This businessman thinks his snortable chocolate powder is the next big thing

Nick Anderson has seen the future, and it involves snorting chocolate powder.

The 29-year-old founded his company, Legal Lean, in Orlando two years ago, in a quest to come up with a drug-free version of "purple drank" — the combination of prescription cold medicine and soda. Then, after he heard about a "chocolate snorting" trend making waves across Europe earlier this year, he had to try it, Anderson told The Washington Post, and it became clear that this was going to be his latest product. Legal Lean has concocted a mix of cacao powder and three ingredients often found in energy drinks — gingko biloba, taurine, and guarana — calling it Coco Loko. The point is to snort the stuff so you get a legal high quickly, and Anderson said it took two months and 10 tries to come up with the right blend. "Some versions, they just burned too much," he added.

Anderson said the Coco Loko buzz lasts 30 minutes to an hour, and "you're euphoric but also motivated to get things done." The product, which went on sale in June, has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Andrew Lane, director of the Johns Hopkins Sinus Center, told the Post that while there's zero data on the effects of inhaling powdered chocolate up your nose, he's at least not concerned about it turning people into addicts. "If you're going to do drugs, you probably don't start with chocolate," he said. "Certainly this is better than using an illicit drug."

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There are a few reasons to pause before snorting, Lane warns — primarily because "putting solid material into your nose, you could imagine it getting stuck in there, or the chocolate mixing with your mucus to create a paste that could block your sinuses." And just like that, the buzz is gone.