便宜又省時(shí)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(lái)自舊金山的企業(yè)家杰弗里·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(ài)好者一大清早對(duì)咖啡因的需求——可嚼的咖啡塊。每塊“來(lái)一口”咖啡含有35卡路里。它看起來(lái)雖小，但咖啡因含量相當(dāng)于半杯咖啡。所以，如果某一天你睡過(guò)頭來(lái)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(lái)一口”咖啡塊的成分不含肉類。它的配方很特殊，可以用來(lái)增強(qiáng)記憶力和反應(yīng)能力。它外表看起來(lái)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(rèn)知能力，茶氨酸則可以減輕咖啡因帶來(lái)的焦慮現(xiàn)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、拿鐵和摩卡。

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(guò)眾籌募集了接近4萬(wàn)美金，現(xiàn)在“來(lái)一口”咖啡塊已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好推廣到全球。每盒“來(lái)一口”有四塊，每六盒的價(jià)格為20.70美元，按杯算的話相當(dāng)于每杯咖啡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?cè)贗ndiegogo眾籌網(wǎng)頁(yè)面上的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，“每塊咖啡的凈含量、濃度和各項(xiàng)成分比例等都是經(jīng)過(guò)全程保密和同行審閱得到的。這些數(shù)據(jù)也證明了咖啡塊效果明顯并且對(duì)人體無(wú)害。”在制作時(shí)，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(rèn)知和反應(yīng)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(shuō)：“我們生產(chǎn)咖啡塊就是為了迎合人們對(duì)咖啡的熱愛(ài)，繼而生產(chǎn)出一種能有效提高認(rèn)知能力、價(jià)廉味美又方便攜帶和分享的產(chǎn)品。如今我們擁有優(yōu)質(zhì)的產(chǎn)品和醒目又實(shí)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(tīng)起來(lái)很棒，但或許你還是覺(jué)得“來(lái)一塊”不過(guò)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(chǎn)出一種增強(qiáng)智力和反應(yīng)力又對(duì)人體無(wú)害的益智食品。在產(chǎn)品包裝上，他們用糖果包裝取代了原來(lái)的藥片包裝，也是出于這樣的考慮。

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(guò)他們很快補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，咖啡塊并不能代替艱苦的勞動(dòng)，它只能用于提神醒腦和激活思維。勃蘭特說(shuō)：“其實(shí)憑我自己的意志也能達(dá)到那種狀態(tài)。但當(dāng)我第一次吃益智藥物的時(shí)候，我發(fā)現(xiàn)它確實(shí)可以有效地幫助我達(dá)到那種狀態(tài)，這讓我覺(jué)得很酷。每當(dāng)這時(shí)候，我的效率就特別高。”