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Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout 675

Posted by CmdrTaco from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept.
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.
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Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout More

Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout

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  • Drink of choice. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Tea.

    • Re:Drink of choice. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Lokni ( 531043 )
      my vote is for tea as well. It does not have any of the crap that most sodas do unless you add any sugar. It also has tons of caffeine. I went to a huge lan party in Los Angeles earlier this year and for the event I made 3 gallons of sun tea and then kept them in a cooler next to my computer. I swear, some of the kids that were slurping down the Dew, Bawls, Red Bull, etc. looked fatter by the end of the lan and looked more drained than any of my friends who were chugging the tea. Tea Rules.

  • "All night?" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kiscica ( 89316 )
    Sorry, being up at 2:00 AM is *not* "being up all night. :-)

    • Re:"All night?" (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well, that depends on what night you started...

  • Those aren't even energy drinks! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CounterZer0 ( 199086 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:29PM (#4146200) Homepage
    Not only is Mt. Dew missing, but so is Jolt, Bawls, and all the other Highly Caffeinated cans/bottles of goodness. If you are relying on sobe or Dr. Pepper for a late-nite energy infusion, you may as well drink Cold Water ;)
    • And Whoop Ass is another one of those...

      although myself, I find Whoop Ass to smell like a bottle of multivitamins, and taste just as bad. Gotta love the label design and text, though.

    • Re:Those aren't even energy drinks! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Ubergrendle ( 531719 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @07:55AM (#4147718) Journal
      I never really understood the value of Mountain Dew, despite it's popularity on the internet for late night hackers/gamers etc. Then, reading the Caffeine FAQ, I realise that in Canada Mountain Dew does not contain any caffeine! In the US it's one of the most caffeinated beverages available, here it's one of the least. Oh, BTW, a cup of coffee still has 3x the caffeine of a can of pop, and there is no difference between a cup of expresso and a cup of coffee.
  • Try CounterStrike and RTCW at 4:00am with reheated sweet and sour chicken (and radioactive orange sauce) a nice blunt (puff puff) and two cans of Guiness Larger. Niiiiice.

  • How about Water Joe? (Score:5, Funny)

    by tswinzig ( 210999 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:31PM (#4146215) Journal
    Maybe then you won't put on 100 pounds of fat, and continue to score only at video games.

    • Re:How about Water Joe? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And makes you think a little weight will stop you from scoring? I know fat guys who to TALK to girls, and they get the hot chicks. Imagine that.

      Insightful? more like troll.

  • bah... (Score:4, Funny)

    by EHUDs_Rhino ( 548263 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:31PM (#4146216)
    REAL men get some of those giant Pixy Stix and dump one into whatever it is they're drinking.

    Gaming is MUCH more fun with that strobe effect from your eyelids twitching. I just wish that damn pink elephant would give me my mouse back.

  • Sounds familiar (Score:4, Funny)

    by chazzf ( 188092 ) <cfulton.deepthought@org> on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:31PM (#4146219) Homepage Journal
    First of all, this article is getting posted waaay too early. 12:30? Wait until 2, and get genuine reponses. At least from the Eastern half of the US, anyway (where I happen to live, so quiet, all of you).

    Personally, I tend to drink Mountain Dew. It's cheap, easy to find...

    That, or I just go to bed. The server will be there later, and I find that the longer I prolong the inevitable, the worse my aim gets.

    ~Chazzf

    • Re:Sounds familiar (Score:3, Funny)

      by rde ( 17364 )
      Pah. Damn Americans. Over here in Ireland, where we have a real timezone (albeit one named after a part of England), it's just before six of the morning clock. And although I've been reading the web all night, not fragging, I feel I'm still in a position to comment.

      Thus far, I've been kept going by Salon's articles, Kenyan AA coffee and penguin mints. I commend to all, by the way, Penguin's new chocolate mints; they're not nearly has horrible as they sound.

  • back in the old days (Score:3)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <[asv] [at] [ivoss.com]> on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:32PM (#4146221) Homepage Journal
    There wasn't any of these fancy schmancy drinks or overpriced thinkgeek goodies, you had two choices: coffee or Jolt [joltcola.com].
  • And you plan on having kids?? Yellow #5 is spermicidal and stunts growth!

