The energy drink category that has been overdue a reset, and Starmount is Canada’s answer to that. It arrives with rather more credibility than most challengers, and the couple behind it have spent nearly two decades in the beverage business.
Nick and Lindsay Sutcliffe launched Pommies in 2010, part of the first wave of Canadian craft cider. From their base in Hockley Valley, Ontario, they eventually recognized the same gap they had once seen in cider. The mainstream options for pick-me-ups in a can were packed with artificial everything, while the functional alternatives asked you to trade away taste. Starmount is a highly functional mushroom drink built into a format people already reach for, with a healthy difference.
The formula is deliberately short. Each can carries 1,500 mg of dried lion’s mane and 110 mg of caffeine drawn from the guarana plant rather than a laboratory, alongside organic cane sugar and just 45 calories a serving. The flavour is crisp, lightly sparkling, citrus-forward with a lemon note, and pointedly free of the earthiness that gives most mushroom drinks away. No artificial colours, no elaborate proprietary blend, and nothing that needs explaining on the side of the can.
The brand’s case rests on the lion’s mane compounds, including erinacines A and C, and hericenone A, having been studied for their potential to support focus and mood, paired with guarana’s slower-release caffeine for a gentler lift than coffee provides. “The energy drink category was long overdue for a reset,” says co-founder Lindsay Sutcliffe. “Too many people have to choose between performance and peace of mind in what they drink.”
Starmount launched on 15 May at $15.96 for a four-can pack, sold direct through drinkstarmount.com, where a store locator tracks an expanding list of southern Ontario stockists. It is a modest proposition, and that is rather the point. No protocol, no regimen, no four-a.m. alarm and no cold plunge, just a better can for the part of the afternoon that needs one.
