Show HN: Noocaf, enhanced coffee for better focus | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Noocaf, enhanced coffee for better focus

noocaf.com

23 pointsordobey14 comments

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Those testimonials looked suspicious.

It took me all of 2 minutes to do an image search on Google against Natasha West and Kyle Stevens

Natasha West : https://unsplash.com/photos/QXevDflbl8A

Kyle Stevens : https://www.bestdentistguide.com/whitening-veneers/

Apparently https://www.magicmoonlamps.com/ thought this was a great idea too.

They used a similar photo but called the guy Floyd instead of Kyle.

If you're putting fake testimonials for your products, please don't. It's disingenuous and people can find out really quickly.

Thanks for pointing this out!

These are actually remnants from before we launched and are placeholders from before we had any reviews.

We only launched a month ago so will be changing these out today for the actual reviews you can see on the product page!

Hmm, this excuse sounds familiar...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/health-startup-ubiome-used-stoc...

Call it what you will, but I stand by what I said.

Testimonials have been changed and are no longer stock.

The ingredients look very similar to most energy drinks.

The only one I don't recognize is Alpha GPC, the rest are standard components of a multivitamin with amino acids.

Crush one of those into your coffee if you really must.

$32 for a 340g bag of ground coffee + vitamins? The goose won't lay eggs forever.

There are some similarities, yes.

However what I believe to be very powerful is the caffeine + l-theanine combination (https://noocaf.com/blogs/articles/caffeine-theanine). On top of this we added ingredients that help to further reduce any jitters so you don't get pangs of anxiety with coffee (as a surprising number of people do, even to the point of not drinking coffee anymore) and some that are in general good for cognition and brain health.

As for the price: we aren't a mega corporation. It's not cheap to start something like this, but I aim to reduce prices as we scale.

There is very little evidence for the efficacy of any of these compounds in humans.

Supplements are unregulated and this marketing page takes advantage of that and other unregulated areas such as the use of the word “natural” (anything can legally be called natural, all natural or 100% natural) as well as fake testimonials. At an absurd price this is cashing in on the high-cost wellness fad. Compared to buying fancy beans and some supplements you can get the caffeine from the coffee and whatever you’re convinced the supplements do for much less.

Hi I’m Jack, Noocaf founder.

Thought I’d provide a bit of a background into what (and why) Noocaf is:

As with a lot of businesses, Noocaf started as a problem I wanted to fix for myself. I’ve always been a big coffee fan, both of its taste and its effect profile. I’ve also always been into self improvement through mediums like working out, meditating, and nootropics.

My routine with coffee used to be that I would make a cup and either put l-theanine powder into the drink or take an l-theanine capsule so that I was getting what is by far my favorite and in my opinion the most underrated nootropic combo.

As someone who likes to experiment and optimise I soon wanted to add more nootropics to my routine, though quickly realised that I’d be that guy who was drinking coffee and having 5 or 6 pills at the same time (or dumping a whole bunch of white powder into my coffee) to get the effect that I wanted. This may not be an image many people want to paint of themselves and definitely not the simplest way to get the effects I was looking for.

So I thought, as long as the taste of the coffee isn’t tainted by extra ingredients: why not just find a way to infuse these nootropics into the coffee blend and make my own great tasting coffee enriched with the nootropics I wanted to consume on a daily basis?

What’s super interesting to me is the idea of coffee with purpose. There are so many nootropics and supplements out there that can be utilized to make a coffee for focus, for working out, fasting, and more. I think the idea of getting more out of a simple cup of coffee and having it be tailored to an effect profile is something definitely worth exploring.

Our first product is the Focus blend, which is designed with high performance in mind. We carefully selected these nootropics to complement the caffeine, enhancing the brain-boosting effects. They also improve brain functionality and health, as well as providing benefits to memory and recall. This special mix of attention-sharpening and calming ingredients results in a relaxed and focused state of mind.

I think a big market for Noocaf is those who are put under heavy cognitive strain for long periods of time, so wanted to post here and see what you all think and hopefully come away with some good feedback for improvement.

Does it come with electrolytes?

It does not currently but pre/post workout blends in the future likely will.

Have you considered adding creatine? It reduces fatigue in cases of sleep deprivation, and for vegetarians it boosts IQ a little bit.

It dissolves well and doesn't have much taste. It's inconvenient to take as capsules or powders, because the volume you'd want is so high.

https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

Sorry bub but fancy marketing and branding is going to convince that your coffee is anything more than beans + a couple common supplements.

It's got what geeks crave.

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