Startup project - school42 peer evaluations

Table of contents

Basic post project presentation

General information

Description of the startup.
SNICA offers a healthy alternative to cigarettes, vaping products, and nicotine replacement therapies, while delivering similar psychoactive effects.
Also, SNICA provides a pleasant consumption, good breath, and various health benefits, especially for oral health.

Why did you pick this idea to work on?
I would like to have the product myself.
It would drastically improve health of the population.
Cigarettes, vaping products, and nicotine replacement therapy form a 983 billion USD market, thus the market size is huge, enabling a unicorn.
I believe I have unique knowledge, giving me an unfair business advantage, which allowed me to know how to make this project feasible and which explains why it has not been done yet.
I don't think new technology will take over my current solution in the future.
I think the product is sufficiently superior to what is currently available to be worth buying even if the brand is initially unknown.

In what ways has your initial idea evolved since you began your startup journey?
As later described: I refined the first product version even if the fundamentals stayed the same; later I contemplated a new/second product version but that in the end I did not pursue; I generated new related ideas, realized better opportunities are awaiting me, and thus decided to pivot. This pivot would be towards: a healthy alternative to alcohol with similar psychoactive properties; or patenting the second product version for medical condition X.

About the product

Technical description of the product.
The consumption object would be a short stick that is held between lips to recreate the pleasant lip contact, or put in mouth for discreetness. The consumer would have part of the stick in mouth and other part outside of mouth, or everything inside the mouth. The inner part would melt relatively fast to release molecules. If held between lips, the consumer needs to reposition the stick partly in the mouth to keep consuming it and mimic the continuous hand-to-mouth action. Else keeping the product in the mouth creates a lozenge-like action which has been shown to also replace cravings to smoke. The released molecules will provide the psychoactive effects, health benefits, and pleasant taste. To mimic the fast action of nicotine, the psychoactive molecules will be modulated to allow rapid buccal absorption. Those released molecules are held in the mouth for a moment which creates: buccal absorption; a pleasant sensation and action; while allowing unique health benefits to the oral cavity.

What problems occurred and how were they solved?
I was unsure about how SNICA's active ingredients could be buccally absorbed. I resolved the issue by: first creating a plan myself via clear questions asked to chatGPT; subsequently consulting chemical engineers via freelancing to confirm or change my baseline plan.
I was unsure about the ideal SNICA product consumption method. I resolved the issue by laying out different options myself and later asking a lot of people what they prefer. But I received conflicting responses. In the end I came up with the idea of a consumption object allowing multiple consumption methods to make anyone happy.
The second product version didn't work well in practice for nicotine cessation during preliminary tests, next I realized it would be complicated to bring it to the market. I resolved the issue simply by returning to the first product version.
I don't have the money for conceiving the product in a lab, and thus I created a long list of potential financing options.
I was unsure about how to 'prove' my product. I resolved this issue by: diving deep into the associated science while referencing claims; and asking potential customers to try the MVP and sign a support letter for product development.

Proof of concept and current state of the product.
People want to consume sugar in a smart way, they use artificial sweeteners. SmartSweets exists because people want to consume candy in a smart way and it got sold for 360 million after 4 years. People will also want to consume nicotine in a smart way.
Letter of support for product development... Men, woman, smokers, vapers, and even non-smokers...
The users report SNICA to lose its effectiveness after 1h30m without knowing how long it should last which is aligned with how long it indeed is supposed to work, and thus indicates no placebo effect.
Chemical engineers from the conception lab Seda said the product idea is feasible. Right now the product hasn't been formatted into a buccally absorbable short stick yet via a conception lab like Seda, it only consists of the crude active ingredients replacing nicotine's psychoactive effect.

About your business plan

What is your business model?
I will sell in retail. Ideally, the pricing will be less than actual cigarettes. Clients should be recurrent. See more details below about: Customers; Sell and advertise.

What is your communication strategy? Do you already have customers and how have you contacted them?
I have had friends as customers who are helped by my product. But more so as a proof of concept and to help them. In the end, to later truly bring the product to the masses, I plan on using digital marketing.

Have you already raised founds? How have you planning on doing so?
No rounds have been raised. I plan on doing so after having a working product to show off and associated patent to protect the idea, or at least a business plan and working MVP with some patent.

What is the future of your project?
As explained below, I will pivot towards better opportunities who are related to this project. The pivot would be towards: a healthy alternative to alcohol with similar psychoactive properties; or patenting the second product version for medical condition X. Else I may come back to the actual original SNICA idea. Then I would need to finish writing all the referenced science behind why this product is better than nicotine; and continue the business plan for pitching investors.

Showcasing with more depth what can be shared

Basic pre project presentation

Name, logo and email of the startup.
The name will be: SNICA. SNICA stands for 'smart nicotine alternative'. The logo is not defined yet. The current email address is the one from the founder: tainmontarthur@icloud.com.

Description of the startup.
SNICA will provide a healthy alternative to cigarettes, vaping products and nicotine replacement therapy.

What is your startup going to make? Detailed description of your product from a technical point of view.
It will make a stick to hold between lips. The part lying in the mouth will melt to release psychoactive molecules who are transformed to allow fast buccal absorption. Those molecules create similar psychoactive properties as nicotine while being innocuous for the organism. The melting stick will also release other molecules who improve taste, smell and coloration of the product while providing various health benefits, especially for oral health and the microbiome, but ultimately the whole organism, and improving breath, lowering nausea, and improving cognition.

Why did you pick this idea to work on?
I would like to have the product myself.
It would drastically improve health of the population.
Cigarettes, vaping products, and nicotine replacement therapy form a 983 billion USD market, thus the market size is huge, enabling a unicorn.
I believe I have unique knowledge, giving me an unfair business advantage, which allowed me to know how to make this project feasible and which explains why it has not been done yet.
I don't think new technology will take over my current solution in the future.
I think the product is sufficiently superior to what is currently available to be worth buying even if the brand is initially unknown.

Can you target to have a prove of concept in some weeks? And, what is the timeline for bringing the final product to market?
It would take some weeks to define the exact product specifications. Then it would probably take another couple of weeks to produce the actual product in a lab. After that, another couple of weeks to bring it to market. Thus, in the best scenario, the product could come to market after 6 months.

Detailed description of your product from a customer point of view. What are you going to offer/which problem does your service solves?
SNICA solves the problem of nicotine products being unhealthy and creating bad breath by creating an alternative to improve health and breath. Just not using nicotine is not an option, some people have difficulties quitting nicotine, and some even never feel satisfied again after quitting as nicotine's psychoactive properties helps their neurochemistry.
The psychoactive molecules solve the problems: low mood, high stress, low attention and focus, low social function, low effortful behavior, low cognition, and daytime fatigue; like nicotine would to improve life quality and productivity.
Other molecules create a pleasurable consumption experience to solve the problem of boredom throughout the day. But also they improve health, especially oral health and the microbiome, but ultimately the whole organism's health, to solve the problem of society's modern lifestyle often being physically unhealthy. Lastly, they improve breath.
Ultimately, SNICA solves the problem of society's modern lifestyle being mentally and physically unhealthy for a lot of people, or that some in general have bad mental/physical health.

Are products or services in development or existing (and on the market)?
The product design is in development. But the product is not produced or on the market yet.

Who are your customers? How are you planning on contacting them?
Initially, the customers will be nicotine product users. Back when tobacco wasn't considered unhealthy, most adults smoked. Thus eventually, all adult humans, but maybe even adolescents, will be potential customers. Influencer marketing, availability in physical stores, and word of mouth can be used for advertisement.

Have you already raised rounds? How are you planning on doing so?
No rounds have been raised. I plan on doing so after having a working product to show off and associated patent to protect the idea, or at least a business plan and working MVP with some patent.

Why

We want to replace nicotine because:

We want to replace vaping because:

We want to replace tobacco:

We want to improve the populations' health with SNICA:

Product

Product needs

Ingredients

Contemplation

Inulin
Inulin would be great for microbiome health while being a sweetener. Inulin could positively affect halitosis. Maybe it could also positively affect blood-glucose by slowing down digestion. By slowing digestion it could also counteract diarrhea from excess xylitol.
However, inulin becomes like gum when in contact with water. The question is if inulin would be unpleasant by sticking between teeth? I should try it out myself.

Inulin has a sweetness level of about 10% to 30% that of sucrose.

Consensus:
Doesn't have advantages over other sweeteners. Its sweetness level is too low for the strong bitterness of methylliberine.

Xylitol
Xylitol will form the stick that then melts in mouth, while providing a sweet taste. This sweet taste will counteract methylliberine's bitter taste. Xylitol significantly improves oral health and could even treat halitosis due to dry mouth (1).

Xylitol has other benefits: it increases butyrate production and maybe slightly improves the microbiome composition (2). Xylitol could modulate the immune system to reduce infections, it improves bone health, and it increases satiety to reduce hunger and manage weight (3). It can chelate heavy metals (4).

After smoking cessation, a cough and sore throat develop for the lungs to clean themselves (1). Xylitol could improve the sore throat by coating the throat wall (2).
After smoking cessation, dry mouth may occur (3). Xylitol can treat dry mouth (4).
After smoking cessation, constipation may occur (3). Xylitol can improve this symptom (4).

Long-term ingestion of it can increase risk of heart-attack or stroke (1).
It can cause side-effects such as diarrhea, bloating and gas (2).

Xylitol sticks are sold as weighing 4g.
Above 40-50g a day, side-effects can start to occur. If spreading use, we may be able to go up to 50g a day. If the healthy upper limit of SNICA is 20 SNICAs, then, each SNICA can contain 2.5g of xylitol.
Else, we need to deduct dose from taste compared to the bitterness of methylliberine while experimenting.

Consensus:
Ginger, stevia, monk fruit, and chitosan could already improve oral health. Xylitol ingestion increases risk of heart-attack or stroke and thus should be avoided. Also, it is not useful as a sweetener due to being limited by the use of low doses to prevent diarrhea, bloating and gas.

Acacia gum
While high doses of xylitol could cause diarrhea, acacia gum could treat diarrhea. Aligned with this, it can slow the speed of fermentation of other fibers, to improve gut health via fermentation along the whole colon and to allow higher fiber consumption.
It could slow digestion and thus post-prandial-blood-glucose. It can increase satiety, lower hunger, to manage weight.
It can improve microbiome dysbiosis and increase butyrate (1). It could reduce GERD.
It can also improve the oral microbiome and as a result plaque and periodontitis (2). ^3eacd5

Acacia gum dissolves in water. Acacia gum doesn't have a taste. But is used in food and beverages primarily for its thickening, emulsifying, and stabilizing properties. Can also be used in food coatings to protect and extend shelf life.

