SCRUPLE — Focus Base, dosed to your body weight

01 — The problem

One can. One scoop. Everybody.

Caffeine's effect scales with body mass — which is why sports-science dosing has always been written in mg per kilogram, not mg per container. The shelf ignores this completely.

2.1×

The same tin, twice the dose

A 160 mg can delivers about 2.1 mg/kg to a 165 lb adult and about 4.4 mg/kg to a 79 lb teenager. Identical product, radically different pharmacology.

1 : 1.25

A ratio nobody respects

The attention benefit that made theanine famous was measured at specific pairings — 200 mg theanine against 160 mg caffeine, for instance (RCT). Fixed cans cannot hold a ratio across body weights.

45 ppm

Ingredients that are theatre

Taurine appears at 1,000–3,000 mg in most cans. The only FDA GRAS notice found covers 45 ppm in enhanced water (GRN 586) — roughly a fiftieth of the label dose.

Macro photograph of a brass measuring scoop heaped with fine white crystalline powder on aged parchment.

02 — Your dose

Tell it what you weigh.

The same engine behind our clinical dosage calculator, applied to the pouch. Caffeine target at 2.0 mg/kg, held inside the 40–160 mg band the trials actually used. Theanine follows at 1 : 1.25 and stops at 250 mg. Nothing extrapolates past its evidence.

Body weight

Core L-theanine, electrolytes, flavour base. Everything in it has acute support when paired with caffeine. Daily driver Core plus citicoline 250 mg. Only worth it at genuinely daily use for four weeks or more. Hard day Adds L-tyrosine for acute stress or short sleep — the only context it has evidence in. Expect a cloudy suspension.

Your caffeine target — sourced separately

150 mg

About one and a half 100 mg capsules, or a single 150 mg tablet. We do not ship caffeine: the FDA treats highly concentrated consumer caffeine powder as adulterated, and a kitchen scoop cannot measure it safely.

Core · one serving

4.58 g

Ingredient	Per serving

Mix into 350 mL cool water, stir 30 seconds, and take your caffeine alongside it. Allow 45–60 minutes — the attention effects in the trials were measured at the 60-minute timepoint, not immediately.

03 — What is in it

Nine ingredients that can defend themselves.

Shown at the 75 kg Core serving. The erythritol is not there for sweetness — at roughly 1.0% in 350 mL it is the level above which it measurably suppresses bitterness, and it is what makes a 4.58 g serving large enough to scoop accurately in the first place.

Overhead still life of separated piles of white crystalline powder, cream powder, dried green tea leaves, ginseng root slices and coarse crystals on aged parchment with a brass scoop and tweezers.

Core tier · 75 kg adult · caffeine target 150 mg
Ingredient	Amount	Why
L-Theanine	190 mg	The active core, at 1 : 1.25 against the caffeine target
Erythritol	3,500 mg	Bitterness suppression and scoopable bulk
Sodium (citrate)	200 mg	Palatability and buffer
Potassium (citrate)	150 mg	Rounds the flavour; salts improve Reb M taste
Citric acid	300 mg	Tartness
Natural flavour	150 mg	Citrus or berry
Malic acid	50 mg	Softens the citric edge
Reb M steviol glycoside	40 mg	Less bitter and astringent than Reb A
Total powder mass	4.58 g

04 — What is not in it

The omissions are the argument.

Four ingredients that every competitor carries, and the specific reason each one failed. Note that cutting them made the formula cheaper — the evidence-led version is also the lower-cost version, which tells you what they were doing on those labels.

Taurine

Cut

Its absorption peaks at 1–2.5 hours against caffeine's 15–60 minutes, a mismatch that "may limit their synergistic effects" (network meta-analysis). No standalone cognitive evidence at the doses used, and the only GRAS notice located covers 45 ppm in enhanced water (GRN 586).

Mega-dose B vitamins

Cut

The 500%-of-RDA B-complex on energy labels is cosmetic in adults who are not deficient. It buys a bright panel and a yellow tint, not attention. Where a B vitamin earns a place it is at a sane amount, not a headline multiple.

Creatine

Chemistry

It degrades to creatinine in acidic solution — roughly 21% lost at pH 3.5 (GRN 931). Any acidic ready-to-drink product carrying a creatine claim is selling you a number measured at the filler, not at your mouth.

Caffeine itself

By design

The FDA treats highly concentrated caffeine sold to consumers in bulk powder as adulterated, and for good reason — the difference between a dose and a hospital visit is a fraction of a teaspoon. Yours comes from a pre-measured capsule, tablet, or your own coffee.

05 — The ritual

Three minutes, once a morning.

Step 01

Measure to you

Enter your weight once. The pouch ships with a scoop calibrated to your band, so the serving is yours rather than an average of everybody.

Six slim cream-coloured single-serve powder stick packs fanned in an arc on an aged oak table beside a brass scoop and spilled powder.

Step 02

Add your caffeine

A pre-measured capsule or tablet at your target, or the coffee you were going to drink anyway — roughly 95 mg per 8 oz brewed, 64 mg per espresso shot. Convenient, but imprecise, so the capsule wins on days that matter.

Log it against your daily total. The FDA cites 400 mg a day as the amount not generally associated with dangerous effects in healthy adults. Everything counts toward it.

Step 03

Wait the hour

Stir into 350 mL cool water and give it 45–60 minutes. The trials measured attention at the 60-minute mark. Products that promise an instant hit are describing a sugar rush.

