Sparks Energy Beer Drops the Caffeine

Sparks, the ingenious combinationof shitty malt liqour and even shittier energy drink ingredients, has been pressured by the state of California into dropping caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng from its recipe:

At the behest of San Francisco and 13 states, including California, distributor MillerCoors LLC is taking the caffeine out of its Sparks line of energy drinks, which list ginseng, taurine and 6 to 7 percent alcohol among its other ingredients. “We’re doing it to protect the public health of our young people and to reform business practices,” said S.F. City Attorney Dennis Herrera. He estimated the agreement, announced Thursday, removes 85 percent of caffeine-spiked booze from the market.

The Sparks campaign began in San Francisco last year, sparked, so to speak, by local consumer organizations. California and other states joined in a “multi-jurisdictional investigation,” charging that Sparks drinks are unsafe, deceptively advertised and illegally marketed to the adolescent set. Under the agreement, MillerCoors is removing caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng from Sparks and says it won’t produce similar drinks in the future. It also agreed to shell out $550,000 in costs, $52K of which goes to San Francisco, said Herrera.

I guess kids and bums are gonna have to go back to drinking Boone’s and Mad Dog.

Tags: adolescent, alcohol, behest, booze, bums, california distributor, city attorney, consumer organizations, energy drink, energy drinks, ginseng, guarana, liqour, public health, san francisco, similar drinks, state of california, taurine