Consensus:
Will potentially be used to prevent the problematic diarrhea side-effect of Xylitol. However, ginger could already counteract that diarrhea side-effect. Thus, acacia gum is not necessarily needed. If diarrhea persists it can be used, or if any of its other unique benefits are needed, such as color, preservation, thickening. However, ginger could also bring color, preservation and thickening. Ginger can also lower blood glucose, improve the microbiome and increase butyrate, lower obesity, improve oral health. It seems like acacia gum doesn't have benefits compared to ginger. Still, if ginger is not sufficient, acacia gum could be added, especially as an edible coating.
However, acacia gum could increase gas and bloating, while xylitol would too. On the other hand ginger lowers bloating via faster gastric emptying. ^95b67d

Cinnamon
Cinnamon could create a brown color like tobacco, improve taste.
Could improve the microbiome and lower inflammation (2).
Could improve memory, learning, anxiety, prevent cognitive decline, lower inflammation and oxidative-stress, lower cancer and boost immune system (1). Lowers depression and anxiety, cancer, heart-disease and cholesterol (3).
Lowers blood glucose, increases lifespan (4).
Activates PPARy and AMPK (4), which both can improve nicotine withdrawal (5).

Can improve oral health and halitosis, but it could lead to tooth discoloration (6).

Consensus:
Does not have unique benefits compared to ginger while it can discolor teeth, thus best avoided.

Menthol and other anti-nausea molecules
Menthol is found in mints and different types of mints exist. Peppermint has a 40% menthol concentration while spearmint only of 0.5%.

Menthol has a cool, refreshing sensation, while ginger brings a warm, spicy kick. Together, they create a contrast of hot and cold that can be invigorating. This combination is often found in herbal teas, throat lozenges, and some candies, where the menthol soothes and refreshes while the ginger adds depth and warmth.
Peppermint has a bold, sharp, and cooling taste with a slight bitterness.
If using them together, it’s best to let one be more dominant—ginger-forward for warmth with a hint of peppermint for freshness works well. Too much peppermint might overpower the ginger’s depth.
Because, peppermint oil demands less processing compared to pure menthol, it is less expensive.

Peppermint could have unique benefits on soothing mouth feeling, and maybe on improving breath fast depending on how effective ginger can really improve breath.

Mint could also help with nausea, gastric emptying, gut pain.
Some research indicates mint could even improve brain function, reducing anxiety while improving wakefulness and alertness. It could improve memory and learning while being neuroprotective.
Peppermint can also reduce pain. It could also treat headaches while headaches may be a side-effect of the psychoactive molecules. However, topical use is necessary for muscle related tension headaches.
It opens potassium channels thus it may negatively impact cognition, in the end it seems to have a neutral impact on acute cognition and has the potential to prevent cognitive decline by lowering inflammation.

Menthol may lower dopamine when used alone which is undesirable and make nicotine more addictive when used together which is also undesirable (1). Menthol could upregulate nicotinic receptors to make someone more sensitive to nicotine (1). Thus menthol may best be avoided. Interestingly menthol could also positively impact smell/taste of tobacco products to increase its consumption (1), which is a reminder towards the importance of smell/taste. ^ed1c26

Here are other natural compounds that can provide similar benefits (1). Those other molecules I could contemplate are: ginger, fisetin, capsaicin, thujone, but also boldine by improving health and blocking 5HT3. However, I don't think I need something else than ginger which I already chose as an ingredient.

Consensus:
Menthol and peppermint should be avoided because they can make nicotine more addictive. Other anti-nausea molecules are not interesting knowing how effective ginger is.

Teeth whitening
Purple dye may be an interesting ingredient that could whiten teeth.
Purple would indeed be the color of mixing the blue and red pill together. However, using such strong colors could create an artificial and childish appears that could be repulsive to some people. To not be too alienating you may prefer a color similar to tobacco products.
Also I don't think it will be applied homogeneously to all teeth thus it won't whiten well, on the other hand it could appear on the gums as purple, it could also make surface stains on teeth darker. Lastly, it may be unhealthy to ingest purple dye.

Consensus:
Teeth whitening wouldn't work well with SNICA, and should best be reserved for toothpaste.

Cardamom
Cardamom has various health benefits and may be interesting in its ability to treat bad breath and cavities. It could mask bitterness' bad taste.
However, from personal experience, I suspected Cardamom to negatively impact taste.

Consensus:
Cardamom's breath benefit is already provided by ginger, while its benefits on taste are not convincing.

Inosine 5′-Monophosphate
Inosine 5′-Monophosphate can enhance the umami flavor of l-theanine (|).

Its potential health benefits: includes increased ATP production, increased creatine in muscle while promoting muscle growth, enhancing antioxidant defenses, and improving liver health.

Consensus:
Could be interesting to improve taste. Could be tested for that.

Carotenoid
Carotenoids could provide a tan over time while protecting skin from UV, making people look healthier while they indeed should be healthier when using SNICA. This improved healthy look could be an additional motivation and advertisement to consume SNICA.

Astaxanthin has been shown to improve longevity and dental health. However, astaxanthin lowers DHT and does not affect skin color at usual supplement doses. Beta-carotene could increase the risk of lung cancer and thus should clearly not be used by SNICA.

Instead Lycopene may be a good option.
Lycopene however, has no clear evidence of affecting skin color at supplemental doses even if it could. It has been shown, however, to protect the skin from the sun (1).
Lycopene could create an orange color which is a desirable color for candies and rolled cigarettes and thus would be a desirable color for SNICA. Orange is associated with energy, enthusiasm, fun. The color influences taste perception and is of importance for desirability.
Lycopene can be used as edible coating of the stick to bring food preservation and a consumption method similar to 'Bâtons de réglisse'.

Lycopene has various health benefits too: strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory molecule with chelating properties, lower cancer, lower heart-disease and improves cholesterol, improves liver health, lower diabetes, improves osteoporosis (1), neuroprotective, antidepressant (2), improve gut microbiome (3), improves cognitive dysfunction due to a high-fat diet, prevents cognitive dysfunction due to the pollutants phthalate and BPA found in plastics (4), could increase lifespan (5), could improve periodontitis (6), could improve obesity (6).

Lycopene may worsen stomach and liver damage from alcohol (4).
Lycopene might increase the risk of diarrhea, dyspepsia, gas (2).
Lycopene is not well absorbed without a meal containing fat which could diminish a lot of its health benefits.

Consensus:
Because it could increase damage from alcohol, but also increase risk of diarrhea/dyspepsia/gas, it may best be avoided. Its health advantages are already found in other compounds, while its skin coloration is uncertain. Either way it is only absorbed with a meal.

Curcumin
Curcumin, by blocking MAO-A/B could replace the MAOI in cigarettes. Curcumin could also lower 5HT2C which is always desirable.
Curcumin should have a lot of health benefits.
It could be used as a food coloring (yellow-red-brown, depending on pH) and thus edible coating. Turmeric is cheaper but the coloring is less. Similarly as its parent herb, turmeric worsens taste via bitterness. Then, other coloring agents may be better such as saffron. Also, both turmeric and curcumin might stain your teeth, saffron would too.

Consensus:
Because it might stain teeth and worsen taste, it should best be avoided. However, I could try if this is really the case in practice. Because, besides that it might be a promising food coloring agent. When I try it, I indeed don't like the taste.

Xanthan gum and other binders/mucoadhesives
Xanthan gum is often used as a food additive for its thickening, stabilizing, and emulsifying properties.
Via its stabilizing properties it could bind xylitol, ginger, and L-theanine together, but it may not be the best option for solidifying a "stick" form. Alternatively, consider combining xanthan gum with other binders; acacia gum is often used when binding powders together, pectin can be used if a slightly chewy or firm texture is desired. Pectin is a great heavy metal chelator, and has other benefits such as being a prebiotic to improve microbiome, slowing digestion to create more satiety and lower post prandial blood glucose, it could also lower cholesterol and inflammation, may reduce colon cancer risk, reduce GERD. Pectin has a white to light brown color, and no taste, it can increase shelf-life. Acacia gum, contemplated previously, has similar benefits but less as it does not bind to heavy metals and cholesterol, but its different binding ability may be desired.

Xanthan gum has some mucoadhesive properties, meaning it can adhere to mucosal surfaces like the inside of the mouth, which could potentially help increase the buccal absorption of L-theanine. However, its mucoadhesive strength is moderate compared to other specialized mucoadhesive polymers. Carbopol, HPMC, and chitosan are stronger mucoadhesives. Chitosan could also enhance permeability of active compounds. Pectin has moderate to strong mucoadhesive properties, stronger mucoadhesive properties than xanthan gum but weaker than chitosan or carbopol. Acacia gum has weak to moderate mucoadhesive properties, weaker than pectin. Thus pectin, again, appears superior to Acacia gum.

Chitosan has strong mucoadhesive properties and can enhance the permeability of drugs across the mucosal membrane by opening tight junctions between epithelial cells in the buccal mucosa, which makes it one of the best polymers for buccal drug delivery.
Chitosan can also act as a binder.
If using chitosan both as a binder and mucoadhesive, chatGPT says 100mg would be used in each stick.
Chitosan could also hide the bitter taste from methylliberine. It masks the bitter taste by disturbing the binding site of bitter drugs and bitter receptors in the oral cavity via forming hydrogen bonds (|).
Chitosan can be used as a coating to enhance shelf-life.

Chitosan health benefits: chitosan may support weight loss and lower cholesterol by eliminating fat and cholesterol from the body instead of allowing the body to absorb them. Its effects on weight seems to be minimal while on cholesterol somewhat effective from a meta-analysis (|). It could also lower blood pressure and blood glucose (|). Chitosan can improve the gut microbiome, enhance gut barrier integrity, reduces inflammation and improves the immune system (|). It can reduce diarrhea (|). It can chelate heavy metals (|). It can lower inflammation and cancer (|).
Chitosan is great for oral health: it can effectively inhibit the development of biofilms and the growth of bacteria linked to caries, it can increase the remineralization of enamel caries sites (|), it could improve periodontitis via its antimicrobial effects, anti-inflammatory effects, bone regeneration and wound healing effects (|), it could improve halitosis (|). Chitosan could treat GERD (|), while ginger can increase GERD risk.
However, chitosan may interfere with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as calcium and magnesium. However, in animals it improves growth and health when added to their food at high doses, thus this may not be a significant problem (|). Chitosan may negatively impact smell by having a fishy or pungent odor.

Salt could negatively impact mucoadhesive properties. Either way, for perceived health reasons, salt should be avoided in product. Chitosan (CS) may only be a mucoadhesive in acidic environments while acidity is best avoided for oral health. Transformed chitosan may overcome this issue, such as trimethylated-CS and thiolated-CS. An increase in the CS permeation enhancing effect was observed with an increase in both its deacetylation degree and molecular mass. Thiolated-CS improves mucoadhesion but also showed a higher permeation enhancer effect compared to regular CS (|). It seems to maintain health benefits of regular chitosan, also it could mask bitterness even better says chatGPT. ^cfde0a

Consensus:
Chitosan would be a great addition for its mucoadhesive, increased mucosal permeability, and binder properties. It could hide the bitter taste from methylliberine, act as a coating and enhance shelf-life. It can reduce diarrhea, and improve health. It could lower GERD from ginger.

