The beginning

What's the furthest possible point from an energy drink? Surely that would be a Lethargy Drink, the development of which I present here. The first consideration had to be for me, what is it that makes energy drinks so popular? So I asked a buddy of mine 3 things he liked about his preferred brand of energy drink. His responses were thus, and I've added my summary of what these mean on a broader level. 1) Energy. (Performs a task) 2) It tastes great. (Enjoyment/Pleasure in consumption) 3) Mixes with alcohol. (Versatile) My lethargy drink would need to do all three of these things to compete inversely. So, not actually having any money after the Christmas/new year I went to fridge. 3 products would have tasted good in a drink: Lemonade, Orange juice and Milk. Of these, I started with OJ because lemonade has lots of sugar in (energy) and milk isn't very versatile.

Add lemon juice

Next I went to work on the lethargy. I use three things to help me sleep - lemon juice, herbal tea with ginger, and painkillers. I thought it was wise to leave the last one out of the product, but now I'm not so sure.

Mixing the ingredients

I put everything in a jug and left this in the fridge to cool while I tried to think up a brand name and design a label. I was stumped here, until I came up with...

Warm Cow!

Partly a bit of a parody of everyone's best known energy drink, Warm Cow is also indicative of this drink's defining feature: You drink it warm. This is the key to really bringing out the brain lulling qualities of the beverage, because what's nicer and dreamier than a warm, lemony, gingery drink to sip all snuggled up in bed on a winter's night? Warm Cow, that's what. I bottled it, labeled it with this flowing design in nice muted colours, and in the bottom right of the label you can see the instruction to heat before consuming. I think it's ideal to drink in small doses, and I used my sake set for it. I guess a mug would be good too. 1) Purpose? Yep, makes me happily calm. 2) Pleasure? Yep, it tastes great, and furthermore, FEELS great to drink. 3) Versatile? Yep, I don't see why it couldn't be drunk cold, or at any temperature, mixed with soda to make it fizzy or a clear spirit like vodka or white rum to turn it into the new party drink. Seriously, this stuff is great.