Booze Infused Energy

As a student, I am well aware of popularity and prevalence of alcohol infused energy drinks. They’re everywhere, and understandably so, they are cheap, effective, and they allow the consumer to Go, Go, Go, into the wee hours of the night. But now these drinks have come under scrutiny from major media outlets, nutritionists, and pharmacology experts because of their questionable, and unknown contents. This is primarily due to reports of widespread abuse and injury by students across the country.

And its not just alcoholic beverages like Four Loko that are being looked into, all energy drinks are being examined for their potential health hazards. Yesterday I was watching a program on ESPN that covered a story of a high school football player who had a seizure after drinking two cans of the Coca-Cola produced NOS. In the sports world, athletes at all levels use these “legal performance-enhancing drugs.”

So what is it about these things that make them so damn potent? Because it is more relevant to my immediate experience I’m going to concentrate on those drinks that contain alcohol. In Four Loko, which is made by Phusion Projects, there are four main ingredients (hence the name): taurine, gaurana, caffeine, and the college crowd pleaser, booze. Taurine is a naturally occurring amino acid that is used in just about every energy drink out there and touted as a physiological performance enhancer, but there has been little scientific evidence to offer validity to this claim, not to mention there is so little in the drinks that its presence is more marketing strategy than anything else. Guarana is caffeine-containing berry found in South America. The gaurana seed has twice the amount of caffeine of coffee. Companies like guarana because it masks the actual amount of caffeine in their products. I doubt many drinkers out there are aware of gaurana’s effect, who knows they may not be concerned.

Essentially with these drinks you are getting the best of both worlds, with the most bang for your buck. You’re able to get drunk fast, most alcoholic energy beverages, coming in flashy 24 ounce cans, contain 6-12% abv, depending on the state you live, and you’re able to be inebriated while maintaining a high level of energy. They hark on two of the foremost desires in a college student’s mind, and the marketing strategy is a synch, the product sells itself by combining two beverages regularly consumed by the most viable demographic out there—18-24 year olds are always looking “for that next big thing”—even if its dangerous and unhealthy, because at this point we think we’re invincible.

Personally, I’m not a fan of alcoholic energy drinks. I find them to be tacky in appearance and to alter age-old adage, “you are what you drink.” As it is these drinks have come represent group of primarily underage drinkers who are in market for a cheap thrills and a “blackout in a can,” with their neon dyed lips and tongues they make for an excellent advertising street team.