Down on Wall Street, meanwhile, the drink is becoming the choice stimulant for those who stay up late to see how the Nikkei opens, rather than spend extra hours in front of a PlayStation. "I drink one [BAWLS] in the morning and one around 3 in the afternoon," said Peter, a Wall Street trader who asked that his last name not be used. "I stopped drinking coffee when I found [BAWLS]."

A Goldman Sachs employee said one of the firm's techies suggested it to him one morning, and he's been hooked since. "[I drink] two each day at work and one when I get home. My girlfriend thinks I'm nuts, but it's better than the '80s way of doing [cocaine] all day."