Allison Nelson doesn’t just want to wake customers up; she wants to give them a snack in the face.

Since August, Allison and her husband, Wes, have been infusing baked treats with pharmacy-grade caffeine at A Snack In The Face, 2414 Lincoln Way.

It started as a hobby, a personal quest for the perfect caffeine delivery system.

“My husband and I, neither of us really like coffee, but we’re both caffeine addicts,” Allison said.

Her job as a marketer had her staring at a computer all day, leaving her looking for an easy way to pep up.

“The first thing we did was water. We thought, ‘hey, can we just caffeinated water?” Wes said.

The answer was yes. But the water ended up tasting like the bitter additive.

That’s when they realized that sugar was the key. The more caffeine put into an item, the more sugar is needed to cover its taste.

Baked goods were the next logical step, due to Allison’s passion for the art.

“My family’s business was catering,” she said. “I’ve been doing cakes on the side as my hobby for a few decades now.”

First, they did their homework. Had anyone commercialized this yet? The answer was no; most other baked goods claiming caffeine just contain coffee. Would caffeine melt in an oven? Not if it’s kept at temperatures under about 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then they experimented. The best technique they found was to grind the granular caffeine into a very fine powder and mix it into the batter. Since it doesn’t melt, thorough mixing is key in order to avoid leaving any concentrated areas.

“If you run into a caffeine spot, it’s not going to taste so great,” Allison said.

Dosage levels also required tweaking.

“I think the first thing we made had 400 milligrams of caffeine in it. Not only did it not taste very good, but I found myself staring at the ceiling at three in the morning,” Wes laughed.

But after several months of adjustments, they found they had a delicious caffeinated brownie and, possibly, a business.

The pair pitched the idea to the owner of their current space, renovated the interior and A Snack in the Face was born.

In the meantime, Allison moved from brownies to other creations, such as cupcakes, cheesecake and candy. All are made with natural ingredients, like real eggs, butter, milk and cream.

“We’re not just going for an image here, I want everything to taste really good,” Allison said. “This is a place where you get the truly decadent.”

New creations will keep popping up as well, including items made with seasonal produce like pumpkins.

“We’re going to be adding new stuff all the time,” Allison said. “We want to hear what [customers would] like to see caffeinated next.”

In the future, they’d like to expand into manufacturing and get their products into gas stations.

“Truckers would really like this,” Wes said. “It’s something that doesn’t have to be refrigerated to taste good … [and] you don’t have to stop to go to the bathroom 50 miles down the road.”

But for now, the focus is on building a strong base in Ames – hitting community members and ISU students with a good hard snack in the face, one sleepy customer at time.