  • It's about time (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jack9 ( 11421 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:34PM (#4146239)
    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?
    • "chocolate covered expresso beans"

      Lisa: Dad, it's spelled 'espresso' and pronounced 'ess-press-so'.

      Homer: No, honey... it's "expresso".

      Lisa: Uh, dad...

      Homer: Just let daddy order his expresso from that nice man, Lisa. Uh, gimme an expresso.

      *LART*

      Homer: Owww! What did I say? :)

      - Jester
    • I like chocolate covered coffee beans too, but they don't really have a lot of caffeine per volume. For a quick boost, I like Penguin [peppermints.com] brand caffeinated peppermints, or Penguin Reds (caffeinated cinnamons) for variety.

      Three give you the same caffeine as a Coke, a box will enable you to see in the dark. And the penguins on the tin are just so cute!!!

  • I'll second the vanilla coke = upset stomach that was mentioned in the article. Anyone have a clue why that happens? I'm certainly not allergic to vanilla or coke separately.
    • At work the 2 most popular drinks, that run out first in the soda machines are Diet Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. Myself, I drink the diet cherry, I wish Vanilla Coke had a diet version. That vanilla coke is rather tasty. The Diet lemon coke tastes like cleaner, just like pepsi blue.
    • Well of all drinks I've tried, Vanilla Coke is the only regular one that gives me problems. That I find strange.

      I say regular one because I seem to get a similar reaction to any diet beverage, so I'm apparently allergic to aspertame (spelling?)...you know, artificial sweetener. Luckily I also hate the taste of diet beverages so avoiding them isn't an issue.
      • Well of all drinks I've tried, Vanilla Coke is the only regular one that gives me problems. That I find strange.

        Same here. I only tried it once and regretted the whole "rewarding my curiosity" thing. Felt more like Vito kicked me in the gut. For a similar effect dump shots of Das Komet in your regular coke. At least you can catch a buzz that way.

  • Heston screams... (Score:5, Funny)

    by PDHoss ( 141657 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:36PM (#4146251)

    Sobe's Mr. Green is people!

    PDHoss

  • easy (Score:2)

    by Satai ( 111172 )
    Vanilla coke. In my personal opinion, Pepsi Blue tastes (and looks) like coolant, Mr. Green is like green tea that's had the water all boiled off, and Red Fusion takes the worst elements of red pop and Dr. Pepper.

  • Missed the most important category - cleanability (Score:3, Interesting)

    by KNicolson ( 147698 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:37PM (#4146261) Homepage
    What about when a mouthful goes down the wrong way and you spray all over the screen? What about knocking the bottle over, spilling onto your keyboard? These are the important things I need to know!
  • It is 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. You have been up all night, fragging away in a Quake3 clan match.

    I take it this is Thursday night still? :)

  • Hmmm (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nept ( 21497 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:39PM (#4146272) Journal
    Shouldn't this be a poll? I want my "reach for Cowboy Neal" option

  • Is anyone else having a serious time trying to load this page into their web browser? I've tried both Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape 4.08, and both crash after trying to render the page!

  • http://www.reverage.com/

    Not only can you stay up all night, but you can feel like you took too many painkillers too!

    Essentially, this stuff is Red bull & Vodka, and its notorious taste is that of cough syrup. But a rank-ass disgusting taste didn't turn the rest of north america off coffee...

    They should seriously market this stuff to geek culture a bit better... so far the only culture that seems to have grasped it is rave culture, but they've already got their excruciatingly-uber-powerful wake-up drugs to cope with...

    Guarana + alcohol = one happy me.
    • Also for the benefits of Canadians, I think that Mt. Dew is caffeine-free in Canada. Any non-dark pop has to be (I think). Anyway, I think coffee is yummy.

  • Sobe! (Score:2)

    by j3110 ( 193209 )
    Sobe is down to 98 cents at a local walmart(is this true everywhere?). (good)Water costs nearly as much now. Besides, sobe doesn't digest steak overnight, and doesn't come in an aluminum can that is disolved by the acid(pH is around 3 I think) and collects in the base of your brain :). Other than that, you can get Ginkgo, which really helps you to think (and it helps me to exercise as well... I think it helps blood flow in general) or Ginseng or any number of obscure herbs (Kava Kava, Kola Nut, St John Wart, etc.).

