Finally A Drink That Makes You Smart

The active ingredients in Smart Drinks are amino acids, essential nutrients found in all proteins. Amino acid products have been sold as health foods for years. Some are currently marketed under suggestive names such as Focus or Go For It, although the makers carefully avoid claiming that they make you smarter. There is no evidence that they are harmful in small doses, but experts say there is no evidence of their benefits. “The whole thing sounds like quackery to me,” says Raymond Newberry, deputy director of regulatory guidance at the Food and Drug Administration.

Smart Drinks are not for everyone on the nightclub scene. Roger Russell, 29, a San Francisco window washer sipping a $3 Mind Mix at Big Heart City, said he enjoys lifting “the veil of alcohol” from his conversations. But not everyone wants to be his own permanent Designated Driver. “If anything, I feel sober,” said college student Stephanie Schmauss. “I don’t really like it.”