Skaters, bookworms and 30-somethings now have something in common:
They’re all sucking down high-powered energy drinks that promise to “vitalize body and mind” and make you “party like a rock star.”
Extreme athletes got hooked a few years ago, when Red Bull emerged onto the U.S. landscape from Austria.
| Mike Broadwell and Mark Christensen saw the energy-drink rush coming and decided to take the proverbial Red Bull by the horns. The owners of Unique Beverage Co. in Everett began to develop and distribute Wired Energy Drink about two years ago.
The flagship label now comes in various forms, mostly in 16-ounce cans that offer low-carb, sugar-free or maximum energy formulas. A new 24-ounce can called Wired X-5000 offers three times the caffeine and taurine as a can of Red Bull. Some new Unique Beverage Co. products include Turn 1, geared toward car-racing lovers, and Twisted Chopper, for the motorcycle-riding set. Wired Energy Drink and some of the new items can be found at most local grocery and convenience stores. Check them out at www.wiredenergydrink. com. |
High school and college students soon caught on, happy for a new remedy for those overnight cramming sessions or last-minute essay-writing.
Hard-partying adults caught the wave, mixing energy drinks with hard liquors including vodka, Jagermeister, rum and even champagne.
“You just get hyper, and it makes you happy,” said Jack Hoobler, 19, of Marysville, who has enjoyed Red Bull and Rockstar for a couple of years. “It’s like caffeine, and caffeine’s good.”
Caffeine is a main component of virtually every energy drink on the market, but other enhancements – including taurine, an amino acid, and guarana, a ground-up seed from the Amazon – help provide a boost.
Alysun Deckert, a clinical dietitian at University of Washington Medical Center, said there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with the drinks, but that there are easier and healthier ways to keep your energy up.
Deckert, 38, is also a marathon runner who has qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials three times.
“My concern would just be that people who aren’t necessarily getting the rest they need or exercising routinely are turning to something like this to get energy,” she said. “But that would just be adding extra calories without nutritional value.”
The caffeine is generally said to be equivalent to a strong cup of coffee, but varies from product to product. They can have as much as two or three times the caffeine of a Coke or Pepsi.
The energy drink packaging, usually a tall and slim 8-ounce can that confers the image of being that much more powerful than a standard cola, helps give the drinks their appeal.
“People are just assuming that it’s small and therefore more concentrated,” said John Craven, editor of Bevnet.com, a Boston-based independent reviewer of soft drinks that launched in 1996.
“And people see the high price, and that it’s imported from some foreign country,” Craven said. “There’s perceived value that’s just being created based on those attributes.”
Red Bull is trying to establish itself as the Coca-Cola of the energy drink industry. It arrived in the United States in 1997, Craven said, sparking a string of new products such as Rockstar, Pimp Juice and XS that now number about 300, with each one looking to sound and appear more edgy than the last.
Since it landed, Red Bull hasn’t changed its labeling, marketing or flavor in hopes of maintaining its status as the most recognizable product on the market.
Rockstar is shaking things up, though, by doing the exact opposite of the 8-ounce can and selling a 16-ounce can. It’s technically two servings, but the can is advertised as “double size” and “double strength.”
The economics aren’t lost on Hoobler.
“If Red Bull costs $1.79 for an 8-ounce can and Rockstar is $1.99 for the big-ol’ 16-ouncers,” he said. “You do the math; it’s a better deal.”
Traditional soft drink companies have taken notice and are getting into the mix.
Coca-Cola is introducing its 16-ounce Full Throttle Energy Drink. Pepsi has had SoBe Adrenaline Rush and AMP Energy Drink, essentially Mountain Dew with a bigger kick, on the market a couple of years.
The marketing trick is to reach those hard-to-please teenage boys and young men without making them feel like they’re being marketed to. Energy drink companies generally try to tie their products in with extreme sports, such as skydiving and skateboarding.
Mike Broadwell, owner of Unique Beverage Co., which is based in Everett, has a bold solution: making a different brand for each crowd.
His company’s flagship drink is Wired Energy Drink, which comes in a few different varieties including low-carb and sugar-free.
But new items are now available and in the works, including Cowboy Energy and Alien Energy, as well as Twisted Chopper, geared toward motorcycle riders, and Turn 1, which is looking to hitch on to the car-racing bunch.
Still, the original Red Bull holds most of the market, with the company saying it sold more than 1.6 billion cans worldwide last year.
It’s the only energy drink served at Turners in Everett, which orders “cases and cases” each week, bartender Kendra Becker said.
“When people are tired they think that it’s going to help keep them awake,” said Becker, 24.
Mixers such as “Jagerbombs,” a shot of Jagermeister liquor dropped into a glass of Red Bull and downed at once, are among the most popular.
Anheuser-Busch last month widely distributed B(E), a caffeinated beer that comes in a 10-ounce can. So far, it hasn’t been a big hit with the local set, Becker said.
“People don’t like the flavor of it,” she said. “But eventually they will make a beer that tastes good with the (energy) stuff. I think they wanted to get it going, but when they bring out another line, it will go better.”
Because energy drinks are stimulants and alcohol is a depressant, the mixers bring those opposites together.
Experts say that fatigue is the body’s way of telling a person they’ve had too much to drink. The concern is that the energy drinks can cover up the effects of alcohol and make people think they are less drunk than they actually are.
“But I think that’s in excessive use, not in moderation,” Becker said. “Everything in life is good as long as it’s in moderation.”
Hoobler, who has been drinking Red Bull and Rockstar for about two years, can attest to that.
“I had eight of them before school one day and they made me leave because I wasn’t able to sit down,” said Hoobler, who plans to stick with energy drinks for a while. “Just don’t go more than six, because then you’ll just get in trouble.”
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@ heraldnet.com.
How does it work?
Red Bull, the world’s most popular energy drink, says its blend of ingredients provides energy and it doesn’t associate specific ingredients with specific benefits. The five primary ingredients, all synthetic, are:
Taurine, an amino acid found in high concentrations in the muscle, brain, heart, retina and blood cells.
Caffeine, a well known stimulant that some say improves reaction speed and general attentiveness.
Glucurono lactone, a carbohydrate derived from glucose that is naturally present in the body and performs a number of metabolic functions.
Carbohydrates, primary energy-giving nutrients.
B-complex vitamins, critical dietary components that are essential for the body’s normal metabolic functioning.
Source: Red Bull
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