    All the other products rot your teeth with acid and too much sugar. They are carbonated and actually remove moisture from your body. Mt. Dew also has citric acid to add to the phosphoric, thereby eating even more of your teeth as you drink it.

    I like good green tea and gourmette coffee pretty well too.
  • I see no flaw in the article's analysis. Fortunately, I'm used to ginseng and all of the other junk and/or good stuff Sobe uses to sell their drinks (see below).

    Here in central Texas, Dr. Pepper seems to be king. Maybe it's a regional thing, but I'm with a large portion of the population around here that thinks Coke has a taste reminiscent of eating chalk in grade school, and Pepsi manages to pull of a taste that's even more hideous. Pepsi Blue? Vanilla Coke? .... honestly, Vanilla Coke isn't quite as unpleasant as Coke, but it's still a lesser of two evils.

    To be honest, if I had a bit more to choose from, I'd take some of Sobe's other drinks at late night lan parties [dmerz.com]. The heavy caffiene drinks tend to kill my ability to play a solid, consistent game. However, a steady diet of Lizard Fuel or Liz Bliz keeps the mouth happy and awake and sets you on a steady, somewhat relxed yet aware and patient state throughout the night. Start this at 7 pm and by the time 1:00 rolls around, you'll be on top of the game, owning your buds with the bomber on Battlefield 1942.

    Life is good.

  • Energy drinks (Score:2, Interesting)

    by innermind ( 230598 )
    A 'long time ago in a galaxy far away' I used to make energy drinks.. (actually, we called them smartdrinks) commercially. And I was quite successful.. some might even say legendary..
    ;)

    Some of my gleanings.. Actually, caffeine is a bad ingredient to use to create *programming* energy drinks because even though it stimulates the peripheral nervous system, it doesnt improve attention span. Guarana = caffeine.. so the same caveat applies.. Ephedra also isn't good, although it's a bit better than caffeine for programming..

    Some things I think would make excellent additions.. Alerting neurotransmitter precursors such as tyrosine and phenylalanine improve vigilance..

    DMAE (a precursor of acetylcholine) is also a good pepper-upper..

    Pyroglutamic acid.. (a relative of piracetam) is a good neuronutrient that has a stimulating effect.. I could go on and on.. *laugh*

    The trick is in covering up the tastes.. Some trade secrets in there.. Should I tell them?

    Chris

  • Dew is a high caffiene cotton-mouth killer. The only way it could be better is if it contained actual nutrition and knocked out the munchies at the same time! But only as a companion product. Don't fsck with the Dew!! Heh. Maybe I've had too many...

    LEXX

  • Baby Food (Score:2, Informative)

    by qxjit ( 461981 )
    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.
  • I survived my college years on Jolt Cola.. I'm not sure it helped my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome though :(

    Jolt Cola [joltcola.com.au] -- If only they had "Order a Keg online" :(
  • It's mentioned in the article and my friends and I had the same reaction. Vanilla Coke tastes like Rum and Coke. I wonder if you can get someone placebo effect drunk on the stuff.

    As for what I think makes a good fuel during any task. A southern standard, sweetened ice tea. Guaranteed to have more caffeine than coffee and as much sugar as you want. Plus tea is mild enough to where it doesn't tie your stomach in a knot if you drink it too fast.

    By the way what's the next story, comparing the most satisfying munchies for gaming?
  • As the overnight guy on a classic rock station, I usually hit up some Red Bull to keep myself going. Especially when some shifts end at 2a and then begin again at 6a. You've got to love your job when you work hours like that. From what I hear though some kids dies from drinking a lot of highly caffinated drinks (may be an urban legend) so I try to limit it to one or two a night. Nothing worse than keeling over in the middle of a stopset...
    • if you weigh over 100lbs you can easilly consume 1k mg caffine before you start to get to redline levels, most people could probably consume around 2k.

      Not to mention as you get to those densities you start to produce a depressant to slow down your body, so it'd be very hard to actually OD consuming it at normall distilations.
  • its 2 am Saturday morning and the only thing you can score with is your video game?

    aah the love of slashdot...

  • Since when is pop an energy drink? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <revaaron@@@hotmail...com> on Monday August 26, 2002 @11:59PM (#4146398) Homepage
    Pepsi Blue? Dr. Pepper? Vanilla Coke? Since when are these in the category of "energy drink?" They're pop/soda for chrisstakes! Sick of run of the mill coke or pepsi? Look elsewhere, it's not like these will make much of a difference.

