"Energy drinks" news and stories

Jolt Cola -- the evening study fuel of many a cramming student and the precursor to caffeine-packed energy drinks like Red Bull -- may soon be no more.

Jolt Co. Inc. filed for bankruptcy last year after racking up more than $5 million in debt to a Chicago can manufacturer. The company was optimistic about restructuring, but plans fell apart this week, putting the future of the double-caffeinated cola into jeopardy, a Jolt attorney told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

"The name will show up someplace else, but just that," William I. Kohn of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff told the paper. "I don't see anybody buying the entire package."

Jolt founder Carl J. Rapp, who started the company in 1985, fought the restructuring of the company and blamed its current situation on an investment group that owns a large stake in the company, the paper reports.

Will you miss Jolt Cola? Spill it in the comments.

[Via Rochester Democrat & Chronicle]

Sparks, the "caffeinated alcohol beverage with a blend of caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng extract," has been around since 2002 and has been owned by Miller since 2006, so it certainly isn't a new phenomenon. However, a number of questionable decisions recently have led to a massive backlash against the beverage and may well spell the end of alcohol/energy drink hybrids on the market.

General sentiment has been building that caffeinated alcohol beverages pose a risk to drinkers, especially for younger and underage drinkers who the beverages' detractors believe the products directly target. In fact, last summer, Anheuser-Busch received enough pressure that they eventually stopped making caffeinated-alcohol products. However, MillerCoors managed not only to slip by, but appears to have decided to do some flaunting.

First, the company announced they would be releasing Sparks Red this October, an addition to the Sparks product line that will have as much as 8% alcohol by volume -- a significant step up from the original Sparks' 6% ABV. Then there was backlash against what many considered to be a raunchy and unethical advertising campaign.

Well, they got publicity, but probably not what they were hoping for. As of yesterday, district attorneys from 25 states have called for the cancellation of the Sparks Red launch and, last week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest sued MillerCoors to stop selling Sparks all together. Public opinion seems to be shutting this industry down.

[Photo Credit: MillerCoors]

By now, you all know I have an odd fascination with energy drinks. Part of the reason is that my over-stressed, overworked and underslept body body need them -- I think I've had so much coffee in my life already that I've developed a tolerance to the effects of the caffeine in it. Part of the reason is that...nothing. I don't know why else I would want to drink a beverage that almost always tastes like over-sweetened Capri Sun with the bitter chemical aftertaste of say, nail polish remover.

Okay, so that's a little harsh.

It doesn't really taste like Capri Sun.

Now there is a new class of drinks that takes energy to the next level. These drinks claim not to be zero calories, but negative calories, because the chemical formulation actually causes you to, well, burn calories. Granted, energy drinks do the same, since technically, with all that increased "energy," you will run around like a chicken with her head cut off. If you recall, we posted about Enviga last year, which has the same marketing spiel - drink a can of Enviga, you potato del couch, and you will lose weight just sitting there eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos dipped in Blue Cheese Dressing! (I did not try this, but don't think I wouldn't). I tried Enviga. I didn't lose weight.

Celsius is a new energy drink in this category. I tried it. It was...interesting.

It isn't really fair to call this review a "taste test," because I have basically resigned to the fact that any energy drink, no matter who makes it, tastes horrible. Even Diet Coke, which could be considered an energy drink if you take into account the caffeine, is an energy drink, and the taste is starting to wear on me. A lot. That's what two to three cans of soda a day will do to you. It wears you down.

G Pure Energy comes from Norwegian Ole Sandberg, the maker of high end water, Voss. If you didnt' know that intellectually, you'd certainly be able to sense it from the bottle's design. The bottle, like Voss' bottle, is made of glass, and is topped with the signature large silver screw-on top. This bottle, however, has a curve, which could be interepreted and sexy and gorgeous, or maybe a little scary -- you know, like someone drank a little too much G Pure Energy and gripped the bottle too hard. (And that with the bottle's even being glass!)

Bolivian coca growers are urging the Coca-Cola Co. to eliminate the word "Coca" from the name of its popular soft drink because of the leaf's importance in that Andean nation's culture.

A commission representing the coca industry passed a resolution earlier this week urging the Atlanta-based soft-drink giant to strike "coca" from its name and asking the U.N. to decriminalize coca leaf. The resolution demands "international companies that include in their commercial name the name of coca (example: Coca Cola) refrain from using the name of the sacred leaf in their products." Bolivia's coca farmers have yet to weigh in on the controversial energy drink Cocaine.

For its part, Coca-Cola said that its trademark is protected by Bolivian law. The company also repeated past denials that the soda has ever used cocaine as an ingredient.

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