Other ingredients recommended by chatGPT to complete the product
Mannitol for improved mouth sensation. Xylitol can be gritty and sticky while mannitol is smooth and prevents clumping. It would improve texture and avoid stickiness of the stick. Mannitol will also slow down the melting of xylitol. However, mannitol is less sweet and has less health benefits compared to xylitol. But either way I won't use xylitol anymore.
Mannitol, a sugar alcohol, is a sweetener generally considered safe and doesn't promote tooth decay. But when consumed in large amounts (more than 50 grams a day) it has a laxative effect. It contains 1.6 calories per gram instead of 4 calories per gram for sucrose. It does not increase blood glucose as much as sucrose. Mannitol can reduce weight by transforming white fat into brown fat. Mannitol do not affect the composition of the gut microbiota but it can increase butyrate production.

Magnesium stearate is a lubricant to prevent ingredients from sticking, it helps mix the ingredients, and it prevents the stick from crumbling.
Magnesium stearate is generally considered safe to consume, but excessive intake can cause a laxative effect.

Flavor: such as mint, vanilla, or citrus.
However, I will already have a ginger flavor that needs to be taken in account. Apple or blueberry are tastes that could pair well with ginger. Other tastes are coconut, honey, citrus, pineapple, almond, cinnamon. I could try one or even combine multiple tastes. Vanilla may be interesting to mask bitterness.
The coloring I use could align with the taste. I should probably use a natural extract for the coloring to maintain the 'natural' aspect of my product.
Learn more in appropriate Taste and Color sections.

Consensus:
Maybe I could try those. The mild laxative effects may not be a problem when ginger and stevia lower diarrhea.

Lion mane and other medicinal mushrooms
Lion mane could increase acetylcholine and BDNF to improve cognition.
Various positive effects on general health like cancer, anti-hyperglycemia, hypo-lipidemic properties, anti-inflammatory/oxidation, improves bone density and heart health.
Improves gut microbiome.
It seems to have a good taste.
It could lower DHT.

Reishi mushroom may also block DHT while it does not provide interesting benefits either way.

Cordyceps can improve endurance without the need to perform physical exercise, acting as an exercise mimetic (1). It could improve immune system, liver and kidney health, lower blood sugar, improve energy and libido, reduce cancer (2), could improve longevity (3), and skin aging (4).
Cordyceps could cause nausea and diarrhea (2). Cordyceps is very expensive.

Consensus:
Those molecules don't provide much unique benefits while they can have side-effects and are expensive.

Fisetin
Fisetin could improve lifespan as a senolytic which means that it clears senescent cells (1). But it could also enhance lifespan by lowering mTOR, increasing SIRT1, lowering inflammation and oxidative-stress (3).
Fisetin has various health benefits: improving microbiome, lowering inflammation and oxidative stress, anti-cancer, lowering cholesterol, increases neurogenesis, lowering depression via MAO-A inhibition (3).
Fisetin could provide a yellow color.
It has no taste or smell.
Fisetin may cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. It can also increase the risk of bleeding from blood thinners (2). Fisetin could lower testosterone and act as a partial estrogen agonist to lower estrogen when high (4).

Consensus:
Fisetin's benefits are not unique compared to ginger while it comes with undesirable side-effects.

Taurine
Taurine improves longevity, has various health benefits, and improves various aspects of physical exercise performance.
Taurine has an anti-epileptic effect, reducing neuronal excitation, in part by increasing GABA, which can also lower anxiety. But I fear this can negatively impact certain aspects of cognition and creativity as I experienced myself with certain compounds that lower neuronal excitation. Probably due to this, taurine has lethargy and drowsiness as a side-effect. L-theanine would already treat anxiety and increase GABA, thus this effect from taurine is of no utility.
Taurine lowers blood pressure and blood glucose. Ginger already does this, thus I fear blood pressure/glucose could fall too low if combining both.
Dr. Huberman, who has a large influence, is against taurine. He says taurine has potential negative effects on the microvasculature, which led to bursting of microvasculature in his sclera.

Taurine has white color with no taste.

Consensus:
Ginger can improve lifespan already and even have some advantages on physical performance, thus taurine's advantages are not very unique. Taurine would probably have more advantages on physical performance, but SNICA's focus is on replacing nicotine and cigarettes while those never helped physical performance in the first place. Thus, basically, taurine would add cost and complexity for advantages that are not of importance in SNICA. Taurine is also controversial which could fear certain clients away, and even has some potential side-effects I fear, those are additional reasons for not using taurine.

Avena sativa (Green oat)
Avena sativa may bring a lot of cognitive benefits, while slightly lowering stress (1). Maybe in part by interacting with potassium channels (2).
It can block MAO-B, to replace the MAO-B in cigarettes, and increase acetylcholine (3).
PDE4 inhibitors could treat obesity by increasing leptin sensitivity, reducing food intake, and increasing energy expenditure (16).
It could positively affect skin conditions such as seborrheic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis via PDE4 inhibition lowering inflammation, also by lowering oxidative-stress it could protect the skin (4).
Via PDE4 inhibition it could also improve neuroinflammation, asthma, COPD, IBD, arthritis, lupus (5), allergic rhinitis (15).
Similarly to nicotine, it has the potential to improve negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia (6). It can also have a neurogenic antidepressant/anxiolytic effect (7). Lastly, it has the potential to improve the circadian rhythm via PDE4 inhibition (18), which may explain how it improves sleep (13).
Common oat (Avena sativa L.), which is matured green oat (Avena sativa), has also been shown to positively impact sperm and bone health (8, 9), to improve blood flow, reduce cholesterol and improve heart health (10), to improve diabetes and obesity (11), to positively impact the microbiome (12). Via its fiber content could reduce diarrhea risk from excess xylitol.
Avena sativa has even been shown to facilitate smoking cessation at a dose of 900mg/day (13). Insomnia is a symptom of smoking cessation (14), while avena sativa improved sleep in those stopping smoking (13).
After smoking cessation, a cough and sore throat develop for the lungs to clean themselves (16). PDE4 inhibitors can treat chronic cough (17).
ChatGPT says it has a mild, grassy, and slightly sweet taste. It has green color but usually cannot color food. It is cheap. ^66c0ad

Oats might lower blood sugar levels and thus interact with diabetes medications.

If the ideal dose of avena sativa may be 1290mg, then we might want the average 15 SNICAs a day to equal that dose, which would equal 86mg per stick. If the healthy upper limit of SNICA is 20 SNICAs, then this would lead to 1720mg of avena sativa a day which is still close to the proven cognitive improvement at 1600mg and far from the proven lack of benefits at 2400mg (1).

Consensus:
Ginger's benefits on cognition, MAOI, acetylcholine, to replace nicotine and cigarettes may be limited. Avena Sativa could augment cognitive improvement, MAOI, and acetylcholine, all the while improving various health conditions such as obesity. Similarly to nicotine it could improve negative and cognitive symptoms, including sensory gating deficits, of schizophrenia. It has literally been shown to facilitate smoking cessation, and improve the associated insomnia symptom and maybe cough symptom. It may improve circadian rhythms.
If it is cheap, which seems to be the case, it may be worth it to add this compound.
However, from personal experience, I suspect not liking its psychoactive effects (1). It also seems to have a significant negative impact on taste and smell (All ingredients on nicotine withdrawal patient). Some studies say its cognitive benefits are not chronic and only present at specific doses (1). Ginger may be sufficient for cognitive improvement. It may be best to skip Avena Sativa in the end.

Miracle fruit
Miracle fruit has a pleasant sweet taste but is special in that it can interact with taste receptors to make bitter and sour taste sweet. It seems more efficacious against sour compared to bitter taste, but still is also effective against bitterness. 300mg of miracle fruit can be used instead of sucrose in lemonade, acting as a good and natural sweetener alternative. Higher doses (600mg) are necessary in bitter beverages such as green tea (1).
Unfortunately however, its cost is high (1).

Consensus:
If it is expensive, while less effective against bitterness, it may not be a good option. I could still try it.

Stevia
Stevia is a strong sweetener. It is 150-450 times stronger than sucrose or xylitol. It would improve taste of SNICA against the bitterness from methylliberine.
It seems to have health benefits: lowered oxidative-stress and inflammation, lowered blood glucose when high, lowered obesity, improved oral health, decreased cancer risk, improved liver and kidney health, potential to improve heart disease markers (1). It seems devoid of health risks: no negative impact on the microbiome, maybe even positive effect on the microbiome (2).
Stevia could lower diarrhea to counteract xylitol's diarrhea side-effect (3), while it does not cause gastrointestinal issues by itself (4).
It could also lower appetite (5).
I think it melts in my mouth and overall provides a pleasant mouth feeling. Also it smells well.

Consensus:
Could be used if no other sweetener appears superior. Or it could even be combined with other sweeteners. ChatGPT says stevia combines well with monk fruit extract for example.

Monk fruit
Monk fruit could be a powerful sweetener (100-250 times stronger than sucrose) to improve taste (1).
ChatGPT says it pairs well with stevia for several reasons.
However, this study says monk fruit also has bitter, metallic and chemical side tastes like stevia but to a lesser extent (1). Other studies say xylitol is best, and that 25% stevia / 75% monk fruit may be the best ratio to mimic sucrose without any calories (2).

Monk fruit has several health benefits: decreases inflammation and oxidative-stress, improves blood glucose, could improve cancer, blood lipids, and obesity. It would improve obesity via the same mechanism as the popular ozempic medication, namely via GLP-1 (1). It could also lower appetite (6).
While stevia is of no significant benefit to the microbiome, monk fruit is (2). Monk fruit does not seem bad for teeth, it even has low evidence of improving oral health (3).
Monk fruit could also decrease physical exercise fatigue (4), decrease histamine allergies, decrease atopic dermatitis and asthma, and regulate the immune system (5).

After smoking cessation, a cough and sore throat develop for the lungs to clean themselves (1). Monk fruit could treat sore throat and cough (2).
Smoking increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), and smoking cessation is the most important treatment for patients with COPD (3). Monk fruit treats COPD (4).

Monk fruit does not cause gas, bloating or diarrhea. However, it is more expensive (1).

Consensus:
Is crucial for improving taste of SNICA. 25% stevia / 75% monk fruit can be used. Monk fruit would improve the microbiome, and the smoking cessation symptoms: sore throat and cough. Plus it has a lot of other health benefits.

Licorice
Licorice extracts are often used as flavoring agents to mask the bitter taste in medicinal preparations. Its active compound glycyrrhizin is 50 times sweeter than sucrose. 60g a day would be the safe upper limit for most, however, its use can still be dangerous for health, while its taste is controversial (1).

Consensus:
Because it can be dangerous to health at higher doses, while higher doses could be attained via abuse or via concomitant other products containing it, it may be best to avoid it. Also, its taste appears to be controversial.

Adenosine monophosphate
Could be used to block bitterness if still necessary.

Decisive

Methylliberine and l-theanine
Methylliberine and l-theanine combine very well because they have a similar half-life of 1.5h and attain peak plasma after 30-50min, thus they have similar timing. The half-life is similar to nicotine which again makes them great at replacing nicotine.