    I thought that just maybe this new Sobe drink was energy-ifious- but nope. Looked at the FAQ [mrgreen.com] and it's just plain old pop. 37 mg per 8 oz. Claims to have some ginseng, but just being a soda, I doubt it contains more than what is required to claim that it is "flavored with ginseng."

    This "news" site was probably bought off by Coke and Pepsico (which owns SoBe) to do an "article" about their "energy drinks" in exchange for a few cases of each of these drinks. I can't say I blame them for looking out for No. 1, but puuuleeze.

    Why not evaluate Red Bull and shit like that? Or make your own whacky cocktail of Water Joe, nicotine water, and crushed up adderals?

  • Low sugar, moderate caffeine (Score:3, Interesting)

    by i1984 ( 530580 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @12:00AM (#4146404)
    I don't have the stamina for staying up days at a time like I did when I was 16. Back then a 24-pack of Mountain Dew would keep my running at 100% for several nights.

    I think I have funny blood sugar things going on -- like many other modern Americans -- and the sugar content of what I consume has a huge impact on my wakefulness. Specifically, if I consume too much sugar too quickly it puts me to sleep. Likewise, too much caffeine doesn't help much. Beyond a reasonable level of caffeine, typically one 8-ounce light brew coffee (light has more caffeine), I just get red irritated eyes and slightly jittery. (The volume of coffee that's right for you may depend on how much of it you usually drink.)

    Thus to stay up all night I have to plan ahead. I try to have a coffee a few hours before I'm going to need it, then sip something low-sugar with moderate caffeine as the night progresses. It sounds kind of sissy, but iced black tea is:

    a) refreshing
    b) cheap (important!!!)
    c) seems to have the right amount of caffeine
    d) is low sugar
    e) can be produced on demand in any desired quantity

    Another pleasant side effect of iced tea is that, even after consuming large volumes, it doesn't leave me so rotund as other drinks might. This is also convenient for being a stealth geek: a narrow radar signature leaves most people clueless to the fact that I know anything about computers, which in turn means fewer "say, you look like you know computers: when I try to use my American Online..." queries.

    Mountain Dew actually seems to have about the right amount of caffeine, but it also has so much sugar that the caffeine is, for me, effectively negated.

    It's only 9:34 on the West Coast where I'm at, but maybe I'll report back around 5:00 AM...

  • Caffeine Baaaad (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lally Singh ( 3427 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @12:01AM (#4146412) Journal
    Here's an exercise: cut out all caffeine for six months. Yes, I said six months. Notice how your mind is calmer and more organized. Notice how your hands don't shake at the same frequency as the fluorescent lights above you. Notice how your penis now grows to full length.
    • Great, so the secret to adding one to three inches overnight, guaranteed, is simply not drinking caffeine? Now that it's out in the open, will I stop getting all that spam?
  • because increasing in surger level would only make you more sleepy. You have to drink something that keep your surger level lower.

    How abut chilling soda water?....hmm, where is the venting machine....
  • What sort of pansy so called energy drinks are those
    choices?

    In Europe, Asia and Australia we have Red Bull [redbull.com].

    Caffeine, Taurine, and B Vitamins. Works a treat.

    There's a heap of imitators like Red Stallion and V that
    include Guarana into the mix as well.

    Sheesh these Americans, always last to catch up
    (see PAL, GSM phones)...
  • 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...
  • Actually, the therorized component that is promenent in mountain dew is yellow #5. I grew up with a friend who lived on mountain dew, and I personally hated the stuff.... later on, I discovered that while I had gotten the regular 6-7 incher, he had, what his first *lay* described as "HIS DICK WAS AS SMALL AS MY 4 YEAR OLD BROTHERS!!!" Either way, I don't want to drink something that looks like mountain dew does.... its just not a natural color to drink. red = cherries = good for you green = veggies = very good for you blue = .... hmm.... blueberries... = not BAD for ya yellow = uhh... tell me what food comes in yellow? And don't say bananas unless you eat the peel, and don't say you smoke it cuz that don't count :) I would bet that the yellow bell peppers and such are genetically engeneeried. The fact of evolution simply points out that the yellow color is not something we need. Like it or love it... Then again, you could say we don't need beer, but I would have to slap you.

