Sentia Gaba Black, Botanical Non Alcoholic Spirits, Award Winning, Vegan, Gluten Free and GM Free, Natural Plant Taste, Smoky Spicy taste, Up to 20 drinks 16.9 fl oz (500ml) - Perfect for Mocktails, Mix with Ginger Ale or Cola

I decided to take a break from drinking for a few months and came across this product, advertised as a "non-alcoholic substitute for your favorite drink", and after reading the description I was rather excited to give it a try. Needless to say I was mildly disappointed when after almost a month of wait I finally got the product and it didn't look anything like the picture. "Muddy water" would be my best description for the color of drink, and bottle doesn't look nearly as glamorous as it does in their pictures. But all of that could be looked over if the flavors are there, right? Well unfortunately they really not. I thought it would taste something like a whiskey or a spiced rum, but without the alcohol... But it tastes kind of like a very strong herbal tea with cinnamon and ginger... It's not disgusting, but I wouldn't call it pleasant either. I also didn't feel any buzz nor got that relaxed feeling I usually get with alcohol. Maybe it's my own fault for having unrealistic expectations, but I don't imagine anyone will actually enjoy this product as a legitimate substitute... The only good thing about it is that you probably will end up having only one drink and you will be sipping on it for a while 🤣

So, i was hyped for Sentia when i read about it, and when i saw it finally hit the US i had to have some. I wanted it for all the ingredients in it, its actually an amazing combination of things that are good for sleep and calming. Went with the Black seeing as how the other one tastes of perfume from the reviews. Sipped some out of a shot glass after it chilled for a bit.Firstly, it smells good. Kind of like cinnamon chocolate. Second, it does not look like the bulk of the pictures make it look. It is not "Black". Its kind of a chocolate brown. I would say it kind of looks like a good Worcestershire sauce. Same consistency, same color. So if you're expecting it to look like black coffee, it does not.So, theres a lot of back and forth between how it tastes. Some say its got a lot of tasting notes, defining it like a good whiskey. Some people say its outright disgusting. Its... different. Its not outright vile, but its certainly not something worthy of a whole list of tasting notes. To me it tastes like if you took a fistfull of lightly smoked black pepper and dumped it into a can of decaf folgers.This stuff would make an EXCELLENT mixer for any sort of dark, bitter cocktail. It would be amazing in an espresso martini or something of that nature. Sentia says you can drink it on its own but i wouldnt recommend it. Definitely something to keep with your liquor next time you're mixing drinks.Now, for the experience. This will either make or break what you were hoping for.Sentia says, to simplify the literature, its mood altering similar to alcohol. People are buying it because they think its effectively a free ride on the inebriation train. These are people, probably alcoholics, who do not know how herbs and botanical extracts work. Think of it less as an "Alcohol replacement" and more of a "homoeopathic tincture" and you'll be in the right mindset for what you should expect. Its definitely will induce calming and help you relax, as a good tincture would. It gave me a little bit of a boozy head high, but only a little (I only had a shot glass, mind), and it faded into a mellow, feel good vibe. Its what i hoped it would be.So no, its not your get out of jail free card toward drunkeness. It is however an excellent calming tincture, and was definitely what i personally was hoping for with it. Something to help me sleep, something to have a little bit of after work and de stress. Effectively medicine, albeit pricey.Should you buy it? If you want a mixer to add an extra kick to your drinks, sure. If you want something to help you relax, definitely. If you want something to get intoxicated with because your car wont start without blowing into a built in breathalyzer because you have six DUIs, look elsewhere.

After I tasted the Gold I liked it so much that I did a subscription. When I got the Gold that I ordered I continued to enjoy the taste and the calming effect. However, I have continued to receive other flavors that I absolutely do not like. And on top of that they are not returnable. Because of this I have cancelled my subscription and will not be buying this product again.

I'm usually too lazy to write Amazon reviews but Sentia products are getting such an odd division of reviews that I felt obliged to. For context, I've now consumed 2-3 bottles of Gold and 2-3 of Red but have yet to try Black. Most of my purchases were via Amazon but I did make the mistake of purchasing my initial bottle via their website (which added a hefty shipping cost and, if anything, took longer to arrive).So... where to begin? First of all, if you are actually expecting a buzz/intoxication effect that is very similar to alcohol without the health concerns, don't bother purchasing it, you're just going to be disappointed. I think a large number of the 1 or 2-star reviews could be explained away with this simple fact.But that does not make this product worthless. The "buzz" created is more of a mild mental calming effect with slight physical sensations. It does the job of taking the edge off after work or relaxing a bit in the evening versus consuming alcohol, but that's about it. Personally, I view this as a good thing, but I suppose if you're specifically looking for the less-inhibited, so-called "pro social" effect of alcohol you're not going to find that here.The taste is quite nice -- it's certainly not "overpriced fruit juice" as some reviews are suggesting. It's more botanical/bitter in taste.Alas, that's about all the praise I'm going to give this product/company. From here on out, it's critiques. First of all, Sentia needs to work with Amazon to make one listing page for all flavors. Jumping between product pages is not a smooth experience and it leads to more review division. Second, they need to step up their game on the logistics front. At nearly all times, at least one flavor is out of stock on Amazon, and I certainly don't care enough about this product to pay the hefty shipping cost on their own website.Third, and by far the most important part of this review... they need to clarify the serving size and do some more studies on the average effective dose. You are selling to the US market that probably includes a significant number of cocktail enthusiasts. We expect measurements in ounces, and the suggested serving size of this product is a joke -- change it to a standard 1.5 oz "shot" for simplicity. Alas, my primary issue with Sentia is that to feel *anything* close to the "buzz" I described above, I need at least 2 ounces per beverage. Okay, that's easy enough to pour, but now the serving size of this bottle just got slashed to 10 instead of 20. And I'm someone who was fairly naive to most of the "active ingredients" so I doubt I'm an outlier when it comes to dosing.So the TL;DR essentially becomes the following: Sentia is a decent product, certainly quite promising for the future and a significant step-up from typical non-alcoholic beverages that omit the alcohol yet not the carbs, yet the purchase decision boils down to the serving size (minimum effective dose, so to speak) balanced against the price tag. Is $40 worth it if you actually only get 8-10 effective servings? Only you can answer that question. For me that's an easy yes because there's not really anything similar on the market (in aperitif-style liquid format, at least)... but I'm certainly not thrilled with that price-tag.