Meet the First Nicotine Energy Drink

when parody becomes reality

Craving the Zyn, not the Zen

A few weeks ago, the New York Times reached out to chat about people drinking coffee buckets (yes, you read that right) my response being this isn’t surprising considering I predicted we had entered the era of “cocaine induced opulence” a sharp pendulum swing from the past decade of adaptogenic and mushroom coffees. America wants to be stimulated again, from Monster lattes to caffeinated chips, there’s no surprise GenZ is leaning heavily into smoking and nicotine pouches like Zyn, if you go back in time, we’re talking about a generation that was coming into adulthood during a worldwide pandemic, being lockdown during the prime of their youth, it’s no wonder they are yearning to come out of that slumber.

Productivity, performance and palpitations—take Sebastian Campos, a UT dropout who started Adrafül, an energy drink featuring adrafinil, a stimulant medication used to promote wakefulness, in typical GenZ fashion, it uses a drop like model where you can pre-order, and it’s become a popular and somewhat controversial drink in the startup/tech scene, Balajis, CTO of Coinbase, calls nootropics like these, Ozempic but for IQ. It’s 2025 and coffee isn’t going to cut it anymore, social media is filled with people posting about pairing Zyn and energy drinks as the perfect productivity combination, so it comes to no surprise that someone would eventually heed the call.

In what can only be described as a prophetic vision, more than 15 years, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! featured a skit called Cigarette Juice, about a nicotine energy drink in 2009, at a time where cigarettes were getting their taboo treatment, and as with everything in 2025, parody became reality. Jayme Nabor’s background is in real estate, and in his pursuit of building a café lifestyle brand in Fort Walton called Beach Weekend, he ended up building the first nicotine energy drink in the US. Nicotina Energy debuted this summer, a product that has been brought to life alongside Nic and Jet Fuel co-host Bret Divine and CPG veteran, BJ Mccaslin from Holy Water and Vita Coco (cafe), I had to give him a call to get more insight into this product and the incredible timing surrounding this launch.

When I asked what their GTM strategy was, Jayme said they are DTC and looking into the “grey market smoke shops” —when I asked about the legality of it, he said they’ve been working with lawyers to make sure everything is compliant, right now they are being treated in the same category as kratom (however, the FDA has recently moved to restrict kratom). I told Jayme I wasn’t shocked to see this type of product, back in 2000s, there was an actual nicotine water that would eventually be banned, and two decades later, the FDA has actually greenlit the marketing of once controversial nicotine products like Zyn. Biohackers and podcasters that have great influence over the American population, particularly men, both Rogan and Huberman have talked extensively about the health benefits of nicotine. Jayme said they are looking to take the dirty stigma from nicotine in dirty mechanisms like smoking, according to their website the first batches of Nicotina Energy ship in early September.

At a time where Americans can’t really afford the zen, but they crave Zyn—nicotine energy drinks may just be, what revitalizes an entire nation.