Nicotine could be replaced by l-theanine and methylliberine. Methylliberine will increase dopamine, improve wakefulness, effortful behavior, attention, and mood. Similarly, nicotine can increase dopamine, improve wakefulness, effortful behavior, attention, and mood. L-theanine can lower stress, anxiety, nervousness, neuroinflammation and oxidative-stress, improve mood, sensory-gating, increase serotonin, GABA, and dopamine, while lowering norepinephrine. Chronic nicotine can also lower stress/anxiety/nervousness, neuroinflammation and oxidative stress, improve mood, sensory-gating, increase serotonin, GABA and dopamine. Nicotine lowers norepinephrine in most brain parts but actually increases it in others while l-theanine would lower it everywhere. By increasing norepinephrine in the prefrontal cortex nicotine could have a cognitive advantage, but by increasing it peripherally it increases heart rate to increase physical anxiety which would be a disadvantage. However, methylliberine might slightly increase norepinephrine while l-theanine lowers it, thus in the end we would have low-moderate norepinephrine everywhere.

Else, it is also interesting to note that methylliberine should have a similar mechanism of action as caffeine while caffeine/l-theanine combination has been shown to improve attention and cognition synergistically (1, 2). It is liked in nootropic communities.

Interestingly, l-theanine could block reward from nicotine to prevent relapse into nicotine addiction. L-theanine could also block THC use during adolescence increasing schizophrenia risk (a4b2nAChR, addiction, adolescence-life-stress, l-theanine, nicotine, opioid, reward, THC, withdrawal). L-theanine could fasten alcohol's metabolism while protecting the liver and probably other organs too from it by reducing oxidative-stress and inflammation (alcohol, IL1b, IL6, l-theanine, liver, NF-kB, oxidative-stress, TNF-a).

L-theanine has other benefits. It is neuroprotective. It has anti-tumor effects. Decreases risk of cardiovascular disease. It lowers blood pressure and cholesterol. It has anti-anxiety and anti-depression properties by increasing BDNF (1). L-theanine is liver and kidney protective, improves immune function to prevent colds (2). It lowers cholesterol and triglycerides by improving the microbiome, it enhances the intestinal mucosal barrier, it increases insulin sensitivity, it has anti-obesity effects via the microbiome and by increasing brown fat and by decreasing glucose absorption but increasing protein absorption, it improves fatty liver and insulin sensitivity (3). L-theanine could increase lifespan (4). L-theanine could chelate heavy metals (5).
L-theanine could enhance both mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis which could improve a lot of treatment resistant psychiatric disorders (6).
L-theanine could activate AMPK (6), while this pathway has been shown to improve nicotine withdrawal (7).

Methylliberine could increase caffeine's half-life via inhibition of CYP1A2 while smoking induces CYP1A2 to metabolize caffeine faster. Caffeine could increase oral bioavailability of methylliberine (1). Thus after initiation of SNICA, individuals may become more sensitive to caffeine. By inhibiting CYP1A2, methylliberine could slow down the metabolism of various drugs.
By lowering blood pressure, l-theanine could interact with blood pressure lowering medications (2).

Ginger
Nicotine increases glutamate and acetylcholine to improve cognition while l-theanine and methylliberine don't have a significant impact on those. Also l-theanine/methylliberine don't benefit cognition via increased prefrontal norepinephrine like nicotine does. Lastly, nicotine could improve cognition by closing potassium and HCN channels. Thus, l-theanine/methylliberine maybe misses cognitive improvement compared to nicotine. We can add ginger for cognitive improvement. Ginger will block 5HT3 to increase acetylcholine, glutamate and norepinephrine, it will also increase acetylcholine by blocking cholinesterase activity, it also blocks potassium channels, and further lowers neuroinflammation and oxidative-stress to improve cognition. Chronic use of Ginger has even been shown to significantly improve cognition in healthy middle-aged women. It could also improve cognition via NGF and the microbiome while nicotine does not. Nicotine's cognitive benefits seem to disappear after chronic use thus they are not that interesting either way. Thus it could even have cognitive advantages over nicotine and allow occasional acute nicotine use for its acute cognitive benefits.
Nicotine blocks sodium channels which could help stabilize mood, and tobacco contains lithium which could also stabilize mood. Ginger can block sodium channels to stabilize mood.
Ginger could activate PPARy, while this pathway has been shown to improve nicotine withdrawal. Ginger could activate AMPK, while this pathway has been shown to improve nicotine withdrawal.
Similarly, nicotine blocks 5HT3 and 5HT3 antagonists are a good potential target for smoking cessation strategies (1). 5HT3 antagonism could reduce nicotine addiction (2), while ginger blocks 5HT3.
Nicotine improves hypothyroid (3), and ginger too (4).

Ginger can lower nausea and headaches and slow gastric emptying while those could be side-effects from the l-theanine/methylliberine. 500mg two times a day may be more than necessary for nausea (1).
Lowers blood glucose, improves cholesterol and triglycerides, improves fatty liver and obesity (3). 2g a day of ginger was found to slightly improve weight loss and metabolic features of obesity (4).
Ginger could accelerate recovery of muscle strength following intense exercise at a higher dose of 4g, reduce muscle pain, increase muscle glycogen to improve performance, prevent muscle loss. It could lower pain in general. It increases mitochondrial biogenesis (3).
Ginger can improve the microbiome, increase butyrate, improve intestinal permeability, lower diarrhea (4). However, ginger at high doses could increase GERD and diarrhea risk, but also maybe gastric exfoliation (12).
Ginger lowers depression and anxiety. It could block MAO-A (5), to replace MAOIs in cigarettes (6). However, at used doses maybe not sufficiently. Ginger could enhance both mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis which could improve a lot of treatment resistant psychiatric disorders (15).
Ginger improves overall oral health, and even improves breath (7).
Ginger decreases cancer risk, including lung cancer (8).
Ginger has various health benefits: on colds, arthritis, hypertension (1), asthma (10), osteoporosis (11). It could protect from heavy metals (13). It could lower homocysteine (14).
Ginger may improve sexual function (9). And I guess via 5HT3 antagonism it could reduce the occurrence of blunting in general while using serotonin enhancing agents such as MAO-A inhibitors or l-theanine.
Ginger can improve thyroid (15), while nicotine withdrawal leads to hypothyroid (16).

Ginger could protect skin as an anti-oxidant, and increase lifespan by lowering inflammation/oxidative-stress, protecting DNA and telomeres, modulating epigenetic alterations and proteostasis, increasing autophagy and decreasing mTOR, lowering insulin while increasing AMPK and sirtuins, improving mitochondria, being a senolytic, maintaining stem-cells, reduce dysbiosis (12).

Ginger could improve taste and color and smell. ChatGPT says it could help hide the bitter and astringent taste from methylliberine. It can be used for food preservation, and as a thickening agent.

Ginger can lower blood glucose levels and thus interact with diabetes medication. Ginger might slow blood clotting and interact with blood thinners. Ginger can increase the dose of and thus interact with losartan. Ginger can decrease blood pressure and interact with blood pressure lowering medications. Taking ginger, specifically two hours, before taking cyclosporine might increase how much cyclosporine the body absorbs. Ginger can increase how much metronidazole the body absorbs (1). Ginger can increase the blood levels of morphine (2).

After smoking cessation, a cough and sore throat develop for the lungs to clean themselves (1). A bronchodilator would improve the cough symptom. Ginger can act as a bronchodilator (2). Also, ginger can help a sore throat by acting as an anti-inflammatory pain reliever (3).
After smoking cessation, headaches, dizziness, and nausea can occur (4). Ginger can treat nausea (5), headaches (6), and dizziness (7, 8).

Chitosan
Chitosan would be a binder keeping the stick together.
It would improve buccal absorption by being a mucoadhesive and increasing mucosal permeability.
It would hide the bitter taste of methylliberine.
It can also provide various health benefits: lowering weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, diarrhea, heavy metals, inflammation and cancer, improve the gut microbiome, gut barrier, immune system, caries and periodontitis, halitosis.
It could lower GERD from ginger.

For buccal drug delivery, it may be best to use thiolated-chitosan instead of regular chitosan.

People with shellfish allergy should be cautious of chitosan (1). Chitosan might increase the blood-thinning effects of warfarin. Taking chitosan with acyclovir might reduce the amount of acyclovir the body absorbs (2).

Stevia
Stevia will be crucial to improve taste of the product, counteracting the bitter taste from methylliberine. It could also improve smell and mouth feeling. Stevia has various health benefits, of interest it could lower blood glucose when high, improve obesity, decrease cancer risk while lowering inflammation and oxidative stress, and improve oral health.

Monk fruit
For ideal taste 25% stevia / 75% monk fruit is used. Monk fruit would improve the microbiome, and the smoking cessation symptoms: sore throat and cough. It has a lot of other health benefits, but it is more expensive.

Dosing

ChatGPT says: on average, smokers consume 10-20 cigarettes a day. While vapers consume 20 cigarettes a day worth of nicotine.
Gemini says: on average, smokers consume 13 cigarettes a day.
I think I would like SNICA to be consumed once every hour. If someone sleeps 8 hours, he has 16 hours left awake, maybe he misses one hour at one point which equals 15 SNICAs a day. This number is also close to how much smokers and vapers consume.
Thus, when dosing, I should expect 15 SNICAs to be consumed a day on average.

Methylliberine and l-theanine
An equal mix between caffeine and l-theanine to improve cognition consists of 2/2.5 (1). However, others have used with success ratios such as 1.5/2.5 or 1/2 (2). However, caffeine and methylliberine are not completely the same. Maybe, as methylliberine is not anxiogenic compared to caffeine, l-theanine's dose could be lowered. But, this dosing does not necessarily mean a psychoactive effect similar or superior to nicotine, either way.

If methylliberine has a slightly longer half-life, I could make it so that some l-theanine gets absorbed via digestive system for some delayed effects, thus not all the l-theanine would be transformed. L-theanine could then also positively affect the microbiome.
Methylliberine has a half-life of +-84 minutes while l-theanine has a half-life of +-65min.
When transforming methylliberine and l-theanine for buccal absorption, you could verify that l-theanine's buccal absorption is inferior for some to be absorbed via the gut. Gut absorption of l-theanine will improve the microbiome and create delayed effects to compensate for the shorter half-life. L-theanine's buccal absorption seems to be more complicated and thus naturally already inferior. A slightly higher dose of l-theanine may also be needed (however since snica is already very relaxing we could keep l-theanine's dose like that). ^cba294

At 600mg, l-theanine does not improve sensory gating anymore (1). Also, it seems effective on cognition in contexts of stress/anxiety but not necessarily outside of that, which makes it have ambiguous effects on processing-speed and working-memory, thus you maybe don't want to use too high doses leading to too much relaxation (2). Thus, avoid going above 200mg of l-theanine in one SNICA.

Methylliberine/l-theanine on myself

Different dosing can be tried. Experimenting during nicotine withdrawal might reveal the ideal dosing.
I think 200mg l-theanine is a good dose. For methylliberine I am not sure, but I would say a dose between 100-200mg, thus maybe start with 150mg methylliberine.

200mg l-theanine and 150mg methylliberine.
However, after All ingredients on nicotine withdrawal patient, 200mg methylliberine seemed to be a good dose.
This dose is ideal for oral absorption, but you may need a lower dose when buccally absorbed ().

