The rise of mood-boosting booze alternatives

Karma Campbell calls Sonder Smoulder “sustainable rocket fuel”, but his canned cocktail range has nothing to do with outer space and is far more about finding inner peace. The Smoulder is one of his range of 0% alcohol adult drinks infused with uplifting botanicals. A Sonder ‘GnT’ is called a “social battery booster. Because these are not just non-alcoholic fizzy drinks, they provide adult flavours and adult feelings.” His Karmaceuticals range includes functional drinks and tinctures dispensed from a pipette, which all mildly alter one’s mood in different ways, part of a developing consumer landscape serving those looking for a middle way between the old unhealthy highs and the challenge of doing life sober.

Some of these drinks, while legal, will leave you feeling more “dosed” than others. In a recent experiment with two family members who normally choose not to drink, I shared Professor David Nutt’s Sentia, which enhances the effects of the hormone GABA, which is totally crucial to the effect of relaxation and sociability that we get from alcohol. Certainly in our house, Sentia volubly raised levels of fun, laughter and joy. One regular user calls it, “a game-changer.” 

Professor David is one of the world’s foremost addiction specialists, a pioneer of the 21st Century’s era of research into psychedelics as psychiatric medicines, and better placed than almost anyone in the world to understand what it is about alcohol that humans so love (and hate, simultaneously). He explains why white-knuckling sobriety is so damn hard. ”Humans are social creatures. We love being with other people but many of us find socialising makes us a bit anxious.” Alcohol, or more accurately, the ethanol, has effects on gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA, a neurotransmitter that calms the brain and increases nice feelings. “Enhancing GABA reduces this anxiety and allows us to socialise more easily.”

Professor David has worked with a company called GABA Labs to create an (as yet) unlicensed alcohol mimic called Alcarelle. For now his three types of Sentia are his only offering in the “mood-boosting” space. Professor David says it is designed to give, that, “First-drink feeling,” as he describes it, thanks to a blend of botanicals that increase the effectiveness of your brain's natural GABA and help the absorption of GABA enhancers into your body and across the blood brain barrier.

While GABA is crucial to alcohol’s action, Sentia, and other mood-boosting drinks that engage the GABA systems have a different action to alcohol. It is impossible to get drunk on Sentia, no matter how many glasses you drink. Professor David doesn’t claim to break the mould, “For centuries people have used botanicals for relaxing and reducing anxiety so we just sought out those that research told us did this via enhancing GABA.”

Professor David pulls an interesting crowd given his status as an academic folk hero who calls out unscientific inconsistencies in government policymaking. I arrived late to a talk by him, and feeling tired and a bit shy, I noted the lack of alcoholic beverages with some irritation. Knocking back two Sentias in a row because I was thirsty, I was delighted and surprised by the ensuing whoosh of euphoria. GABA is an over the counter health aid in Japan and the US, but in the UK and EU it is classed as a psychoactive substance. Professor David says this is ridiculous, but as such, his current Sentia blend can only ‘enhance’ our body’s GABA, not supplement it. While the no- and low-alochol options out there are very good at looking like and even tasting like a proper drink, the unmistakable absence of any mood-altering effect means that alcohol replacements will never, truly, replace them – unless we can do without mood-altering at all.

For now, the sector is so small it doesn’t even have an agreed category name yet. Brands to look for include beers called Collider, Impossibrew and Nuwave; Bella Hadid’s Kin Euphorics range of canned drinks are kind of mood-enhancing mocktails that contain a tonne of different nootropics, neurologically beneficial mushrooms and adaptogens such as ashwagandha. Collider’s Harry Cooke says interest in his just-launched mood-boosting beers has been “overwhelming” and that this niche drinks category has the potential to boom. He says the impact of these products is dependent on the individual. “We did a study and 73% felt an effect, from mild to strong, and of those, 15% felt a very pronounced effect.”

“The thing with adaptogens,” says Harry, “Is they work on lots of different pathways to take your brain back to its calmest state by reducing cortisol [stress], modulating serotonin [happiness], increasing alpha waves [calm happy post meditation vibes], but in this space, the really interesting one is GABA because that’s what our mind craves in social situations.” A modest dose of alcohol has what academic studies call, “pro-social effects” – it chills us out by directly stimulating GABA receptors in the brain. However, drinking more brings with it a cascade of other issues. 

Alcohol is now being broadly punted as entirely without benefit even at so-called low doses. This over-focus and scaremongering on booze’s physical harms neglects to look at the need we all have to relax and enjoy a social life in an ever faster, more physically disconnected and individualistic world. Professor David’s interest in finding an alcohol-y buzz grew from his lifetime’s work as an addiction psychiatrist, witnessing the harm done by humanity’s love of a mind-altering substance but also its innate need for it too.

Karmaceutical’s Karma Campbell, too, saw the potential harms done in the name of fun, sharing that he “was raised by parents in the free party and rave scene” and observed the tragic consequences of all kinds of substances on adults. Then, he witnessed the same but different mistakes among his own party-loving young Millennial peers. This motivated him to study for a degree in Western herbal medicine so that he could go on to develop a range of elixirs and drinks which enhance the mood in different ways. “I don’t think people realise there are legal alternatives,” Karma says. “People drink because they want confidence or relief from social anxiety, and while [alcohol] does briefly help, it doesn’t solve any issues long-term. Whereas with a functional drink it's all gains, all benefits: reduce anxiety, increase energy and connect naturally with people.” 

The Smoulder mocktail contains Turbo Tonic: a mix of adaptogens and other plants that release feel-good endorphins for “when you need a whoosh.” Social Fluency is a tincture with an alcohol-like effect, pressing GABA buttons for relaxation. While All Night Long is a “connection cultivator” for the dance floor and dates. Sharp Wits works by stimulating the cell’s battery, mitochondria, and bypasses the nervous system. “It enhances energy without interfering with neurochemistry. Meaning it’s a stimulant effect that is not going to interfere with sleep.” 

Karma’s fun-fuelling brand has strong values. “We source wild-crafted ingredients from sustainable sources, are rigorous in quality control and will soon have direct links with our farmers across the world to ensure they have access to the latest equipment and information about permaculture,” he says. “Long term, we want to have a fleet of sail-powered yachts so that we can circumvent the eventual collapse of the shipping industry and get to an authentic carbon-neutral status.”

The rise of conscious drinking culture asks not that people give up drinking entirely but take instead a mindful approach to alcohol consumption. This isn’t just about units consumed, but also the impact of product on the planet. These brands use adaptogens grown and created using more planet-conscious means, which fits with this same audience’s thirst for lower-impact and more natural sources of joy. No hangovers and less of an environmental footprint. All the drinks mentioned here are vegan, causing less harm via animal agriculture, are packaged entirely in recyclable materials and require ingredients that need a low level of intervention in farming.

Last month, Karma opened the country’s first all-functional bar-craft cocktail bar at the urban wellness community, Shoreditch and Soul, where he serves functional shots during sober sauna raves. Meanwhile, several forward-thinking hospitality brands, including Dishoom, Soho House and Home Slice are including mood boosters on their drinks menus. Harry says the caveat emptor in the functional drinks space is knowing whether the drink contains enough active botanicals to give a noticeable buzz. “Not all mood boosters actually do what they say on the tin. Currently it’s a very small group of us developing really effective versions of these non-alcoholic products. I can’t think why. Moments normally served by alcohol are perfectly serviced by adaptogens.”

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