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There is an increasing thirst for soft drinks. During the past few years, a a wave of booze-free bars they opened their doors all over the world; more and more young people are zebra striping between drinks, as a sign of a change in taste, last summer, Guinness tripled production of his solid stout.
From non-alcoholic spirits and alcoholic beverages without alcohol wine and beerthe sober curiosity movement shows no signs of slowing down, and Gen Z and millennials are practicing moderation. But while alcohol-free concoctions offer a convincingly similar taste, what if they could give you the same great buzz without the hangover and debilitating hangover the morning after?
For yearsDavid Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London and co-founder of GABA Labs, toyed with the idea of a synthetic alcoholic drink that mimics the same euphoric effects of alcohol, without any of the weekend-ruining hangovers. Think about it Star Treksynthechol came to life.
As of 2016, the former drug kingpin who was gloriously dismissed after declaring that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD are less harmful than alcohol, he is working on developing such a molecule. In 2021, GABA Labs launched Sentia Spirits, the world’s first plant-based spirit that is 0% ABV but still gets you tipsy. “It’s a drink that’s based on the science of alcohol, specifically low-dose alcohol that relaxes you and makes you more social,” says Nutt The Independent.
Sentia is what Nutt calls a “GABA spirit”. GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, to give it its full name, is an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain that produces a calming effect. When you drink an alcoholic beverage, those alcohol molecules bind to GABA receptors and cause the sedative, relaxing effects of GABA to increase.
Scientists (including Nutt) have long studied plants such as valerian root and theirs effect on GABA. “We’ve spent years researching the biochemistry of plants to find those that contain GABA molecules, as well as those that have relaxation and calming effects,” Nutt explains.
By combining various GABA-enhancing and GABA-promoting herbs into the mix, Nutt says he and his team were able to develop “an effective alternative to low-alcohol drinking.” Basically, it’s a non-alcoholic drink that will give you the comfort to tell secrets, smooth out the wrinkles of a hard day and relax in the evening.
Sentia currently produces two different spirits – Sentia Red and Sentia Black. Sentia red is the drink you turn to when you need to relax on a Wednesday night or are looking for a drink for a first date. With different herbs, as well as the basic ingredient GABA, Sentia black is a more active drink for wider social occasions and parties.
Does it work for everyone? “It depends on people’s different sensitivities,” says Nutt. “There’s evidence that your GABA system becomes a little less sensitive when you drink a lot of alcohol, and if you’re really drunk, to be honest, you might not have much of an effect at all.”
But effective as it may or may not be, Sentia isn’t the end goal, just a stop on the way to finding a GABA-enhancing ingredient that mimics the positive effects of alcohol. The molecule, which Nutt calls alcarelle, is what he hopes will be something that drinks companies can license in the future so they can add it to soft beers, spirits and wines. “It’s a big challenge,” he says. “We’ve made molecules that perform that function, but we haven’t yet optimized one that we want to put through food and safety testing.”
CBD-infused soft drinks such as The journey and Otto have also been on the rise in recent years, although Sentia claims that while CBD drinks and Sentia do the same job (using neurotransmitters in the brain to relax you), the amounts available in CBD drinks are not enough to give you the same effects as Sentia or, in the future , alcarelle.
GABA Labs says it hopes to have the FDA testing alcarella in the U.S. by 2026, with the ingredient available for purchase by 2027. Until then, for those trying to give up alcohol, Sentia’s blend of herbal spirits could be the solution. But does it really work? Did it make us tipsy? And how does it taste? We put it to the test to see if GABA-based soft drinks are the future.