Angus Brown’s fresh-out-of-uni job selling New Zealand’s and Australia's most popular energy drink was powering along nicely when he realised that not everything about that highly caffeinated beverage sat well with him.

“I saw the rise in sales of fizzy drinks and began questioning if I was doing any good selling high-sugar, high-caffeine drinks to young people. “I wondered why we couldn’t make something that was good for the brain, good for health and good for mental wellness.”

Angus had become acutely aware of the importance of mental health after losing a friend in his teenage years, then two grandparents, to brain-related illnesses. He started wondering if a beverage could help mental wellness and if it could be made from unique New Zealand ingredients.

His great mate from university, Zac Robinson, was equally interested in creating a drink that could help mood. He, himself, was some way along the road of mental stress thanks to high-powered design roles (initially in Australia and then with Arrival, the London-based Nasdaq-listed Hyundai-Kia-owned electric-vehicle company).

“I was a young designer in a stressful job with a lot of anxiety and I’d had my first panic attack. And then Angus said, ‘Let’s make a drink that can reduce anxiety and help improve mental health.’ I thought, ‘I need this myself.’”

After persistent efforts, they engaged the attention of a professor of human psychopharmacology (based in Melbourne), who was hired to optimise the formula and begin the scientific research required to back the claims for benefits they hoped the beverage could offer consumers.

Ārepa, which is te reo Māori for “alpha”, a word chosen for the unique frequency of alpha waves found in the brain, is now a vibrant brand of several beverages, a powder, capsules and freeze-dried blackcurrants.

Ārepa products are sold in Coles and 950+ supermarkets throughout Australasia, specialty food stores, cafés, restaurants, and an online store that grew rapidly during the lockdowns of 2020.

Professor Andrew Scholey, a botanical neuroscientist based at Melbourne’s Monash University (previously the director of human psychopharmacology at Swinburne University for 12 years), recently joined Ārepa as chief scientific adviser. He is impressed by the company’s focus on research and science. “There hasn’t been a blockbuster drug developed for the brain in decades. However, certain foods seem to nudge the brain processes in the right direction, including the Mediterranean diet. Blackcurrant (especially the variety used in Ārepa beverages and powders) looks promising as it can inhibit monoamine oxidase.

“This MAO-enzyme inhibitor effect — the same mechanism used in antidepressant drugs — shows there might be a role in preventing the breakdown of neurotransmitters. While there are no magic bullets, there is science to show that Ārepa products can affect mood, attention and cognitive function similar to the impacts of caffeine without the side-effects.”

A recent meta-analysis (a study of all the published literature) on New Zealand blackcurrants found their effects could boost sporting performance and outperform caffeine.

“At the end of the day,” says Zac, “we want to make brains work better and to prove it.The consumer has every reason to be cautious as they have been lied to in the past. We invest in science rather than marketing billboards.”

Ārepa currently has six clinical studies underway or near completion.