Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout

Neil Yates writes "It is 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. You have been up all night, fragging away in a Quake3 clan match. Your early morning schedule wore you out and you never had time to take a nap. The server is resetting between games, and you are starting to get a little sleepy-eyed. Milk is not going to do one bit of good and regular Coke or Pepsi are too run of the mill. The last thing that will keep you awake and at the top of your game is some pansy sports drink. Which of these four energy drinks do you reach for? Pepsi Blue, Vanilla Coke, Dr. Pepper's Red Fusion, or Sobe's Mr. Green?" What's wrong with plain old Mt Dew? It did represent 80% of my intake by volume from age 15 to 22.

It's about time

[Jack9]

I prefer chocolate covered expresso beans for when you absolutely must stay up, however I dont have trouble staying up till 2am, I have trouble when I want to NOT sleep cause I'm up till 8 or 10am - When can we hope to bottle the stuff that keeps me awake when I'm working on my favorite project or I just cant find that proggy bug? I hear speed works wonders but what I really want is some black market adrenaline. Why arent people manufacturing and selling that?

heh..

[Danse]

Just in case anyone still believes that old tale... get the straight dope [straightdope.com] here.

Baby Food

[qxjit]

If I really need to stay up for anything, wether it's gaming or finishing a paper for an all nighter I reach for the baby food. It has lots of simple carbohydrates tha the body can break down quickly for energy. If your wondering about taste, Gerber's Blueberry Buckle is actually pretty good.

p.s. Thanks Mrs. Way for teaching us something useful in high school chemistry.

Oldschool favorites...

[tRoll with Butter]

At my place, the drinks of choice are:

IBC Root Beer
Pros: It's absolutely perfect root beer. Glass bottles are fun to break.
Cons: No caffine (just sugar). Expensive.

Barq's Root Beer
Pros: Lots of caffiene.
Cons: Makes your MORE thirsty.

Snapple Raspberry Iced Tea
Pros: Yum.
Cons: Expensive.

Lipton Brisk in Lemon or Raspberry
Pros: Cheap, tastes okay.
Cons. Not as good as Snapple.

Hawaiian Punch (cans)
Pros: Can be mixed with Bacardi for a rum runner.
Cons: Can be mixed with Bacardi for a rum runner.

Hi-C Lemonade (cans)
Pros: Can be made into spiked lemonade with Bacardi.
Cons: Too acidic. Needs to be diluted with water.

Coke (cans)
Pros: There's always some around.
Cons: It's boring.

Vanilla Coke
Pros: Different. Good with cherry flavor added.
Cons: Not so good with pizza or nachos.

Rick's Spiked Lemonade
Pros: Be the one NOT drinking it and the game seems a LOT easier.
Cons: Very expensive.

Kahlua Mudslide (bottles)
Pros: Same as Rick's spiked lemonade.
Cons: Some people don't like the taste. Very expensive.

Wine Coolers (various flavors)
Pros: Tasty and inexpensive as far as alcoholic beverages go.
Cons: Not manly to drink.

Beer
Pros: Very cheap as far as alcoholic beverages go.
Cons: Tastes like piss. No one likes it. It's just around so we can offer it to people when they comment about the wine coolers not being manly.

As for Code Red, Mountain Dew, and Sobe, no one seems to like them here, so I never buy any...

Re:Red bull

[Fourier]

FYI: Red Bull + alcohol [go.com]

Just sayin'.

Afri-cola

[Anonymous Coward]

According to this [erowid.org], the cola with the most caffeine is Afri-cola [africola.com]. I've had it. It's quite good.

Coffee?!?!

[fonetik]

How is it remotely possible that the original energy drink isn't on the list? Folks, Coffee INVENTED energy. I can prove that with a white board, a marker, and 20 minutes.

I guess until pepsi sponsors a coffee drink, or buys starbucks, I am not going to see this fact hyped in the media.

Am I really that old?!?! =)

-Tom

Re:Nutritional insanity

[SETY]

Could you provide a link to how milk causes cancer? Searching google for "milk cancer" and skipping to the seventh hit...