  • Ignore All Four... Tea is the Answer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nathanh ( 1214 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @12:17AM (#4146494) Homepage
    Tea tastes good. It's good for you. It keeps you alert. Drinkable with or without milk and with or without sugar. Low cost. Socially acceptable in all circles. No plastic wastage. Drink it icy cold in summer or piping hot in winter.

    Why waste money on carbonated sugar water? Sure, Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew can be nice once in a while. But if you need copious quantities of a tasty drink then tea is the answer.

  • Get up later? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Gaima ( 174551 )
    If you really want to stay up late, why not just get up later? :)
    I was up around 2pm yesterday, and I'm still awake now (6:19am), ok, so I'm at work, but hey :P Got another hour here too, before an hours drive home, urgh :(

    As for the caffinated drinks we have here in the UK (RedBull, V and the like), I tried some V once when I had to stay up all night to get a train for a 2 hour journey for a 9am job interview, it had squat all noticable effect, and I don't drink coffee! The sms's with the missues had a much more noticable effect :)
  • Gatorade. It's the best. We all love caffine, but it's a stimulant. Stimulants are drugs that crank up our bodies systems to run faster. Think overclocking. You're not giving your body fuel, just instructions to keep going past normal tollerances. Gatorade is just glucose and electrolytes. Glucose is actual fuel for your body. It's not the best fuel, but it's simple and your body can use it right away. I can chug a 20 oz Gatorade and feel great for a long while. No ups and downs like when I drank a ton of Dew.

    Not only can it wake you up and keep you awake, but it also prevents and cures hangovers. It's like a sugary liquid Swiss Army knife.
  • What? No Code Red Mountain Dew? Seriously. It's a new drink. Not as new as the rest, but still fairly new considering its been about 10 years since the latest "outside the box" drink release.

    But, even if Code Red was listed, I still agree, Red Fusion tops them all. I love the stuff. Ever since the day it came out, I've been drinking the stuff daily. I sure hope they come out with a diet formula that tastes just as good as Diet Dr. Pepper (the only diet drink except lemon twist I can tolerate).

    Red Fusion is light, refreshing. I only hope everyone else agrees with me, else in about a year it'll probably be phased out. At which point I will have a warehouse stock pile of the stuff.

  • on a related note (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lingqi ( 577227 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @12:33AM (#4146562) Journal
    Scientific American [sciam.com] has an excellent short article [sciam.com] on how long a human can stay awake.

    within it mentions an experiment where some lab rats were kept awake for ~2 weeks (the longest human record is 11 days) and then they died. the acticle keep emphasizing that it was not proven that the death was caused by sleep depravation. but well... They just don't want to admit that they tortured a buncha cute lil mice to death.

    on a even MORE related point: try red bull / blue donkey / green chicken and all that -- they seem to work pretty well. i drove across the US (SJ to NY) on those. 2 bux a can (8.6 oz) is steep, but hey -- when you gotta stay awake, you GOTTA stay awake.

    lastly... erm... try some speed. they work too, so i hear.

  • It's called Amp [ampenergy.com] and comes in an 8.5 ounce can (seems to be the standard for energy drinks). Tastes like a combination of Dew and Smarties candy. It's not worth the $2/can, though; I've tried it a couple of times and it didn't give me a noticeable boost.

    Shaun
  • There's a new product out by Nestea (I think) that is a concentrated tea drink. Now, I know this sounds like a wussy drink, but this 8 oz container contains the same amount of high fructose corn syrup as two quarts of coke/pop/soda, but without the carbonation. You can slam it for a quick recovery, or sip on it and not worry about it going flat. Or, you could just pour it into one of those lame energy drinks for a sickly sweet treat.

  • Coffee?!?! (Score:2, Informative)

    by fonetik ( 181656 )
    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
  • After a table comparing the calories, carbs, and sugars to 2 decimal places, the article goes on:

    "It's also important to note where the caffiene is located in the ingredients list. Ingredients lists are ordered from greatest content to least content. In Vanilla Coke, caffiene is the sixth ingredient out of eight, higher than any other soda in this roundup. For Pepsi Blue, caffiene is seventh out of ten. Mr. Green's caffiene placement is also seventh out of ten; it's important to note that ginseng is listed in a lower placement than caffiene, meaning it's possibly simply an insubstantial amount. Caffiene is the seventh ingredient out of nine in Red Fusion."

