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The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

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Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#21

Post by dwater »

parpfish wrote: post #2

Millennials will talk about four loko the same way their parents talked about lawn darts

I was in college when Sparks was first released and it became an indelible part of the college party experience for a few short years. I saved a few packs after the ban and brought them out for a 10 year reunion. People were jubilant to get to experience it again, and thankfully there was only enough for everyone to have a bit, because it’s one of those things that only the metabolism of a still growing person can handle without serious consequences.

Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#23

Post by trevor-e »

solardev wrote: post #4
parpfish wrote: post #2

Millennials will talk about four loko the same way their parents talked about lawn darts

Wow, as a Millennial, I must've totally missed the memo on this stuff. Never heard of Four Loko or energy beers at all... sounds disgusting.

They tasted horrible but were cheap and would get you incredibly wired and drunk in a short amount of time. A perfect storm for binge drinking students, especially pre-gaming early in the night for other parties/bars. It was a fun time for a year or so but can understand the ban.

Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#24

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

antonvs wrote: post #9
sneak wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t buy lawn darts anymore. Every bar will make you a vodka redbull.

You'd have to ask for more than three and a half shots of vodka to match the alcohol in a 22oz Four Loko can.

As someone from a country where when you ask for a drink, you get like 3x as much vodka as you would in the UK or US, when I was young I typically drank vodka with lemon soda, but when I lived in the UK I switched to vodka red bull. The reasoning was "so little vodka does nothing so let's see if at least the red bull does something" which was at least partially true, although still didn't make up for the lost alcohol content with respect to what I was used to :) Back to my place, I stopped having vodka red bull except very infrequently to remember those times, but here, with serious amounts of vodka, it's quite a bomb.

I've never seen these energy beers (not sure if they were even sold in my country or countries where I lived) but I might have liked them.

Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#25

Post by s1artibartfast »

itishappy wrote: post #17
Zak wrote: post #12

I always thought the litigation and regulatory pressure over this was misplaced. Consuming a single serving of the most outrageous product described in the article (22oz, 12% alcohol, 156mg caffeine) is not acutely dangerous to a healthy adult who isn't about to drive a car. Chugging multiple of them is a bad decision of course, but it's just as easy to drink other alcoholic beverages to excess - perhaps easier with…

A can of FourLoco contains 4.75 servings.

An yet you can still buy cans of other malt drinks with even higher ABV and volume.

An aisle over, you can by 1.75L of vodka for $9.99. That is 40 servings!

Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#26

Post by lukev »

Zak wrote: post #12

I always thought the litigation and regulatory pressure over this was misplaced. Consuming a single serving of the most outrageous product described in the article (22oz, 12% alcohol, 156mg caffeine) is not acutely dangerous to a healthy adult who isn't about to drive a car. Chugging multiple of them is a bad decision of course, but it's just as easy to drink other alcoholic beverages to excess - perhaps easier with…

> just as easy

Citation needed. The social context matters.

Alcohol and caffeine are not a wise combination. Socially, consuming both in parallel isn't common (Red Bull excepted, I suppose, but that was exactly the target market and inspiration for these as well.)

The amounts are also deceptive from a cultural standpoint. Most people are not expecting a tall can to contain _nearly the same alcohol as a full bottle of wine_.

It's the same reason we don't sell neat whisky in 12oz cans. Yes, people can choose how they imbibe, but product design does practically matter.

Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#27

Post by its_ethan »

I'm a young millennial and Four Loko's were still somewhat popular at my college. Maybe it was just a localized thing.. they went under the name "sidewalk slammer" where you would (quickly) drink half of it, then pour in a Red Bull (or other energy drink). So still finding a way to get that combo of caffeine, and still using the (at that point) slightly "retro" branding?

Never tried one myself lol

Re: The electrifying rise and litigious fall of energy beer

#29

Post by adolph »

Zak wrote: post #12

I always thought the litigation and regulatory pressure over this was misplaced. Consuming a single serving of the most outrageous product described in the article (22oz, 12% alcohol, 156mg caffeine) is not acutely dangerous to a healthy adult who isn't about to drive a car. Chugging multiple of them is a bad decision of course, but it's just as easy to drink other alcoholic beverages to excess - perhaps easier with…

I donno, it must something awful if Oregon bans you (Oregon decriminalized “heroin, methamphetamine, PCP, LSD and oxycodone” [0]):

On November 20, 2010, Oregon Liquor Control Commission's five citizen commissioners held an emergency meeting resulting in a 4-1 vote on the ban. [1]

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Oregon_Ballot_Measure_110

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Loko

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