I've gathered over time that France is extremely wary of letting in big name, globally available products. Apparently they don't like Coca Cola, and now the Ministry of Health is giving Red Bull a hard time.
It's only been recently that Red Bull was allowed to be sold in France at all. The energy drink maker had to remove taurine, because the health ministry claims that long term effects of the chemical are unknown. So now Red Bull is allowed in France, but it's still on pretty shaky ground. This article in Flexnews makes it pretty clear that French health officials are looking for any excuse to ban sales of Red Bull.
Apparently taurine, in and of itself isn't really a problem. However, there's a lot of questions that come up when it's combined with caffeine and/or alcohol. Are French officials right to try and get rid of the energy drink? That's a tough question. What's your take on this?
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.
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.
After an insane multi-week phase last month when I could not force myself to sleep for more than three hours a night, I am trying my hardest to rely on natural sources of energy. I have turned away as much as I can from things like energy drinks in favor of plain old water, pure personal adrenaline, and natural sugar energy from fruit. (I haven't given up coffee. What am I? Crazy?)
A new beverage from Steaz just might make me break because though it is marketed as an "energy drink," all of the energy sources are natural -- green tea, yerba mate, acai, and guarana. I realize that many of the ingredients in products like Red Bull and Monster could also be counted as "natural," but have you seen a glass of red bull in a darkened room? There is nothing natural about the fact that it literally glows.
Steaz Energy comes from the makers of Guayaki and Sambazon, so not only does their drink provides energy, but the natural and organic ingredients are sourced from sustainable, local producers. The Ceylon tea ingredient is Fair Trade Certified. An energy drink with a conscience!
I was just reading some beverage trade magazines and was amazed at the numbers in the energy drinks category. I hadn't realized they were that big, and so many people were chugging them down in the morning to wake up, in the afternoon to keep focused, and at night to stay awake or mixed with spirits for a buzz bomb. I started asking friends if they used them and several said yes, and in a big way. A few said they drink 2, 3, 4, or even more in one day. I was flabbergasted, I guess because I am so sensitive to caffeine that even the lower levels of the very tasty Inkos White Tea Energy made my hair stand straight up and I ran around in circles for hours.
The energy drink figures looked at the calender year from Oct 2005 to Oct 2006 (excluding Wal-Mart Sales) and of course the top seller is Red Bull with around $262 million, out of about $600 million in sales for the top ten. Red Bull is so far ahead of the rest in sales that the next seven combined barely add up to the same amount. The rest of the list in order by approximate dollar amount of sales are: Monster $81 million, Rockstar $67 Million, Full Throttle $40 million, Sobe No Fear $32 million, Amp $23 million, Sobe Adrenaline Rush $19 million, Tab Energy $11 million, Monster XXL $5 million, and private labels at $5 million.
I met the folks at Inko's White Tea, the "healthy ice tea" for the first time two years ago at a food event and tried their tasty, mild, and sophisticated products. Since then I have run into them several times at events and shows, always with a new flavor to try. It's a bummer I haven't seen their products yet in any of my local stores, since I enjoyed them so much. Now they are breaking into the energy drink market with Inko's White Tea Energy. It's made with white tea, ginger, lemon, and other natural flavors and is the only "tea caffeine" based energy drink on the market. It doesn't have the super high caffeine levels of some of the other energy drinks and gives long lasting and sustained, jitter free energy. Studies show that white tea has many positive effects on health so this may be the first, actually healthy, energy drink on the market.
Man, I can't believe I let a whole decade of ambivalence separate me from what is now proving to be both my savior and my downfall, the nitrous fuel for the racecar that is myself... red bull. They're small, they're expensive, but if I drink more than two of them in the same afternoon, I'll be up for the next 24 hours.
A careful examination of the labels will show you that Red Bull and most of its contemporaries, such as Monster and Rock Star, operate on the same ingredients: Taurine, b complex vitamins, caffeine. But unlike, say, Rock Star, Red Bull packs a little miracle worker called Glucuronolactone, this is the stuff that should be in the tap water instead of flouride, if ya ask me. It's supposed to give you a feeling of well-being. Brother, you had me at hello.
At first, it used to be easy to pick an energy drink alternative because there was only one: Red Bull. But in the last few years, the market has exploded, and befittingly so, since people of all ages are gulping them down in shots to stay energized. It's hard to keep those predominantly tall, narrow cans plastered with exclamation points straight, so Maxine Kaplan, a college student with a caffeine addiction, taste tests five popular drinks on the market now: Arizona Green Tea Energy,Monster,Red Bull,Rock Star, and Tab Energy. She judged how they tasted, and let others test the energy. Tab seems to have come out the overall winner.
If you get a burst of energy from drinking one of the many energy drinks out there on the market like
Red Bull or Monster, you don't know how
much caffeine you're putting into your body. While the caffeine content of sodas like Coke and Pepsi are regulated by
the FDA and are required to list levels on their packaging, energy drinks are not. Researchers ask just how much caffeine is
really in one of these drinks.
They looked at various energy drinks, regular sodas, as well as popular coffee drinks. All the sodas came
in from 18 mg to 48 mg per 12-ounce serving,well below the FDA limit of 65 mg for a 12-ounce
serving.
However, energy drinks averaged higher at 33 mg to nearly 77 mg per serving. SoBe
No Fear had 141 mg for a 16-ounce serving, more than twice the FDA limit on a single serving!
What does this mean? Just be mindful of your energy drink consumption.
