At Posh Lifestyle & Beauty Blog, we love discovering brands that push boundaries and bring something truly new to the table. Today we’re spotlighting GABA Labs and their breakthrough brand SENTIA Spirits, pioneers in functional social drinks designed to give you the positive effects of alcohol without the alcohol.
Founded in 2016 (with SENTIA launching in 2020), GABA Labs is based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK. Their mission is simple yet powerful:
GABA Labs: Revolutionising adult social drinking
SENTIA: Unlock your GABA, Find Your Moment
Their work goes beyond simply removing alcohol. Using cutting-edge neuroscience, they’ve created drinks that support relaxation and social connection through GABA-active botanicals. The result? A new category of functional beverages you can actually feel.
Meet the Founders
David Orren (CEO & Drinks Innovator)
David brings a commercial and entrepreneurial lens to GABA Labs. Known for spotting emerging trends and challenging conventional categories, he focuses on identifying what the next generation of consumers are craving. For him, the mission is not to imitate alcohol but to invent something entirely new—drinks designed around mood, connection, and authentic experiences.
Professor David Nutt (Scientist & Neuropsychopharmacologist)
Professor Nutt is a globally recognized authority on the brain and how alcohol affects it. His decades of research into neuropsychopharmacology shaped the scientific foundation of GABA Labs. His work ensures that SENTIA’s drinks are not only innovative but also rooted in rigorous science, with a focus on safety, effectiveness, and human connection.
Together, Orren and Nutt are building a future where social drinking doesn’t come with the costs of alcohol—only its benefits.
Founder Spotlight Interview: GABA Labs
Q: What inspired the creation of GABA Labs and the SENTIA Spirits platform?
A desire to expand consumer choice beyond the alcohol vs abstinence binary. We wanted to create functional drinks that allow consumers to be themselves in their social lives.
Q: How do you describe “functional socializing” to someone hearing the term for the first time?
It means drinking to feel like you. No more, no less. Without the exaggerations and distortions of alcohol—or the numerous immediate and long term health consequences.
Q: Why focus on GABA-active botanicals rather than other plant-based or functional compounds?
Because GABA is the brain’s natural calming system, and by enhancing it we can safely replicate alcohol’s positive effects on relaxation—laying the foundation for smoother, more positive social moments.
Q: What sets your platform apart from the growing zero-alcohol and functional drinks market?
We don’t just remove alcohol—we’ve built a scalable platform based on science that actively supports wellness and connection, something other zero-proof drinks don’t deliver.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge in developing a scalable, science-backed drinks platform?
Challenging the supremacy of alcohol, this is an ancient technology, as old as civilization, it’s like the challenge that EV producers saw before them in the face of the fossil fuel industry.
Q: Who do you see as your core audience—early adopters, wellness enthusiasts, or mainstream consumers?
We are marketing to biohacking and wellness focused early adopters and early majority consumers who want smarter, healthier choices without losing out on social experiences.
Q: What does success look like for GABA Labs in the next 5 years?
Becoming the global leader in functional social drinks, with our GABA platform integrated into a wide range of beverage formats via collaboration with new and existing drinks industry partners.
Q: If you could change one common misconception about alcohol alternatives, what would it be?
That they’re just for people who quit drinking—functional drinks are for everyone who wants more choice in how they socialise.
Q: What advice would you give to other founders in the functional beverage space?
When we started this in 2015, we assumed that regulators and policy makers would look at the harms of alcohol and start to shape the future. We were wrong, and we’ve found over the last 10 years that consumers were far ahead of anything a government or industry body was going to get around to addressing. So, look at consumers, look at what they’re doing, the challenges they face, what they’re talking about. The world is changing, and they’re driving that change—you will rise with the tide if you stay in touch with that. The innovation, the science, the research, it all flows from human beings, not the other way around.
David Orren (CEO, Drinks innovator)
Q: You’ve been described as a “market disruptor.” What gaps in the drinks industry did you see that others were missing?
