Report on Ψ-Solution

Ψ-Solution (Psi-Solution/Psi-Lösung/Псі-розчин/Пси-разтвор/Ψ-lausn) is a mineral water-based energy drink with a distinct metallic taste. It is a passion project of mine, and I want to write a small report on my findings as of late.

Idea

Taste

Irony, bloody, mineral.

Taste of fear. When getting a jumpscare in real life, especially in the middle of a physical activity like jogging or cycling, sometimes you can feel an irony taste in your mouth. For example, when a stray dog suddenly jumps at you.

My guess is, it's the small capilaries on the tongue bursting, giving you a short taste of blood in the mouth. This should be the overall taste profile with some details.

Old spoon. Old spoons also taste interesting. To achieve it, along with the iron, I add a trace amount of copper (2 mg per liter), and a small amount of zinc (25 mg/L).

Mineral, chalky. Along with the mineral water base, I add Mg, in the form of glycinate for bioavailablilty. Ka, and a high amount of Hydrogencarbonate in the base mineral water (Johannisbrunnen Heilwasser has 3345mg/L!).

A bit salty, a tiny amount of bitterness. Caffeine is bitter, so a good amount of sodium will mask it. I get it from the base mineral water, or by adding a pinch of baking soda.

Effect

Energy drink. It's an energy drink, so I add the same amount of caffeine, as in Red Bull, if a bit lower. It is about 300mg/L. Along with caffeine I add Taurine (2000mg/L) and plan to add Creatine (5g/Liter). I also add a drop of iodine, but it is optional.

Nootropic. It's supposed to be better then energy drinks, so I add 500mg of Citicoline. Citicoline is dosed at 500mg per liter, it's the standard daily dose. One could theoretically consume more, but the heavy mineral profile of the drink naturally limits the intake (most people will not consume the whole liter at once because of the taste). Creatine and taurine also help with focus and minimize the caffeine crash afterwards. Along with caffeine, I add l-theanine, it's found in tea, has a calming effect, produces a balanced energy boost.

Stashed ideas.
I also used to add lion's mane mushroom in powder form, but the evidence of its usefulness is anecdotal. Tried to use guarana as an "energy source", and the mushroom powder as one of the nootropics, because I thought an earthy taste will benefit the drink, but strayed away from this.

Trace amounts of lithium. I tried mineral water from all across Europe, and I actually liked Bilinska Kyselka the most, along with Poliana Kvasova from Ukraine, but it's sadly not sold in Europe. It has a similar mineral landscape as the Johannisbrunnen Heilwasser, but there's just more of everything. Along with the minerals present here, it has  3mg of Lithium. There is sparse evidence, that in regions with trace amounts of lithium in the water, the depression and suicide rates are lower. Also, lithium is used medicinally in far larger amounts ( 600-1200mg) to treat bipolar disorder, mood stabilization, preventing manic episodes. But, it's really tricky to source, and most lithium solutions sold are just aquarium cleaners.

Not pharma. I try to not cross the red line in the amount of stuff in the water, for it to literally become medicine. I stick to food supplements, stuff that people take before going to the gym, etc. All amounts of minerals in the water don't exceed the daily limit. The iron is the most extreme here.

Style

"I hate the taste, but I like how it makes me feel" - guy that tried it, 2025

It is mostly a passion project, but I did think of how to pitch it. I did a few renders of the bottle in proper environment (As shown in (1) - opaque label, (2) - transparent label.

Contents of Psi-Solution

There's the mineral water base and the added stuff.