Hands stirring a tall glass of water with a long brass spoon at an oak desk beside an open notebook, pencil and cup of coffee in warm morning light.

06 — Evidence

Every number here has a citation.

Including the inconvenient ones. If a claim only holds under a condition, the condition is printed next to it.

g = 0.27

Caffeine, on attention

Meta-analysis of 31 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials across 1,455 rested healthy adults: accuracy g = 0.27, reaction time g = 0.28, with doses ≥ 200 mg outperforming lower ones (PubMed).

38.1 ms

The pairing, under sleep loss

200 mg theanine with 160 mg caffeine in 37 overnight sleep-deprived adults improved hit rate (P = 0.02) and cut reaction time to hazards by 38.1 ms against placebo (P = 0.003) (PubMed). Attention-switching benefits appear at 60 minutes (RCT).

28 days

Citicoline needs patience

250 mg daily for 28 days reduced omission (p = 0.04) and commission (p = 0.03) errors (trial). No single-dose trial in healthy adults was found, so we say plainly: you will feel nothing on day one, and the Daily Driver tier is pointless if you use it occasionally.

200 mg

Where we stop, and why

EFSA finds single doses up to 200 mg of caffeine and 400 mg a day raise no safety concern for healthy adults (EFSA). Our 2.0 mg/kg target caps at 160 mg regardless of weight — a heavier body does not license an unstudied dose.

0.45 g/L

Tyrosine will look cloudy

Its solubility limit is 0.45–0.48 g/L (PubChem), so 750 mg in 500 mL stays a visible suspension no matter how hard you shake. Drink it promptly and swirl the glass — sediment left in the bottom is dose not taken.

Caveat

Theanine is not for every state

It "has been found to impair executive function and lower attentional control when people are in an emotionally aroused state" (Examine). If you need aggression rather than calm focus, this is the wrong product and we would rather say so here than in a refund email.

07 — Founding batch

Three hundred pouches, then we reassess.

We are not pretending this is a finished company. The formula is specified, the costing is done, and the first blend runs when the batch is committed. A refundable $10 deposit is how we find out whether this should exist.

Front view of the SCRUPLE kraft pouch on a warm parchment background, black letterpress label with gold SCRUPLE lettering and an ochre wax seal.

Batch just opened

SCRUPLE Focus Base

$39 $52 ≈ $1.30 / serving

30 servings, Core tier, caffeine-free
Scoop calibrated to your weight band
Founding price locked for as long as you subscribe
The full formulation spec, citations included — we publish what is in it

Deposit today $10

Applied to your $39 order. Refundable in full, any time before the batch ships, no questions and no form. If we cannot make the formula work, everybody is refunded automatically.

Reserve my place — $10

Reserved0 / 300

Not ready to commit? Just keep me posted — no deposit, no card, and we will email you when the batch opens.

08 — Questions

The ones that actually get asked.

Why on earth would I buy a focus product with no caffeine in it?+

Because caffeine is the one ingredient you can already buy accurately, cheaply, and in a pre-measured form — and because shipping it as loose powder is the single most dangerous thing a supplement company can do. The FDA treats highly concentrated bulk caffeine sold to consumers as adulterated precisely because a teaspoon can be a lethal dose. What is genuinely hard to get right is everything around it: theanine at the trialled ratio to your dose, electrolytes for palatability, and a bitterness-suppressing base. That is what you are buying.

Is 2.0 mg/kg a real number or did you invent it?+

It is a conservative point inside the range the literature uses. Caffeine dosing in sports and cognitive science is conventionally expressed per kilogram, and the trials our formula is built on ran between 40 and 200 mg. We target 2.0 mg/kg and then clamp hard at 160 mg, so a 100 kg adult gets 160 mg rather than the 200 mg the arithmetic wants. EFSA's single-dose no-concern level is 200 mg, and we deliberately stay under it.

What does it taste like?+

Tart and light — closer to a citrus electrolyte drink than to an energy drink. L-theanine itself is sensory-neutral and highly water-soluble (PubChem), so it costs nothing in flavour. The erythritol at roughly 1.0% is doing real work suppressing bitterness rather than just sweetening. On the Hard Day tier the tyrosine will make it cloudy, and we would rather warn you than have you think the pouch is faulty.

When does it ship, and what happens to my deposit?+

The deposit reserves a place in the 300-pouch founding batch and comes off the $39 price. It is refundable in full at any point before the batch ships. If the batch does not fill, or the blend does not pass our own taste and solubility checks, every deposit is returned automatically and we will tell you exactly why. We are validating demand honestly — that means the downside is ours, not yours.

Is this safe, and who should not use it?+

The pouch contains no caffeine, so the safety question is really about the caffeine you add. Keep your daily total under the 400 mg the FDA cites for healthy adults, counting coffee and tea. Not for anyone under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding, sensitive to caffeine, or taking medication that interacts with it. Theanine can blunt attentional control in emotionally aroused states (Examine), so it suits calm focus rather than confrontation. Talk to your doctor before starting anything.

Is a can coming?+

Eventually, and we will not pretend otherwise about why it is slow. A ready-to-drink SKU carries $20,000–$45,000 in formulation work and a minimum order of 25,000 units, and there is an open regulatory question — the GRAS notices covering L-theanine list teas, fruit drinks and sports beverages, but not energy drinks. The powder lets us prove the formula is worth drinking before anybody spends that money. Deposit holders get the can first.