有此類氨基酸）。維生素B6可以提升人的認知能力，茶氨酸則可以減輕咖啡因帶來的焦慮現象。每塊咖啡中也含有大約6克的砂糖。咖啡塊有三種口味：滴濾、拿鐵和抹茶。

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.
勃蘭特和伍通過衆籌募集了接近4萬美金，現在“來一口”咖啡塊已經準備好推廣到全球。每盒“來一口”有四塊，每六盒的價格爲20.70美元，按杯算的話相當於每杯咖啡1.73美元，這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.”
他們在Indiegogo衆籌網頁面上的數據顯示，“每塊咖啡的淨含量、濃度和各項成分比例等都是經過全程保密和同行審閱得到的。這些數據也證明了咖啡塊效果明顯並且對人體無害。”在製作時，茶氨酸和咖啡因的比例是2:1，“只消一塊咖啡，就可以大大提高人體認知和反應能力的效果。”

“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.”
他們說：“我們生產咖啡塊就是爲了迎合人們對咖啡的熱愛，繼而生產出一種能有效提高認知能力、價廉味美又方便攜帶和分享的產品。如今我們擁有優質的產品和醒目又實用的品牌，這讓我們感到驕傲。”

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.
雖然聽起來很棒，但或許你還是覺得“來一塊”不過是用巧妙的方式推銷一種提神醒腦的藥物罷了——換湯不換藥。但是這一觀念正是勃蘭特和伍所渴望打破的。他們希望能生產出一種增強智力和反應力又對人體無害的益智食品。在產品包裝上，他們用糖果包裝取代了原來的藥片包裝，也是出於這樣的考慮。

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.”
不過他們很快補充說，咖啡塊並不能代替艱苦的勞動，它只能用於提神醒腦和激活思維。勃蘭特說：“其實憑我自己的意志也能達到那種狀態。但當我第一次吃益智藥物的時候，我發現它確實可以有效地幫助我達到那種狀態，這讓我覺得很酷。每當這時候，我的效率就特別高。”