Element	Base water (mg/L)	Added (mg/L)	Total (mg/L)
Fe	6.48	15	21.48
Zn	—	25 (glycinate)	25
Cu	—	2 (glycinate)	2
Mg	102	200	302
I	—	0.3	0.3
K	32	150–190	182–222
Na	990	0–300	990–1290
Ca	198	—	198
Chloride (Cl⁻)	289	—	289
Bicarbonate (HCO₃⁻)	3345.2	—	3345.2
Citicoline (CDP-Choline)	—	500	500
Creatine (C₄H₉N₃O₂)	—	5000	5000
Taurine (C₂H₇NO₃S)	—	2000	2000
L-Theanine (C₇H₁₄N₂O₃)	—	300	300
Caffeine (C₈H₁₀N₄O₂)	—	300	300

**Table 1:** Psi-Solution formulation (per liter)

These are the planned contents, the current ones don't use the glycinate, but just the oxide, and there's no Cuprum yet. Magnesium oxide does increase the chalky taste, but is less bioavaliable and makes the drink have a milky foggy look. No creatine added yet, too.

Filtration

As it is a fully DIY, ragtag style thing, right now I just filter with coffee filters. These work fine with bigger particles floating around, but don't help much with clearing the water fully. There is a caveat with overfiltration, because the main chunk of the drink's taste comes from the floating iron and mineral particles.

Nevertheless, the better the particles are spread out through the water, and the finer they are, the better the taste and the look.

Ideas for further particle scattering.

Ultrasound-induced cavitation. One of the ideas that I've had how to spread the mineral particles through the water is to place the mineral in the solid state (a pill or the contents of a capsule somehow pressed together) in a cavitation bath. But, as it's mainly used to clean the solid-body specimen themselves, I don't expect it to be a viable method of scattering the minerals through the water on a finer level. Most probably, the dangling bonds appearing on the surface of the mineral in proximity to the cavitation bubble, will just get clogged with whatever floats in the water itself.

More so, now it's hard to predict the reactions that can occur in the bubble itself, due to hotspots in the bubble and the pressure.

Water-soluble salts. My guess is, the best call for having a fine scatter is to have the elements in a good state from the start. With water-soluble salts, it could be done, but I don't know how easy it is to source them.

Finer filters. Could be good, but the problem with overfiltration becomes worse.

Biggest problems right now.

Darkening of the liquid.

The biggest problem right now is the formation of iron-caffeine complex. The caffeine molecule binds to the metal ion through a covalent bond, and it forms a complex with a dark color. Depending on the pH of the water, the tint of the dark color spans from dark amber to dark blue. Without adding the caffeine, the drink has a nice amber color, as seen in (3).

(3) Psi-solution in a clear bottle, filtered, no caffeine added.

When having smaller amount of caffeine and a high pH, the solution becomes dark blue or purple, and gaining substantial murkiness, as seen in (4).

As caffeine acts as a ligand to the iron in the liquid, one solution could be adding an even stronger ligand than caffeine. One such thing could be citric acid. Need to know the amount to add, enough for the iron to bond to it, but not too much to notice the taste difference. Citric acid also lowers pH, gives more control of what bonds with what.

I have tested the acid, but the results were worse than expected. The liquid did become more clear, but overall still pretty murky.

The color

Another problem, also purely aesthetics-driven, is the tint of the drink. My opinion is, the best tint for something like that is teal. If the darkening problem is resolved, I know that iron can form complexes in the solution, given the conditions of the water are alkaline, so it has the pH level of 8-10. Fe²⁺ ions form Fe(OH)₂, it oxidizes partially and creates blue-green/teal hues, depending on the oxidation state. It should be possible by modifying the pH with baking soda and citric acid, but I couldn't get it done yet. It either stays amber or turns dark blue.

Plans

Immediate priorities:
Finalize creatine addition (5g/L-proven cognitive + physical energy substrate)
Test magnesium bisglycinate (replace oxide for better bioavailability, clearer solution)
Optimize citric acid dosing (ligand competition with caffeine-find minimum effective dose)
Long-term:
Particle dispersion methods (ultrasonic, water-soluble salts)
Alternative caffeine sources (theacrine-cost-prohibitive at 10-15x price, but no tolerance buildup)
Teal color achievement (pH tuning without compromising taste/stability).