Ginger
Chronic use of Ginger has been shown to significantly improve cognition in healthy middle-aged women, already at a dose of 400mg but more so at 800mg (1).
Ginger at a dose of 1000 mg/d has been shown to improve thyroid function (2). For nausea, ginger once a day at 500mg seems effective (3).
2g a day of ginger was found to slightly improve weight loss and metabolic features of obesity (4).
Ginger could accelerate recovery of muscle strength following intense exercise at a higher dose of 4g (5).
1000mg/day of ginger starts to become effective for diarrhea (4).
Ginger can cause side-effects: including heartburn, diarrhea, burping, and general stomach discomfort; higher doses of 5 grams daily increases the risk for side effects (6).
Higher doses are needed to hope for some MAO-A inhibition and longevity effects (7, 8).
250mg of ginger could already treat headaches (9).
drug-dosing, ginger

If higher doses provide more benefits, I might want to go up to the upper limit. This would be 4000mg of ginger a day for 20 SNICAs a day, thus 200mg of ginger per SNICA. Someone using the usual 15 SNICAs a day would have 3000mg of ginger.
Now we also need to see how 200mg of ginger per stick affects the taste.

200mg ginger.

Chitosan
ChatGPT estimates that 120-200mg thiolated chitosan would be used in a 4g stick for mucoadhesion, permeability enhancement, as a binder, and to mask bitterness from 100mg methylliberine.
A too high dose would create a texture that is too sticky. Maybe I can start with 160mg.

160mg. But should be decided by conception lab in the end.

Stevia
Dosing of stevia should be tested, but it should be used in a ratio 25% stevia / 75% monk fruit.

Monk fruit
Dosing of monk fruit should be tested, but it should be used in a ratio 25% stevia / 75% monk fruit.

Buccal absorption

L-theanine and methylliberine need to be transformed for fast buccal absorption to mimic nicotine's fast effects.

Don't transform all the l-theanine, or make it less buccally absorbable, for some to be absorbed via the gut ().

Reducing particle size

Reducing the particle size of a compound: to increase surface area, enhance dissolution rate, and improve absorption across the buccal mucosa.

Since micronization is used successfully with caffeine (1), there is reason to believe it could work with methylliberine and l-theanine.
Methylliberine is structurally similar to caffeine; micronization could enable buccal delivery.
L-theanine is different; micronization could help but might not be enough. Mucoadhesive and permeation enhancers could help, encapsulation or pH modifications too.

Nanonization leads to 1000 times more particle size reduction than micronization. Nanonization allows for more bioavailability and enables cell penetration. Nanonization is more complex with a higher cost.
Micronization is likely sufficient for methylliberine due to its similarity to caffeine. L-theanine, being hydrophilic and less membrane-permeable, might benefit more from nanonization, but you can still start with micronization plus chitosan to keep it simple. However, if wanting maximal absorption efficiency you can use nanonization if it is not too expensive.

Absorption enhancers

Permeation enhancers, penetration enhancers, and mucoadhesive agents exist to enhance absorption.

Chitosan improves buccal absorption by being a mucoadhesive, permeation enhancer, and penetration enhancer. Chitosan can also mask bitter taste. Chitosan is especially effective for hydrophilic compounds like l-theanine.
Thiolated chitosan would be superior for buccal delivery. However, regular chitosan is cheaper, and thus may be used instead if sufficient.

Drug delivery system

Different drug delivery systems exist. They carry the drug and help it cross the buccal barrier.

It seems like nanoemulsion would be the best carrier for methylliberine. However, micronization may be sufficient and cheaper.

Chitosan nanoparticles would be the best carrier for l-theanine. If it is too expensive, cyclodextrin complexes can be used if they are fast enough. Else, micronization or nanonization may be sufficient and cheaper.

Nanoparticle
Encapsulates a drug to help it cross biological barriers such as for buccal delivery. It is complex to manufacture.

Chitosan nanoparticle could combine the benefits of a nanoparticle carrier and chitosan. You can manipulate the size and surface properties of chitosan nanoparticles to create a controlled release profile, which can be useful for l-theanine to catch up with the slightly longer half-life of methylliberine.
Thiolated-chitosan nanoparticles would be even better.
They are moderately expensive. But they are fast acting.

Nanoemulsion
Best for lipophilic drugs to allow fast absorption through the mucosa. It masks the taste.
May be the best for buccal absorption of methylliberine which has moderate lipophilicity.

Liposomes
Liposomes are vesicles with one or more phospholipid bilayers, surrounding an aqueous core.
Liposomes are best for hydrophilic drugs when in core and for lipophilic drugs when in bilayer.
Great for mucosal delivery.
It is expensive to manufacture.

Phospholipids can be used to form liposomes while they could also block bitter taste receptors.
MCT oil may also be used to improve phospholipid liposomes.
Phosphatidylcholine is a lipid often used to produce liposomes with various health benefits, decreasing cognitive decline, and increasing acetylcholine.

Microencapsulation
Microencapsulation is a technique where a core of drug is surrounded by a microscale coating or matrix.
It masks the taste. It is cheap. But it provides poor mucosal penetration.

Dendrimers
Can encapsulate hydrophilic drugs to improve permeability across buccal mucosa. Still experimental for buccal delivery but promising, still some toxicity concerns.
The cost is high.

Cyclodextrin complexes
Particularly useful for taste masking and increasing permeability of small hydrophilic molecules.
The cost is low to moderate. But not as effective for rapid delivery.

pH modification

A more acidic pH can reduce ionization of molecules to improve permeability.

A slightly acidic pH (~5–6) would make l-theanine more permeable. On the other hand, methylliberine benefits from a neutral or slightly basic pH (~7–8).
In the end, the ideal pH would be ~6.0–6.5 when taking in account all factors: good permeability for l-theanine, maintained solubility of methylliberine, not irritating in the buccal environment. The average pH in the oral cavity is 6.8 which is close to that ideal. Maybe if we use citrus flavoring we could slightly lower the pH for improved permeability while improving taste.
However, to avoid any controversy, we may not want to risk lowering pH, knowing that acidity damages teeth enamel. However, if using nanoparticles that encapsulate the methylliberine or l-theanine they specifically can be set to a specific pH instead of the whole solution.

Questions

How is chitosan combined with l-theanine and methylliberine for faster absorption?
When wanting to combine l-theanine and methylliberine with chitosan you can use different methods. You can encapsulate them in chitosan nanoparticles (which is not as difficult as it sounds), or you can dissolve them in a chitosan film forming base for strip delivery, lastly, to form a powder: you can blend them with chitosan and spray dry them in microparticles.

Is chitosan enough or do I need thiolated chitosan?
Chitosan alone is already very effective for buccal absorption of both L-theanine and methylliberine, especially when properly formulated. However, thiolated chitosan (thiomers) can offer even faster and more efficient absorption, longer mucoadhesion, and stronger permeation enhancement, but it comes at higher cost and formulation complexity.
Chitosan is probably sufficient for methylliberine, but l-theanine could probably benefit from thiolated chitosan.
Start with regular chitosan, and if not sufficient, upgrade to thiolated chitosan.

Would regular chitosan be enough if l-theanine uses particle size reduction such as micronization or nanonization or drug carriers such as cyclodextrin complexes?
If you combine L-theanine with particle size reduction (micronization or nanonization) and/or cyclodextrin complexation, then regular chitosan is often more than enough to achieve effective buccal absorption.

When blending chitosan with methylliberine for a spray-dried powder, would the chitosan mask the bitter taste of methylliberine?
Chitosan alone provides some taste masking, but it’s usually not enough to fully block the bitter and lingering taste of methylliberine.
Cyclodextrins complexes can be used to completely mask the taste.

Compared to cyclodextrins, nanoemulsions may be better for buccal absorption of methylliberine while they would also mask its bitter taste? Alternatively, would micronization of methylliberine also mask its bitterness?
For methylliberine, nanoemulsions are likely more effective than cyclodextrins in enhancing both absorption and palatability. Micronization does not mask taste and could even increase its intensity. Nonoemulsion is superior to micronization for buccal absorption. Chitosan combined with nanoemulsion would be excellent for taste masking and buccal absorption of methylliberine, and thus be the best option.

Is nanoemulsion expensive compared to micronization in the case of methylliberine?
Micronization is often 3–10x cheaper than producing a stable nanoemulsion at scale.
Thus, it may be best to first try micronization, and if this is not sufficient, then nanoemulsions can be tried.

For buccal absorption of l-theanine, is it better to combine chitosan with micronization, nanonization, and/or cyclodextrin complexes? Take in account performance and price but not taste.
Chitosan plus micronization is a strong choice for a cost-effective and balanced solution. Chitosan plus cyclodextrin complexes is very effective but slightly more expensive than chitosan plus micronization. Chitosan plus micronization and cyclodextrin complexes would be the most effective but also most expensive.
Chitosan plus micronization is likely your best combination for balancing buccal absorption performance and cost-effectiveness. It’s an affordable option that provides solid performance without unnecessary complexity or cost.

Right now, I plan on using chitosan plus micronization of methylliberine and l-theanine for their buccal absorption. Is this sufficient or would chitosan nanoparticles as carriers be necessary instead?
Chitosan plus micronization will work well for quick buccal absorption and will likely be sufficient for most applications. It will provide enhanced absorption without the need for more complex carrier systems.
Chitosan nanoparticles enhance buccal absorption in several ways: just like micronization they increase surface area, enhanced mucoadhesion via their small size. However, chitosan nanoparticles are more complex and cost more. It is best for high-performance formulations: for maximal absorption efficiency and the use of controlled release. However, for most buccal absorption purposes, they may be overkill unless you specifically want to extend the duration or enhance penetration across the buccal mucosa.
For standard buccal absorption of L-theanine and methylliberine, chitosan plus micronization should be sufficient unless you need controlled release or enhanced penetration for faster or longer-lasting effects.

My conclusions

Regular chitosan will be used. L-theanine and methylliberine will be micronized.

Consultation with experts

Consultation experts:

Conclusions:
I think I will take the free consultation of Zia U. and start with micronization plus chitosan.
If it does not work out I will take a consultation with Michail G. who seems the most experienced.
Chad B. could be interesting later on for the consumption method, I can ask him via a message.
If freelancers are not sufficient, I can always contact Seda back. Either way I would probably need to go through a conception lab like Seda.

Further research via chatGPT on Michail's comment:
With micronization you need a specific and consistent particle size range to optimize dissolution rate, buccal absorption efficiency, and blend uniformity for powders or films. For buccal absorption, sizes in the 1–10 micron range are often targeted.
Chitosan requires specific loading methods (how is l-theanine/methylliberine incorporated into or onto the chitosan) and compositions for it to work optimally.
If you just micronize and mix things together randomly, you might: get poor mucoadhesion, lose the drug before it’s absorbed, get inconsistent dosing or absorption. That’s why Michail points out that technical formulation work is needed to get a functional buccal product, not just a blend of powders. ^37fcb3

Taste

Sweet taste increases nicotine self-administration (1), plus makes the consumption method more pleasant. Thus, sweetness in SNICA could make it more reinforcing to compete with other unhealthy addictions (nicotine addiction, sugar addiction...). But the sweetness shouldn't come at the price of calories.
Sweetness will be found in the used artificial sweeteners without calories. However, balance is key, you don't want too much sweetness either.

Other reason reminding the importance of smell/taste: .

