Caffeinated alcoholic drinks stir up legal concerns

By Mike Hughlett

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

But to several state attorneys general, Four and beverages of its kind can make drinkers think that caffeine counteracts intoxication, a potentially dangerous illusion, particularly for partying college kids.

Attorneys general from up to 25 states scored a victory in December against caffed-up, high-alcohol brews when MillerCoors, under pressure from the officials, agreed to suck the stimulants out of its Sparks beverage, the market leader. Anheuser-Busch also agreed to do the same with its Tilt and Bud Extra brews.

What set Four apart from other energy brews is wormwood oil, he said then. It's a key ingredient in absinthe, a strong, green-hued liquor long believed to cause hallucinations. A chemical called thujone in wormwood oil has psychedelic qualities, so federal food regulators allow wormwood oil as a flavoring only if its thujone has been extracted. But it's not clear whether Four still contains wormwood.

Four's primary ingredients are standard for energy drinks: caffeine, the stimulant guarana and an amino acid called taurine. The beverages come in different flavors, and tropical punch Four Loko tastes like carbonated, spiked fruit punch.

A can of Four doesn't divulge caffeine levels. Popular energy drinks typically have two to three times as many milligrams of caffeine per ounce than a can of cola, though often less caffeine than what is in a cup of coffee, according to data from the Web site Energy Fiend.

"We didn't find a public safety concern," Resnick said.

As for alcohol, Four packs a punch. Four Loko, sold in 23.5 ounce cans, has up to 12 percent alcohol by volume; Four Maxed has 10 percent. Most beer has 4 percent to 5 percent alcohol by volume, and even high-alcohol malt liquors typically don't go much higher than 8 percent.

Four's target market is 21- to 27-year-olds, Hunter told CollegeDrinker. The college market appears to be important too. Phusion sent brand managers to college campuses, Hunter told CollegeDrinker. And one of those brand managers discovered how popular beer pong, a ping-pong-ball drinking game, was on campuses at the time. So Four started sponsoring tournaments affiliated with the World Series of Beer Pong.

Of course, Four is hardly the only alcohol or energy-drink company to market to college students. Whether it's a can of premixed stimulants and alcohol like Four or a bartender blending vodka and an energy drink, they all have their critics in the public health community.

The student had been imbibing energy drinks mixed with booze and told O'Brien the combination allowed "you to drink more and not pass out, so you can party longer," she said.

Research on the subject is limited. Still, last year O'Brien co-published an academic study of more than 4,000 college students, finding that 24 percent of them mixed energy drinks with alcohol.

The study found significant increases in drunkenness among consumers of energy-alcohol concoctions and significantly higher amounts of intoxication-related risky behavior, including riding in a car driven by a drunk and taking advantage of someone sexually.

But that may be a tougher task. Caffeinated malt beverages made up a tiny slice of Miller and Anheuser-Busch's sales, and both brewers have high public profiles to worry about. The makers of Joose and Four are relatively obscure companies with a big stake in caffeinated alcohol.

Blumenthal pointed to the Joose and Four Web sites as examples of marketing that concerns him. He cited a photo on Joose's site of a young man pouring two cans of Joose at once into his mouth. The picture is next to a comment from "RaeLynn" of Akron, saying, "We drink Joose all day every day."

That posting no longer appears to be on Four's Web site, which promotes quotes from satisfied customers.