Last night, Jones Soda Co. and boco (A specialized product company representing the Jones Soda Co.) graciously sent our staff a pack of their new, delicious, not-quite-an-energy-drink-but-looks-like-one-drink called GABA.

The drinks are marketed towards college-students. ‘Focus + Clarity’ is their tag line and I have to say that it works. Normally we slave away at producing the paper until 2 a.m. or later. But after my two cans of GABA, I was done with my pages and out of the newsroom only a little after 10 p.m! It may have to do with the myriad of ads our ad manager sold, taking up space, OR it could be this new mystery drink. Who knows?

GABA comes in four flavors. The Nectarine Tea-Juice was our favorite. They all have some sort of tea, about 20 grams of sugar and less than 100 calories. And they all have something called Inverted Cane Sugar. What is that? Sugar flipped upside down?

The GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, infused drink has just been released here in the U.S. It is based on popular food and beverages in Japan that have some form of GABA, a neurotransmitter, in them. To me, it wasn’t just like the other sugary, hyper-creating, bad-smelling energy drinks. It was a bit more sophisticated and toned down. Call this the red-wine of energy drinks.

GABA is supposedly coming to Nebraska by semester’s end (at least that’s what the press release said) so if you’re quite not getting all that finals studying in, try this new concoction and ‘get your focus on.’