We’re not really the market disruptors in the first instance—that’s the consumer—what we’ve done is seen what the next generation are doing, what they’re saying and listened to them. Consumers identify market gaps intuitively. And what are those gaps? Most alternatives focus on taste without tackling mood—We’re not here to pretend that we can make the world’s greatest tasting beer, or alcohol-free whiskey—you’re never going create an alcohol-free scotch that tastes better than the real thing. So, we’re not replacing the real thing (and we don’t want to!) we’re creating a new thing, something different. You shouldn’t have to pretend you’re drinking alcohol—that’s a major gap. It’s not about looking like you’re having a grown-up drink; it’s about the feeling you want, for whatever reason you want it. Our drinks set the stage for you to be you.
Q: From a business standpoint, how do you see partnerships shaping the future of GABA Labs?
We’re amazed at what the sector is doing, the creativity, the ambition. It’s not just about the giants of the alcoholic beverage industry—we want them to join us, sure—but it’s new producers who are shaking things up, these are the people who inspire us, who we’d love to partner with, the existing industry will follow, will accelerate scale and legitimacy—just as we’ve seen in other sectors where disruptive innovation becomes mainstream—but it’s the new kids on the block who will push that, and we’re confident the sector has what it takes to continue to change assumptions and the narrative shape the future for GABA Labs and the sector as a whole.
Q: What excites you most about scaling this platform across different drink formats?
The new generation of drinkers, the older generation, who are thinking about what and why they drink in the first place. It’s exciting to see how these people are changing behaviours, venues, or inventing entirely new ones, the challenge of scaling the platform is meeting the customer where they are, that’s where new formats (some familiar, some entirely new) emerge.
Professor David Nutt (Scientist, Neuropsychopharmacologist)
Q: You’ve spent your career studying alcohol’s effects on the brain. How does your research connect to what you’re building at GABA Labs?
Decades of work have shown alcohol’s harms are linked to the havoc it causes in the brain and its toxicity; my research informed how to precisely target the same brain pathways safely.
Q: Can you break down, in simple terms, how GABA-active plants influence mood and sociability?
GABA is the brain’s natural calming signal—its “off switch.” When you enhance the effects of GABA, it eases stress, quiets overthinking, and helps us feel safe enough to connect with others. Alcohol does this too, but it’s a hammer: it pushes hard on the GABA system blocks other important brain chemicals and stimulates a range of others. That’s why alcohol makes people feel relaxed and sociable at first, but often leaves them with poor sleep, memory lapses, and feeling awful the next day.
We use GABA-active plants to target a narrow part of your GABA system specifically. Rather than forcing the system, they gently enhance the effects of the GABA your brain is already producing. This makes you feel at ease, more open, and that lays a foundation for social connection.
Q: What does the science tell us about creating a safe, effective alternative to alcohol?
That by carefully selecting and combining botanicals (or, as we’re currently researching and testing, by designing molecules from scratch), we can mimic alcohol’s social benefits by precise targeting instead of overwhelming the system in the way alcohol does.
Q: Do you see this work as part of a broader cultural shift away from traditional alcohol use?
Yes—rising health awareness is driving demand for alternatives, and functional drinks are becoming a central part of this shift.
Website: https://us.sentiaspirits.com/
Instagram: @sentiaspirits
Facebook: @sentiaspirits
LinkedIn: @sentiaspirits
Twitter/X: @sentiaspirits
TikTok: @sentiaspirits
YouTube: @sentiaspirits
Press Kit & Media Assets: https://us.sentiaspirits.com/blogs/sentia-club-blog
Awards & Recognition
L.A. Spirits Awards 2025: Gold for GABA Black, Silver for GABA Red, Platinum for GABA Gold
SIP Awards 2025: GABA Red – Best of Class Platinum, GABA Black – Platinum Award, GABA Gold – Double Gold
World Alcohol Free Awards 2025: SENTIA Spirits – Gold Medal
UK Enterprise Awards 2024: Most Innovative Alcohol-Free Spirits Company
Notable collaborations include work with the University of Portsmouth, University of Exeter, and Imperial College London