Energy drinks are an explosive market, especially popular among young people, including teenagers and college
students. Coffee has always been the morning pick-me-up of choice, but the producers of energy drinks are trying to
muscle into the morning market. Monster Khaos is an energy drink that contains 70% juice – more than many
processed juice drinks. It is lightly carbonated and lower in carbs than some other ultra-sugary drinks, with flavors
of orange, peach and pineapple. Monster Energy drinks have a
“natural” energy formula, which includes ginseng and guarana, not caffeine. Will the fruity energy drinks
be able to compete with good, old-fashioned coffee? Perhaps a better question, since they are already popular in the
youth market, is whether they will be able to complete with specialty coffee drinks, like mocha lattes and
caramel-hazelnut cappuccinos.
Despite what you may have heard, spiking your cocktail with an energy drink like Red Bull won't improve your
stamina or make you any less impaired. At least, those are the findings of a recent study from researchers at Federal
University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A test group of 14 healthy individuals received double blind samples of water,
alcohol, an energy drink and an energy drink cut with alcohol. They then maxed out their physical capabilities on a
cycling test. The results for those who'd had alcohol were pretty much the same as the results for those who had
alcohol with an energy drink. Good to know, I suppose. But I think for many, the point of a drink like Red Bull and
vodka isn't to get less impaired.
The study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and
Experimental Research. An abstract is available here.
I've never been a fan of using energy drinks like
Red Bull as a mixer. Sure, I've downed a can here and there to stay awake during long drives, but the idea of
prolonging the act of drinking a foul beverage by mixing it with something like vodka is beyond me.
While
browsing BevNET, a beverage industry trade site, I noticed a few newly reviewed
energy drinks that actually seem designed to play second fiddle to alcohol. A line of soft drinks called Jet Set Energy comes in mixer-like flavors including club soda, ginger ale, tonic
water and "original." The latter hasn't been reviewed, but the red can leads me to believe it may be similar
to a cola. The silhouette makes me think strip club, but the background is all Merry Melodies. Of the three that BevNET
did review, the ginger ale got the highest marks.
Another similar line that fared much better with
BevNET's reviewers was HiBall Energy. They too have tonic water, club soda and
lemon-lime, as well as a berry flavor and an orange flavor. All are clear, unsweetened and chocked full of caffeine,
taurine and, as an added bonus, B vitamins.
7-Eleven plans to enter the health market with
Formula 7, a line of "functional" foods and beverages. Functional foods are foods with health benefits
beyond basic nutrition. Formula 7 will include bottled and canned
beverages, as well as two nutritional bars, designed
to enhance energy, fitness or endurance. The products will be fortified with vitamins, minerals, herbs, antioxidants, amino acids
and other natural ingredients. The Formula 7 energy drink will come in Blood Orange and Raspberry Mint flavors and the fitness drink will come in Apple Rose and Natural Peach flavors. They've definitely chosen some intriguing flavors to try and pull off.
I've gathered over time that France is extremely wary of letting in big name, globally available products. Apparently they don't like Coca Cola, and now the Ministry of Health is giving Red Bull a hard time.
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.
After an insane multi-week phase last month when I could not force myself to sleep for more than three hours a night, I am trying my hardest to rely on natural sources of energy. I have turned away as much as I can from 
I was just reading some beverage trade magazines and was amazed at the numbers in the energy drinks category. I hadn't realized they were that big, and so many people were chugging them down in the morning to wake up, in the afternoon to keep focused, and at night to stay awake or mixed with spirits for a buzz bomb. I started asking friends if they used them and several said yes, and in a big way. A few said they drink 2, 3, 4, or even more in one day. I was flabbergasted, I guess because I am so sensitive to caffeine that even the lower levels of the very tasty 
I met the folks at Inko's White Tea, the "healthy ice tea" for the first time two years ago at a food event and tried their tasty, mild, and sophisticated products. Since then I have run into them several times at events and shows, always with a new flavor to try. It's a bummer I haven't seen their products yet in any of my local stores, since I enjoyed them so much. Now they are breaking into the energy drink market with Inko's White Tea Energy. It's made with white tea, ginger, lemon, and other natural flavors and is the only "tea caffeine" based energy drink on the market. It doesn't have the super high caffeine levels of some of the other energy drinks and gives long lasting and sustained, jitter free energy. Studies show that white tea has many positive effects on health so this may be the first, actually healthy, energy drink on the market.
Man, I can't believe I let a whole decade of ambivalence separate me from what is now proving to be both my savior and my downfall, the nitrous fuel for the racecar that is myself... red bull. They're small, they're expensive, but if I drink more than two of them in the same afternoon, I'll be up for the next 24 hours.
At first, it used to be easy to pick an energy drink alternative because there was only one: 
Energy drinks are an explosive market, especially popular among young people, including teenagers and college
students. Coffee has always been the morning pick-me-up of choice, but the producers of energy drinks are trying to
muscle into the morning market. Monster Khaos is an energy drink that contains 70% juice – more than many
processed juice drinks. It is lightly carbonated and lower in carbs than some other ultra-sugary drinks, with flavors
of orange, peach and pineapple. 
Despite what you may have heard, spiking your cocktail with an energy drink like Red Bull won't improve your
stamina or make you any less impaired. At least, those are the findings of a recent study from researchers at Federal
University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A test group of 14 healthy individuals received double blind samples of water,
alcohol, an energy drink and an energy drink cut with alcohol. They then maxed out their physical capabilities on a
cycling test. The results for those who'd had alcohol were pretty much the same as the results for those who had
alcohol with an energy drink. Good to know, I suppose. But I think for many, the point of a drink like Red Bull and
vodka isn't to get less impaired. 
I've never been a fan of using energy drinks like
Red Bull as a mixer. Sure, I've downed a can here and there to stay awake during long drives, but the idea of
prolonging the act of drinking a foul beverage by mixing it with something like vodka is beyond me. 
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
Morbid thoughts? Have a cookie
