Alcoholic Energy Drinks: A Risky MixBy JOHN CLOUD
Friday, May. 30, 2008
If you've never heard of alcoholic energy drinks, you're almost certainly over 25. Sold in tall, narrow cans, they carry teen-friendly names such as Sparks, Tilt and Joose. Like other flavored malt beverages — Mike's Hard Lemonade, for one, or Champale ("the malt liquor you serve like champagne") from back in the '60s — alcoholic energy drinks contain a lot of sugar and flavoring. The difference is that this new generation of malt beverages also contains stimulants. A typical can has about as much caffeine as a venti cup of Starbucks, along with additives like guarana and ginseng that can rev the central nervous system.
That's what has public-health and law-enforcement officials worried. Though flavored malt beverages make up less than 2% of alcohol servings in the U.S., alcohol-policy experts have long worried that many of those servings are consumed by minors who have no palate (yet) for real beer. The new alcoholic energy drinks have a further pull on the youth market: the promise that you can get drunk but still party all night because of the caffeine. Quite drunk: Joose, for instance, has the color and approximate flavor of strawberry soda, but it's 9% alcohol, compared with 5% for a typical can of Budweiser.
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If you've never heard of alcoholic energy drinks, you're almost certainly over 25. Sold in tall, narrow cans, they carry teen-friendly names such as Sparks, Tilt and Joose. Like other flavored malt beverages — Mike's Hard Lemonade, for one, or Champale ("the malt liquor you serve like champagne") from back in the '60s — alcoholic energy drinks contain a lot of sugar and flavoring. The difference is that this new generation of malt beverages also contains stimulants. A typical can has about as much caffeine as a venti cup of Starbucks, along with additives like guarana and ginseng that can rev the central nervous system.
That's what has public-health and law-enforcement officials worried. Though flavored malt beverages make up less than 2% of alcohol servings in the U.S., alcohol-policy experts have long worried that many of those servings are consumed by minors who have no palate (yet) for real beer. The new alcoholic energy drinks have a further pull on the youth market: the promise that you can get drunk but still party all night because of the caffeine. Quite drunk: Joose, for instance, has the color and approximate flavor of strawberry soda, but it's 9% alcohol, compared with 5% for a typical can of Budweiser.
. . . . . .
Read Full Article
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