'Tis the season for CU-inspired hangover remedy.

Hangovers go with New Year's Day like gift-wrapped boxes go with Christmas, so it's no surprise that a new hangover remedy called The Cure was enjoying brisk sales as Jan. 1 neared.

The Cure's creator, Robert Scholl, was a student at the University of Colorado (where else?) when he started tinkering with hangover-relieving concoctions that would help him function the day after imbibing, in the classroom and as an Ironman triathlete in training. He eventually sought advice on ingredients from his sister, Ann Marie Scholl, also a CU grad and by that time a developmental biologist at Duke University.

"I think I've had the worst hangovers on Earth," admitted Robert Scholl, 27, who graduated with a degree in psychology from the nationally acclaimed party school. "That's probably why my sister and I invented this. I never want to have one again."

After months of testing and consulting with athletes and experts such as Bob Parrino, a clinical psychologist who studies alcohol effects, they came up with an all-natural powder containing vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and nutrients that you mix with 20 ounces of water. One ingredient you won't find in The Cure is caffeine, which Scholl says brings initial relief but, like alcohol, is a diuretic and thus further dehydrates the body.

The directions on the package say to consume the fizzy drink after your last alcoholic beverage, but Scholl says you'll benefit even if you don't remember to take The Cure until the next morning.

With funding from friends and outside investors, the Scholls launched Rescue Beverage Corp. in early 2006, with The Cure its sole product. They found a manufacturer in Florida, and soon they were in production and test-marketing at convenience stores in South Carolina.

"It pretty much took a year to finalize everything and just to find a nutraceutical plant that does effervescent technology, because this stuff needs to be packaged below 10 percent humidity or it's ruined," Scholl said. "If any moisture gets in there, the chemical reaction takes place, and it blows up."

Scholl credits Russ Phelps, who handles inventory and promotions for Liquor Mart in Boulder, for putting The Cure in that store and for hooking up the fledgling company with distributors.

Scholl says about 800 Colorado retailers--mostly liquor stores--now carry The Cure, which retails for $2.99 per packet. The product also is sold in Oregon, Northern California, Idaho, Eastern Washington, South Carolina as well as Ireland and England. Scholl recently signed a deal that made The Cure available on Amazon.com starting in early December, and the product was well-received at the National Association of Convenience Stores annual trade show in Atlanta in November.

The holiday season is the peak sales period for alcohol, and thus it figures to be for The Cure, too.

"We've already seen a pretty big spike," Scholl said in late November. He declined to give sales figures or projections because, he said, he's had to repeatedly revise projections upward as new distributors are lined up and The Cure is exposed at events like the convenience-store trade show in Atlanta. "We're struggling to keep up with our inventory. It's crazy."

At present, Rescue Beverage Corp. is a company literally all over the map, with its manufacturing plant in Florida, Scholl himself living in San Diego, and sales and distribution in Vail. The two men who run those aspects of the business, John and Jeff Chizmadia (Scholl and Jeff were roommates in college), want to live there, and Scholl says he wants to keep them happy. He also says he'll probably eventually make Vail the company's headquarters.

When I told him I planned to try out The Cure, ideally as the last beverage I consume on New Year's Eve, he sounded confident I'd be satisfied--and awake hangover-free on New Year's Day.

"Give it a good test," he said. "Don't be afraid to throw 'em back."

Of course, moderation is a more proven hangover solution than even The Cure, but also one that's easy to botch while you're waiting for the big ball to drop.

Mike Taylor is the managing editor of ColoradoBiz. He writes about small-business money issues and how startups are launched. Read this and Taylor's past columns on the Web at cobizmag.com and e-mail him at [e-mail].

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