Milk may help prevent hypertension, stroke, diabetes and osteoporosis, - and
now cancer has been added to the list of diseases it protects against.
http://www.cancer.org.au/

Now why did I skip to the seventh hit? The vegen and organic sites don't really count.

As for hormones, depends where you live, many places have banned them.

Dietitians still recommend multiple servings of dairy products everyday.

Re:Mt dew?

[capn4is]

Go to website http://karks.com/surge/index.html they are a save "Surge" resource that can let you know where to get it.

Re:mmm... coffee

[rsteele19]

The law is that caffeine may not be added to any beverage unless it is a cola-type beverage. The addition of caffeine to beverages has been rationalized by the soft drink manufacturers as giving their product a distinctive flavour. Since caffeine is a drug, it has been restricted to only being added to cola because of the historical use of caffeine in these products. Or something. Here's [justice.gc.ca] the text of the relevant section of the food and drug act. Search the page for the word caffeine.

Taurine Intolerance (Red Bulls) and You!

[Jeremy Lee]

This might be useful information for some people out there. It took me long enough to figure it out!

Taurine is the principal ingredient in Red Bull energy drinks, and in Australia, recent relaxations in the various what-you-can-put-in-drinks laws means that Taurine is now an additive in most energy beverages.

That's all fine, except I'm apparently allergic to Taurine. I started throwing up for no apparent reason last year, and it turned out to be the Taurine, which just got added to my favorite energy drink, but didn't kick in until three days after ingestion, which is why it took so long to figure out.

Taurine is a bull protein, in the same way that Lactose is a cow protein. Some people are lactose intolerant. I seem to be Taurine intolerant, with many of the same symptoms.

The only energy drink left in Australia that does not contain Taurine is called 'Lift', it is quite tasty, and has Guarana and Ginseng in it. Try it.

Since I figured all this out, I ran into another Jeremy who had precisely the same reaction. So, if your name is 'Jeremy', you might want to stay away from the Red Bull.

Any faulty logical inferences in the above message are left as excercises for the reader.

Vodka Redbull

[hexdcml]

Erm, but alcohol and red bull cancel each other out. The vodka has actually a detrimental effect on the taurine and other ingredients which make up red bull. It says so on the FAQ on the redbull website. Sure, it tastes good, but red bull on its own will allow u to pull an all nighter - vodka and red bull will just give u a headache...

Re:bah...

[texas]

Am I the only one who ever has problems with this? Adding sugar/powdered drink mix/crushed jolly ranchers/pixie sticks to carbonated drinks tends to make the carbonation rapidly precipitate out of solution (since the beverage is a super-saturated solution of CO2, and the sugar is more soluable than the CO2). I've tried it with all manner of soda, and even tried in once as a way to make Zima taste better (was almost successful, actually).

Also, ever notice how adding dry ice to your soda makes it go flat, but will lightly carbonate a non-carbonated drink? Same effect, I'd imagine.

Guarana- Straight up

[praedictus]

Here in Pará, I prefer my guarana the old fashioned way: The locals mix powdered guarana, guarana syrup, peanuts, brazil nuts, and a few other herbal wonders with shaved ice, run in a blender till the consistency of a milk shake. For a allnighter of nheke-nheke with the g/f (who thinks it makes her horny, but Brazilian girls are perpetually horny), or an intense gaming session, or both, it can't be beat! Of course here in Brazil there's always the commercial sodas like Guarana Antarctica or Kuat, but they are cloyingly sweet for the most part, and lack the collateral effect of the traditional stuff.

Re:Since when is pop an energy drink?

[RevAaron]

this may be why [bbc.co.uk].

Re:Low sugar, moderate caffeine

[jeko]

Specifically, if I consume too much sugar too quickly it puts me to sleep.

Uh, do yourself a favor. Go to your friendly neighborhood health care provider. Repeat the above sentence to the doctor. Have your insulin checked/ do a screen for diabetes/ glucose tolerance, etc.

Diabetes caught early is inconvenient. Diabetes caught late is REALLY inconvenient.