Energy Drinks

Energy drinks are highly caffeinated beverages that are designed to boost one’s energy. Comprising a multi-billion-dollar market and available in countless variations, they all contain stimulants and usually also sugar. As such, they are nothing new. Tonics made with guarana, a rainforest vine containing caffeine, were enjoyed in precolonial Brazil well before their exoticness hyped up the U.S. soft drink market. Sweet Coca-Cola, with its caffeine from the kola nut and cocaine from the coca leaf, first came to the United States in 1886 as a patent medicine. But in the early 1960s, Lipovitan hit the Japanese market as a metabolic, energizing beverage touting B vitamins, niacin, and taurine: Energy drinks in America took off with the launch of Red Bull, a caffeinated, sugary version inspired by that Asian drink, in 1997. Their popularity has not slowed down since.