Methylliberine is said to have a bitter and astringent taste.
ChatGPT says bitterness can be counterbalanced via sweeteners, a pinch of salt can enhance sweetness but also reduce bitterness in a direct way (however a lot of people fear salt for health and also salt could reduce mucoadhesion), acidity such as from lemon juice can reduce bitterness (however acidity could damage the teeth enamel over time and thus should be avoided in SNICA), dairy fats can also lower bitterness, strong flavors as from cinnamon, mint or cardamom can mask bitterness.

People like to transform their coffee in a sugary drink as with Starbucks, people may also like to transform their cigarette in a sugary stick as with SNICA. I should go to Starbucks Coffee and see how the most popular drinks taste like.
The most popular drinks seem to be 'Iced white mocha' (our signature espresso meets white chocolate sauce, milk and ice, and then is finished off with sweetened whipped cream to create this supreme white chocolate delight) with 'vanilla sweet cream' and 'light caramel sauce'. Or the 'Strawberry acai refresher' (sweet strawberry flavors accented by passionfruit and açaí notes, shaken with ice and real strawberry pieces, a welcoming sweet spot of refreshment) with 'raspberry syrup'.
First, we can note that Starbucks always uses ice to create a refreshing cooling sensation. Afterwards they use sweet, dairy, or strong flavors such as vanilla, to counterbalance the bitterness from coffee. When not using coffee, but green coffee extract (earthy, acid and tart flavor), they combine it with sweet fruity flavors to counterbalance any earthy notes, and provide tropical tartness that complements the acidity.
Maybe look at what vaping taste is the most popular. The most popular vaping tastes have a refreshing and fruity mouth sensation.
Icy, refreshing sensations, come forward often. Erithrytol provides a strong cooling sensation but has health risks. Stevia could bring a mild cooling sensation.
In SNICA: Stevia can provide a mildly cooling or refreshing sensation. Instead of coffee or green coffee extract we use methylliberine which has a bitter and astringent taste. ChatGPT says both ginger and artificial sweeteners could help mask the bitterness and astringency. Adding blueberry, peach, vanilla, or green apple tastes alone or combined could further reduce bitterness, complement ginger, and create a fruity flavor.

Creating a unique taste may be beneficial for the creation of an association with the subsequent psychoactive effects, allowing a unique desire for the product and thus addiction to compete with other unhealthy addictions.
Ginger and methylliberine would already provide a unique taste. Peach could further augment that unique taste while it is ubiquitously appreciated.

It is also interesting to note that l-theanine has an umami flavor which can be enhanced by using 'Inosine 5′-Monophosphate'. Such an umami flavor can mask the bitterness of methylliberine while adding depth.

Lastly, chitosan could hide the bitter taste of methylliberine. This would make things easier.
Using nanoemulsions instead of micronization when transforming methylliberine for buccal absorption could mask the bitter taste even more than chitosan. Or, instead the addition of adenosine monophosphate could block bitterness.

To improve taste, I am contemplating: monk fruit, stevia, adenosine monophosphate, Inosine 5′-Monophosphate, vanilla/peach/blueberry/green-apple tastes with peach having the advantage of being liked by anyone while being unique.
Citrus could be useful to lower bitterness via acidity. Vanilla could be useful to lower bitterness similarly as dairy fats. ChatGPT says citrus, vanilla, and ginger combine well for taste. Peach could further create a cozy, mellow, fruity taste.
However, if lowering pH with citrus we should make sure the pH does not lower too much to damage teeth enamel. To avoid any controversy, it may be best to skip the citrus.

I believe that the product could be considered more 'cool' or 'manly' if the taste is spicy and/or bitter to some extent. However, such a taste could push certain clients away. Thus, not sure what would be the most desirable.

Experimenting with taste

Trying to hide methylliberine's taste without l-theanine:

It is also important to take in account l-theanine's taste. Interestingly, it could provide an Umami taste. This Umami taste can be enhanced by Inosine 5′-Monophosphate. One feature of umami is the suppression of bitterness (|). Umami is more of a helper flavor, enhancing the saltiness or sweetness of other foods (|). ChatGPT says it is both a desirable taste in its own right and indeed also a sweetness/saltiness enhancer. This means an Umami taste may give its best results when combined with salt and sweetness.
L-theanine could diminish the taste of bitterness (|). L-theanine can lower sourness but not bitterness (|). L-theanine is a unique taste component with caramel flavor, which can alleviate the bitterness of caffeine (|).

Experiment with l-theanine's taste (and the addition of Inosine 5′-Monophosphate):

I further experiment with taste: All ingredients on nicotine withdrawal patient.

Color

Ginger is the only base ingredient that could provide coloration. ChatGPT says it can create a light brown or yellowish color. However, ginger’s natural color may not be intense enough for vivid coloring of the stick.
If I want a mild and natural hue, then ginger may suffice. I should try and see.

If wanting to create a blue, red, and purple stick, as an analogy to the matrix. Then this would be the purple stick. Blue would be a purely relaxing stick and red a purely stimulating stick. However, to start we will only launch one stick that replaces nicotine. The start is the most difficult part, and to increase its chance of success we should prioritize that product over aligning with long-term product goals. Thus, right now I would not use purple, unless it is a good color for the product. Purple could be good at representing the mix of relaxing and stimulating psychoactive properties.

Using strong colors could create an artificial and childish appearance that could be repulsive to some people. To not be too alienating you may prefer a color similar to tobacco products. This could be brown or orange. Orange is associated with energy, enthusiasm, fun. Brown is associated with earthiness, stability, comfort, security.
However, a tobacco color for a subsequent non-tobacco taste will be confusing. The color should maybe align with taste while staying discrete.

The coloring I use could align with the taste because colors influence taste perception and are of importance for subsequent desirability. I should probably use a natural extract for the coloring to maintain the 'natural' aspect of my product. An orange hue from carrot powder would align with the peach taste but also not be too alienating by aligning with the color of the cigarette tip.

Consumption object

Contemplation

One reason smoking is pleasant is due to the cigarette touching a sensitive body part, namely the lips.
One way to simulate this may be to create a stick that melts in mouth. The consumer would have part of the stick in mouth and other part outside of mouth. The inside part melts, and the consumer needs to reposition the stick to keep consuming it. This would maintain the pleasant lip sensation and slight effort/action for consumption which makes it more pleasant via association of slight effort/action with reward. The action is important because like stimming, an action can relax when nervous or occupy when bored.
Also this stick could be a great marketing move as it will be visible to others, thus users would automatically advertise it.
The stick could be put in mouth like a cigarette but also broken down in mouth like a tobacco pouch.
Another advantage is similarity with an actual cigarette to avoid too much alienation.
If mimicking this lip pleasure is not possible, it may be replaced by another pleasure.

Sensory cues of cigarette smoking in the absence of pharmacological doses of nicotine have been found to be moderately satisfying, to reduce craving and anxiety (1). Sensory aspects of cigarette smoke play a role in the maintenance of smoking behavior, and may be particularly important for highly-dependent smokers (2). This explains why certain smokers don't succeed with traditional treatments but do succeed with e-cigarettes. With e-cigarettes they enjoy the vapor sensation in their throat, lungs, nose, and on their tongue. But they also enjoy tasting, smelling and seeing the vapor, next to touching the device (3).
This means sensory cues similar to smoking or vaping would help with the transition to SNICA. I could create similar desirable sensory cues as smoking and vaping via a stick format. But also a cooling mouth feeling, good taste and smell.
On the other hand, both gum and lozenges have been shown to help smoking cessation. No significant difference exists between gums and lozenges in terms of efficacy. A cooling mouth sensation and aromas can distract from the desire to consume a cigarette (4). This confirms that a cooling mouth feeling, good taste, and smell would also help smoking cessation.
Even if you give nicotine replacement to teens, they still miss the associated oral habit. Some teens say chewing gum can help replace this, or chewing on a toothpick (2).

To conclude, both gum/lozenge or stick format could work, but the stick format could be superior due to the pleasant associated lip sensation and similarity to smoking/vaping.
Besides that, a cooling mouth feeling, good taste, and smell are also important.

As pouches are illegal in different countries and less flexible in dosing, they are not ideal.
Strips would be the simple method to allow fast buccal absorption. However, strips lack an action while consuming, and pleasant lip contact. The consumption method of strips is too boring.
Gum will lead to chewing which could potentially benefit jaw development in children, improve stress and attention and digestion (1), but on the other hand could increase risk of TMJ, especially if SNICA is consumed throughout the day. It is best to avoid chewing across the day (2). Thus, gums may best be avoided.
A lozenge could melt in mouth, or be cracked in mouth to release its molecules and taste like breakers. Both gum and lozenge may be slow in releasing its psychoactive molecules, while fast effects are desired and possible with the breakers, all the while breakers are associated with some action and thus are not completely passive.
The breaker would work like this: the encapsulation made of 'gum arabic' partly melts and is partly bitten open by the user, sweeteners are released for good taste together with the psychoactive molecules. Once the user feels like he has had the desired psychoactive effects via buccal absorption, he/she can swallow.
If using breakers, you may want the released taste of the breaker to be a surprise. Humans love surprises (3). The stick format could in theory also use this surprise taste concept.

Breakers may be superior to gums/lozenges/pouches/strips. They provide fast psychoactive effects and a pleasant action.
In comparison, a stick could provide continuous action to occupy oneself while socializing or bored, pleasant lip contact, and visibility for style/marketing. But a stick may be slower to release its psychoactive molecules. Also, in practice, a stick may be difficult to use. However, if desired, someone could use the stick as a pouch for quick psychoactive effects.
Letting the breakers have a surprise taste, could also create some excitement and thus marketing around the product, but also some action when bored or conversation subject when socializing. The stick format could in theory also use this surprise taste concept.

It is interesting to note that slow release of psychoactive drugs tend to bring better cognitive benefit (1). This is because peaks can lead to excessive effects and outside of the peak effects may be not sufficient. This indicates that l-theanine and methylliberine may best be absorbed in part buccally and in part via digestion to simulate a slow release formulation. The user can keep the solution in mouth until he feels sufficient effects to then ingest the rest which will be released later. However, the buccal absorption should create a fast initial rewarding peak. Fast dopamine increases, achieved over a short time period (<10 min), are associated with reward (2).

The user can keep the solution in mouth until he feels sufficient effects to then ingest what remains which will take effect later. This oral absorption will provide more stable effects over time and also positively impact the microbiome.
The stick format may make this more difficult, because you would have to keep what has melted in your mouth, and thus not swallow during the whole prolonged stick consumption. Alternatively, you can let the user swallow between each stick part consumption (and thus before experiencing the full effects) but after letting what has melted stay in mouth for a moment. If the buccal absorption works well and is fast, this could be possible. It would even have the advantage of better dose monitoring by letting it rise step by step instead of all at once.

Would it be possible to make SNICA release a lot of vapor when broken in mouth? This would mimic the pleasant sensory cues of smoking as desired (3). It would also have a marketing effect.
'Dragon breath' is a candy that releases vapor. It is made from cereal dipped in liquid nitrogen. But it can be dangerous by causing burns in the mouth or breathing difficulties. The FDA said injuries could in certain cases be life threatening. Also it is dipped in liquid nitrogen shortly before serving.
Besides that it does not seem possible.