    So, the amount of caffiene is just a guessing game. But the bottom line, really, is the amount of caffiene. This is what keeps you awake (and, some will say, hooks you on the drink :). Is there anywhere to find out the caffeine mg per serving, or do we each have to pay for our own chemical assays? Why are the drink manufacturers so reluctant or afraid to place this vital information on the label?

    (On a tangential note, I once heard the Renaissance coincided with the introduction of coffee in Europe. Can anyone confirm this?)

    • From what i have heard coffee came to western europe during the renaissance. IIRC coffee was first introduced to turkey in the 1400s, where it really took off. From turkey it spread west, but took its time in doing so.

  • Ergh (Score:2)

    by zapfie ( 560589 )
    Does this strike anyone else as just unhealthy? Your body is telling you it is tired for a reason- mainly because you need the sleep to function well. In the case of needing to do work, I can see that, but jeez, if it's gaming, just go to sleep- get a good nights rest. Don't try to fool it by using stimulants. The server will always be there tomorrow.

  • heh (Score:2)

    by PenguinX ( 18932 )
    Crack out the Mt. Dew AMP and get a few Ephedrine... you'll be up for a long time with no problems whatsoever...

    except for that wacky warbling noise..... ;-)
  • Nutin' like a good, luke-warm, frothy glass of Whore Piss! Now with extra crack! The very memory of drinking this will keep you up for many a night!
  • well then I just go for a Coke and call it even.
    If you are a REAL MIDSHIFTER, you drink coffee(BLACK) with a tea bag in it for xtra Caff :)
    4 years of Midshift in operations taught me how to stay awake, if not out of the hospital with stomach problems...

  • Somebody has to rain on the parade (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @01:18AM (#4146713)
    I enjoy a good drink like any late night nerd does. But it is too easy to "OD" on caffeine without knowing it. I have some links to provide food for thought;

    An interesting page about liquid candy [saveharry.com]

    Some deaths associated with red bull/energy drinks [go.com]

    Another caffeine death [abc.net.au]

    I am not saying give up your drinks. But I am saying be smart about it. Don't drink/eat so much caffeine that you make yourself feel miserable with the symptoms [medsafe.govt.nz] of too much caffeine. while it is thought that 10 grams [plym.ac.uk] is a fatal overdose, I would be willing to bet that a fraction of that can make you feel pretty miserable and is very easily reached with some of the caffeinated drinks/candies/pills out there. A couple liters of mountain dew, four red bulls, and a handful of penguine mints or any combination thereof places you at about 1 gram.

    It goes without saying drinking alcohol at the same time exacerbates things.

    Also, caffeine is not a substitute for sleep. There are reasons that the body needs to sleep. So if you are depriving your body of sleep for whatever reason you need to start asking yourself what your priorities are. Sleep "binging" where you go without sleep all week and catch up on the weekends is also unhealthy, but this is another topic in itself.

    This post is not intended to be medical advice. See your doctor if you have any questions/symptoms. Yada yada yada.
  • caffeine habit, there is an interesting book called The Caffeine Blues [amazon.com]

  • Taurine Intolerance (Red Bulls) and You! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Jeremy Lee ( 9313 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @02:43AM (#4146941) Homepage
    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.

  • [slacker.com]
    This comparison had been completed in 1989.

  • errr... Red Bull? (Score:3)

    by radish ( 98371 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @03:21AM (#4147016) Homepage

    The only thing, those other things are just fizzy pop. Red Bull is the only thing which can keep me up for 36 hours of straight clubbing on the White Isle, it can sure as hell keep me up for a bit of fragging (or coding for that matter). But 2am? pardon?

  • Turkish Coffee (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fuzzybunny ( 112938 ) on Tuesday August 27, 2002 @04:47AM (#4147193) Homepage Journal


    It's not as convenient as a can of Red Bull, but if you're really looking for the ultimate (!) caffeine kick, you want Turkish/Lebanese coffee--that's the thick, grainy stuff with cardamom.


    It tastes great, and smells good too--the perfect solution if you don't mind a bit of, err, sand, in your drink. One tiny cup of the stuff will send you off the walls for hours.

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