Cocaine Energy Drink

The Cocaine Energy Drink is not what you think it is. The soft drink, which is produced by Las Vegas-based Redux Beverages, has about 280mg of caffeine in it, which is sure to keep geeks programming well into the night. The drink was originally released in Los Angeles and NYC markets, and was being marketed to teens who want a little bit extra kick to get them through algebra class.

Cocaine energy drink was quoted by the company as a “legal alternative” to the real thing, and by the real thing we don’t mean “Coke”, we mean the other “coke.” Speaking of which, did you know that Coca-Cola used real cocaine in their soft drink back in the day? True story. A man named John Pemberton, who worked at the Eagle Drug and Chemical Company drugstore in Georgia, invented the stuff. Its major ingredients were cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine from Kola nuts. 5 oz of coca leaf per gallon of syrup was guaranteed to get you movin; at one point the soft drink had 9mg of the white stuff in 1 glass. Yum!

Anyway, back to Redux Beverages – the inventor Jamie Kirby says that Cocaine is 350% stronger than Red Bull. It also has 750mg of taurine. Sign us up!

The FDA, not a fan of the name “Cocaine”, forced Redux to pull the drink from shelves in 2007. The company changed the name briefly to “No Name”, which got it back on the market in June of that year. Kirby even filed a trademark for the name “Banned”.

In 2008, whatever problems the FDA had with marketing of the energy drink were solved satisfactorily, and the original name Cocaine was back. You can get it online, around the USA, and in Europe; however Sweden has banned it.

Sources: Daily Mail, Wikipedia