Friend's advice (who himself has smoked, now vapes, but wants to stop): says a stick that directly melts in mouth may be too passive and licking it would be ridicule like a lollipop for kids. Instead, a stick like a 'bâtons de réglisse' could be used, who has a hard outer shell that needs some mild chewing to release the liquid inside. Thus, a stick that needs some chewing for release.
However, after trying, the problem with that is that the consumption demands too much effort, it leaves a hard part you cannot ingest, and is very slow to consume. A solution may be to make the chewable part consumable. But then we are just making a consumable gum stick, whereby you bite a piece of gum from the stick that you end up ingesting. We already rejected the gum format, and it being in a stick format would just make it impractical. On the other hand we can work on the initial statement which may be wrong. If the stick melts directly, no licking is needed/possible. The melted solution needs to be kept in mouth for a moment before swallowing and the stick needs to be repositioned or kept between lips which creates action.

I used a candy stick, which is not hard but supple. Still, you need to bite significantly. This made its use annoying and also creates the reflex of wanting to swallow afterwards. The very sweet taste maybe also contributes to the desire to swallow. I should avoid a product that is too sweet or needs too much biting action. Placing the stick between lips, waiting for it to melt, holding what melted in the mouth, repositioning the stick between lips, may already be sufficient actions.

SNICA won't be able to release vapor during consumption.
A chewable stick is not a good option. The stick should quickly break down and melt in the mouth. It should not be too sweet tasting.

Products are best easy to use (1). Ideally, some familiarity should exist with its use whereby we can associate it with something else. Thus, it should not be too alienating (2). By making it look like an actual cigarette, you will also prevent social deviance (3).
Both the stick and breaker options are easy to use, familiar to people as everybody has used medicines that melt in the mouth and need to be kept there, and they don't create social deviance.

Nicotine is reinforcing via its associated fast dopamine increase. But also via its oral habit and lip sensation. The functional benefits from nicotine can also be reinforcing. Thus SNICA should elevate dopamine fast, bring functional benefits such as improved attention and effortful behavior, but also recreate a similar oral habit and lip sensation or some other form of direct oral pleasure (1).
The stick would simulate the oral habit of smoking, but the breaker would provide an alternative pleasure that may suffice or be better even.

Both the stick and breaker align with the mentioned product needs.

On reddit, people seem to crave the continuous action of smoking, and the hand to mouth action specifically (1). Some even say they miss the action of smoking more than the high (2). Others were able to quit nicotine but still can't stop the oral habit (3).
Momo the friend of my brother, says he smokes for the continuous action while socializing. My neighbor Sabine who has smoked also says she prefers a continuous hand to mouth action, and thus she prefers the stick format without hesitation. Maximilien also prefers the stick as he desires the continues action. But others, often those that don't smoke, tend to say they would prefer a mouth lozenge that is more discrete.

Conclusions

Both the stick format or breaker format could be great. I could try both to see which one is preferred. If I need to start with one, it would be the stick format.

To actually create the stick or breaker I could use a consultation via upwork. On upwork, Consultation with experts could be interesting later on for the consumption method.
However, in the end, I probably need to work with a Production that would provide that knowledge while conceiving.

Later I realized that a short stick may give the best of both worlds. A short stick could still be placed between lips to provide a mouth action if desired, or be put in mouth as a breaker if preferred for discreteness, plus a shorter stick would release its molecules faster.

Experiments

Methylliberine/l-theanine on myself

I experiment with different methylliberine and l-theanine dose combinations: l-theanine, methylliberine, personal-experience, SNICA.

Clear improvement in mood, wakefulness, extraversion, attention, while stress/anxiety is reduced, which is similar to nicotine. I didn't note any side-effects.

I compare l-theanine/methylliberine/ginger with tipepidine: personal-experience, reference, tipepidine.

Tipepidine may have cognitive advantages while l-theanine/methylliberine/ginger relaxing advantages.

All ingredients on nicotine withdrawal patient

Shopping list

Targets

Experiment

Context:
Elias is vaping since 2 years with 18mg strength nicotine salt. Starting at wake-up time with coffee, continued use throughout the day, until bedtime.

FIRST DOSE: 12g of xylitol with 200mg ginger, 70mg green oat, 160mg chitosan, l-theanine 200mg, methylliberine 150-200mg.
FEEDBACK: psychoactive effects -> A positive psychoactive effect is felt. Reduced stress while increased dopamine. Replaces psychoactive effects from vaping well. With nicotine replacement you still get some withdrawal and difficulties while here you do not, thus this is preferred.
FEEDBACK: taste -> 12g of xylitol with 200mg ginger, 70mg green oat, 160mg chitosan, l-theanine 200mg, methylliberine 150-200mg. Taste was very bad, very bitter due to the methylliberine. Green oat has a cécémel taste, especially mixed with ginger it tastes bad. Xylitol does not help sufficiently, even when used at higher doses. However, addition of stevia helps the bitter taste a lot, and in general it creates a positive taste.
FEEDBACK: smell -> The green oat together with the ginger creates a bad cécémel smell. Stevia maybe helps.
FEEDBACK: consumption method -> Prefers a lozenge over a gum, because gum is more cumbersome while lozenge is more efficacious. A stick is cool for the gesture, it is a plus.
FEEDBACK: side-effects -> Maybe feels the slow-down effects of l-theanine which can be pleasant but maybe does not help work. We will see how this evolves.

SECOND DOSE: 10g of xylitol with 2.25g of stevia, 200mg ginger, 70mg green oat, l-theanine 200mg, methylliberine 200mg.
FEEDBACK: psychoactive effects -> Feeling good and very relaxed. Maybe too relaxed, but he says that he is sensitive to downers. Thus, for the average person 200mg l-theanine may be good even if for him a slightly lower dose could be better.
FEEDBACK: taste -> The taste is better with stevia.
FEEDBACK: smell -> Smell has not changed with stevia.
FEEDBACK: consumption method -> Even if in theory he prefers the lozenge. In practice he goes for the gum over the lozenge or 'bâton de réglisse'. Once wanting to vape, or feeling like SNICA's effects lower, he goes for the gum.
FEEDBACK: side-effects -> Too much xylitol leading to gastrointestinal discomfort.

THIRD DOSE: 200mg ginger, 70mg green oat, l-theanine 200mg, methylliberine 200mg.
FEEDBACK: psychoactive effects -> The psychoactive effects are still good. Like nicotine, after 2 hours they start to subside.
FEEDBACK: taste -> The taste is bad as if it makes you want to throw up due to high bitterness from methylliberine without sweetness. Chitosan on tongue beforehand helped a little bit to lower the bitterness but the taste is still bad.
FEEDBACK: smell -> No change in bad cécémel smell.
FEEDBACK: consumption method -> The used lozenge is too hard.
FEEDBACK: side-effects -> Nothing to note.

First day conclusions:
Great psychoactive effects to counteract the nicotine withdrawal and even feel good. Relaxing effects were maybe a little too strong, but this individual is susceptible to that. Also, he did not necessarily complain of it, and after ginger/green-oat accumulate this should improve.
He said positive things like: "this is a cheatcode", "I am sold", "seems too good to be true", "if I had known, I would have started this instead of vaping", "feels a little like kratom". As a final proof of concept, he even paid $70 for 8 days of supply which is completely overpriced for a product that is not even finished.
On the other hand, the taste was very bad and needs work.

Later conclusions:
While trying to stop smoking, Elias misses the pleasure of fast incoming effects (head rush) when using the MVP. This is why he also uses the nicotine spray. He says it would be great if I can recreate the head rush with my product. Thus, the complete product with fast buccal absorption is mandatory.
He also says he enjoys the habits of vaping, such as going outside, which would be an argument for the stick format to simulate vaping/smoking as much as possible.

In retrospection, I want to note that Maximilien said the same, the pleasurable action of smoking and fast-coming effects are mandatory.

Further MVP testing

Collect, in total, 5-10 Letter of support for product development.

Product version 1 (l-theanine/methylliberine/ginger) LOIs:



Product pivot tipepidine LOIs:

Experiment for buccal absorption and taste

Shopping list

Conclusions

If I directly work with Seda, they might be able to directly source/create difficult to find products like micronized l-theanine, micronized methylliberine, or Inosine 5′-Monophosphate. If something fails they would be able to quickly make changes and test again. I can ask if they can also help with the consumption method (stick and breaker).
If I just micronize and mix things together randomly, the product might not work, I need technical formulation work (1). This means I can't do a home experiment and thus that I would need a lab like Seda either way. In this case, I can directly jump to the Conception lab section.

Conception lab

A summary of the project/product for labs
The product will be called SNICA (smart nicotine alternative). SNICA offers a healthy alternative to cigarettes, vaping products, and nicotine replacement therapies, while delivering similar psychoactive effects.
The consumption object would be a stick that melts in mouth. The consumer would have part of the stick in mouth and other part outside of mouth. The inner part would melt relatively fast to release molecules. The consumer needs to reposition the stick partly in the mouth to keep consuming it.
Methylliberine and l-theanine will be the released psychoactive molecules. They need to be buccally absorbed. To allow buccal absorption, first, micronization plus chitosan could be tried. Chitosan would also be able to reduce methylliberine's bitter taste. Ginger (200mg) should also be released from the stick but does not need buccal absorption. Monk fruit and stevia will be used for health and flavoring with a ratio of 25% stevia / 75% monk fruit.
My questions are: if this is feasible and at what conception cost for you? ^b08077

Later additions:
Review the dose needed when buccally absorbed, as it probably is lower compared to when orally absorbed. For l-theanine and methylliberine to have similar time of effects, review how much l-theanine should be orally absorbed to create a second peak (Dosing).
Also, I should specify that the stick (consumption object) should be short so that it can be put in the mouth like a pouch if preferred instead of between lips.

Consultation with Seda
The project seems to be feasible.
The engineers indicated that when buccally absorbed the dose should probably be lower compared to oral absorption.
The cost estimates are +-30k. I can contact them to get a more precise price estimate presentation for investors. ^157872

Business

Marketing

Branding

Name

I think I will go with SNICA.
Maybe call the SNICA stick: a snic, and the act of consuming it: to snic.

Slogan

Sell and advertise

Maybe try to publish a scientific paper on the product. This could create credibility towards scientific individuals or investors. Scientific media pages could subsequently talk positively about it.
People prefer to listen to experts (digital-marketing, marketing, negotiation, psychology). A peer-reviewed article could create such authoritative credibility.

As ad/pitch one could use EEG monitor on subject ingesting SNiCa and compare it with another subject ingesting a cigarette to see similar brain changes occurring.

Influencer marketing, availability in physical stores, and word of mouth can be used for advertisement.

On reddit it could be advertised in the 'X' subreddit, but also 'Y', maybe 'Z', and in subreddits related to novel projects. Of course also in subreddits related to nicotine, vaping, smoking cessation.
This digital advertisement could also be used for a crowdfunding campaign or to collect LOIs. ^25714a

Smoking became very popular as it was perceived as 'cool' and often came forward in movies.
How could snica be made cool and come forward in content? Via social media influencers?
NELK? Lex fridman uses caffeine gum, maybe he would like snica instead?

As it would be addictive like nicotine, the best marketing may be to let users try it once. Thus, distribution of free samples may be a great marketing strategy. Similarly, let investors just try it.

A clinical study could be done to show it improves university student exam scores. Also, clinical studies could be done to show it improves cognition in healthy individuals and in aging individuals. Else, long-term clinical studies could show how it decreases the risk of major diseases while improving quality of life. Clinical studies could even show its effectiveness in the treatment of general anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, major depression, ADHD.

Use famous Marlboro ad as inspiration (|).
Find inspiration in how to sell Snica with this brand sentia spirits who sells 'smart alcohol'.

In terms of marketing, it might be a good idea to let the product sell itself instead of trying hard to convince others in buying it. Basically, let people discover the product in their local market or via influencers reviewing the product. Publish a scientific paper around the product for those who want in depth proof of concept. Letting people discover the product themselves will lead to them desiring it more compared to when you try to sell it to them. This is due to mystery being seducing and own efforts/decisions perceived as more valuable.

Ads should visually show how to use the product (digital-marketing, marketing, negotiation, psychology).

To increase the perceived value of the product: associate it with health, ease of use, have a good looking packaging (digital-marketing, marketing, negotiation, psychology).

Teens don't care much about the long-term health risks. They care more about impaired lung and thus physical ability right now, or worse skin right now. Or I would guess, bad oral microbiome and thus bad mouth taste and breath right now. Also, telling them that the tobacco industry tries to make them addicted for them to perceive vaping as a corrupt enemy, helps. You can for example show them how the tobacco industry has lied about nicotine not being addictive. You can show them how the vaping industry targets teens because they know their developing brain is way more prone to addiction (1).

Try to get a deal with X. They have money, marketing reach, and experience via Y with product dispensing through America. Maybe try to contact them after I publish my scientific study, finish my work experience as ML engineer and have my bachelor/master for credibility. They could be the main investors behind the product I create.
X would want me for them to sell a valuable product. They used to advertise corona before creating their own alcoholic beverage Y. They have been advertising Z and actual cigarettes while they could advertise their own 'nicotine-like-product'. This is where I help them. My product could revolutionize the nicotine industry by being the first of its kind.
Maybe contacting X for the project would be a good idea, knowing they can open me up to the US market where they are friends with V who maybe would be interested by the project giving America an edge on health. They have a lot of money for investment, they have a large audience for advertisement, they have experience distributing a similar product.
X will bring the fundamentals for sales, such as: trust, attention, and desire (digital-marketing, marketing, negotiation, psychology).
If others are doing it, more and more people will want to do it too (digital-marketing, marketing, negotiation, psychology). This is an argument for initial influencer marketing. Also, influencers using the product will make it 'cool' and prevent social deviance (books, marketing, negotiation).
It may be best to stay discrete with the marketing, don't sell yourself but let others talk about you and convince themselves (1). Thus, it may be best to not use X. Selling in physical stores may be sufficient.
However, X could still be very useful to make SNICA appear 'cool' to young people. As a health product, SNICA could easily be classified as 'uncool' while X would make it 'cool'.
Y (X's product) is the number three selling seltzer in the entire USA. ^824a49

Market

Opportunity

The tobacco market size was estimated at USD 886.09 billion in 2023, the e-cigarette/vape market size was estimated at USD 22.45 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 28.17 billion in 2023, and the nicotine replacement therapy market size was estimated at USD 59.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 69.1 billion in 2023. The potential market size of SNICA relative to nicotine users becomes 983 billion which does not even take in account all non-nicotine users who may want to use SNICA. Only 0.1% of that market would result in almost one billion.

70% of cigarette smokers want to quit (1). The success rate of quitting cigarettes without help is only 5%. From this 5%, 65% relapse in a year.

20-40% of high school students in the US vape. The tobacco industry targets teens because they know that early nicotine use can make them addicted for life. In EU vaping rate is lower (1).

Customers
Competition

L-theanine vapes already exist. However, vapes are not healthy, and the product contains a mix of random psychoactive plants. Plus we are unsure it absorbs well via vaping and vaping it may even be dangerous.
Gum containing l-theanine and caffeine already exist. Pouches and lozenges/mints of caffeine already exist. Lozenges/mints of l-theanine already exist. Those products don't buccally absorb the product, and by mixing with caffeine the psychoactive effect timing doesn't align.

Neurogum is a trendy similar product I could use as inspiration. If I ever want to use gum, rungum is an example of gum that contains caffeine or l-theanine.
I don't think they buccally absorb the l-theanine?

One company creating a product with some similarities is Quickstrip. They created a dissolvable strip of micronized caffeine for energy. Also, another one with melatonin for sleep. It could be interesting to study how they created their products and came to market.

Liposomal l-theanine exists on the market. Liposomal delivery improves absorption to lower the needed l-theanine dose and to act faster. This is still not fast enough to create reward; buccal absorption is necessary for this.

The biggest competition may be trendy nicotine replacement products like Lucy. Since nicotine is still unhealthy, SNICA holds an advantage of course by being healthy even.

Financing

Questions and answers
Funding opportunities

Grants, subsidies, free advice

Startup Grants & Competitions.
Pros: Non-dilutive funding, grants don’t require payback.
Cons: Time-consuming applications, competitive.
Options for me:

Other local help.

Influencers with money
Contact influencer X.
Mail title: 'From corona to Y. From Z to SNICA?'
Prepare your cv before.
Always start mail with what interests/benefits them. They could become the first V to create a unicorn (finance). If they join early on, we can avoid other investors taking a part, they could also have a word in the product conception.

W (past member of X) has now become healthy and thus may be interested in a healthy cigarette.

The influencer B vapes a lot, is popular, and with money.

C has a lot of money and an huge audience.

Shark Tank or Belgian version: "Qui veut être mon associé ?".

Small investors
See here list of family, friends, or other contacts who could or already want to invest.

Other
Maybe, the crowdfunding route could be a good one. Advertising it on reddit to different communities (), or on other forum platforms. However, I am not sure people want to buy such a product in advance. It more so is a product you see in a store, buy and try directly.

Borrow bank money and pay it back slowly over a long period?

Find a startup accelerator (|).

Pitch and business plan

I can ask Seda for a presentation on precise cost estimates (1). Maybe, also ask Seda for a signed letter from the engineers saying that the product project is feasible and how much time it would take Seda to conceive/formulate that product. Ideally, I could let Seda sign a letter indicating the product project is feasible and that they reimburse if not able to conceive it. This would lower risk for investors as failure to conceive the product is the largest potential risk.

In the following note I gather advice on how to write the business plan and pitch, while I also draft those.

This would be the structure of my business plan:

Funding phase 1 (seed / feasibility)

Before searching for funding, you must at least have a business plan. Ideally also a MVP or even finished product to show (and associated patent).

Choose and find funding sources (Funding opportunities).

Structure

Via that note I created a sole proprietorship in Belgium so I can buy research chemicals to test tipepidine for example. A sole proprietorship is faster/easier to create, and later you can convert it to a Private Limited Company for protection from personal liability and to scale the company's personnel.
Via another note I handle associated legal documents and accounting.
Here I bought tipepidine via a distributor using my company.

For my company later. Creating a company in Belgium can allow financing from the state who tries to help (subsidies). Creating a company in Ireland has low tax advantage. Creating a company in the US may have advantages if wanting to sell in this market.

Team
Letter of support for product development

See signed letters in this section: Further MVP testing.

Patent

Learn more about my patents.

Regulatory & Compliance

Zia U. is a freelancer I have had prior contact with that could help with regulatory and compliance.

Old and alternative ideas about how to create a healthy cigarette

Flexible cigarette for societal productivity.
Here I explore different cigarette modalities and mechanisms to reproduce the associated psychoactive effect. But I also expand on the possible benefits that can come with fast and transient psychoactive effects other than nicotine's or complementing nicotine's. Overall, while those ideas may be interesting as different perspectives, potential future options and target markets, they don't represent the currently finally used product.

Ingredients and pathways.
Here I go more in depth on different target pathways or useful ingredients for SNICA, not only related to psychoactive effects but also related to health. Even if I didn't keep those for the current product, they can still be a source of inspiration for future products.

Expansion

After establishing SNICA as a successful startup, you may want to expand its horizons.

Other related startups.
The SNICA startup could be linked to other health startup ideas, such as healthy alcohol or healthy sodas. As a long-term goal, you may also want to invest into research to improve SNICA, eliminate drug sensitization and counter blunting.

Other SNICA products.
Mimicking the psychoactive effects from nicotine is a great first step, this combines stimulation and relaxation, but maybe other psychoactive effects could also be provided via different products. One could target wakefulness, another one relaxation for example.

Other reasons and quotes for SNICA

Other reasons and quotes for SNICA.
Theoretical and philosophical reasoning behind the desirability of nicotine, other psychoactive molecules, and subsequently SNICA, in relation to life meaning, productivity, health, and personal choices. Subsequently, determining if the idea is good as a whole for humans, but also identifying what really sells and judging the startup opportunity.

Product pivot: tipepidine

Initial notes

Parse: TODO.

As a spin-off startup, I contemplated a tipepidine patent for X.

In practice

personal-experience, reference, tipepidine

Conclusions
I got interested in tipepidine since its psychoactive effect feels like nicotine while in theory it appears great since it disinhibits autoreceptors which is key towards motivation, cognition, and pleasure. Even if this might be true, in practice my first product version (l-theanine/methylliberine) felt more relaxing (1). This doesn't mean that adding tipepidine on top of the first product version couldn't give the best of both worlds. However, it seems like tipepidine is considered as a medication and can't be sold as part of a supplement. Selling it over-the-counter as a smoking cessation medication is in theory possible but very complicated/expensive and regulated. Another problem with tipepidine is that by disinhibiting and improving pleasure anticipation, it can just increase the desire to smoke (2), similarly to when some people want to smoke after consuming alcohol; the first product version (l-theanine/methylliberine) doesn't have this problem by making you feel satiated in some sense.

Current project verdict: temporary pivot or not?

The healthy alcohol startup idea has more advantages and is easier to produce than this healthy cigarette idea and thus is better as a first startup. More advantages because it has more health benefits since nicotine itself isn't super bad for health either (while nicotine pouches already exist), but also because it acts on other things than health such as: hangovers, calories/weight-gain, driving under the influence, diabetes blood sugar control... It is easier to produce because the psychoactive molecules just need to be mixed in a drink and don't need transformation for buccal absorption or placement within a stick. ^512a85

Another related business opportunity that may be better than SNICA is to patent tipepidine for X.

When having more money, and after trying the alcohol startup, I can always come back to this nicotine startup of course, which is why I called the pivot temporary.

However, SNICA seems promising: the nicotine market is huge, and a healthy alternative would probably have its place in the market, giving the opportunity for a unicorn; product conception may be the largest hurdle, but seda's pharmaceutical engineers say it is feasible while costs are not huge.
Plus, I already worked on it significantly; thus, if I can get financing for product conception I would continue. But, to get financing I may need a guarantee from seda around product conception success which would de-risk investors.