Kinda dumb question but I figured it fits the sub lol
so these boxes are at my work and they’re a syrupy hyper sweet mixture that when combined with carbonated water make soda and it got me thinking:
why don’t they sell ones for like Monster energy?
is it because of the costs, or kids accessing it, or some law?
A major truck stop chain in Finland just recently started doing exactly that.
Probably liability and insurance.
What do you think would happen if you offered huge drinks, unlimited amounts or large capacity drinks of caffeinated, or energy supplements in a machine. What do you think a bored teenager with a bunch of his friends on a Friday night would do? They’d try to drink five gallons of Monster Energy just to see what would happen.
Someone would suffer a heart attack or some medical emergency and lawyers would have a field day milking concerned parents and restaurants with access to millions in insurance.
Does Starbucks have the same liability and limit the number of coffees someone can buy?
Panera bread basically did and a few people died, so that probably didn’t help.
Wasn’t it like super caffeinated though?
damn press always ruining fun, if mildly dangerous, foods.
I miss the old Panera, with the Lemonade That Kills You™
Land of the free my ass
There at least used to be, and I got royally screwed by it.
The employee hooked the wrong “orange” syrup up to the dispenser, and what I thought was 32oz of Orange Crush (caffeine free) was 32oz of some Orange energy drink. Needless to say, I was up all night and ended up having to call off work the next day because I was so exhausted and useless (I’m very sensitive to caffeine).
Probably also less common due to liability. Panera got into hot water with their highly caffeinated lemonade.
There’s no technical reason why you couldn’t. It’s probably just some stupid marketing reason like:
- A. Monster doesn’t want to sell its concentrate this way.
- B. They do, but not at a price that would justify including it as an option among other common self serve beverages.
- C. Stores don’t want to offer unlimited access to dangerously high levels of caffeine after a Panera customer with a pre-existing heart condition drank about a gallon of caffeinated lemonade and then dropped dead in the dining room.
If I were to guess… it’s probably because the chemical makeup of energy drinks would damage the machine? Maybe it’s more acidic or something?
TBH I am 100% guessing here, talking out my ass, having done ZERO research on the topic.
Those machines are usually all plastic, acid doesn’t hurt them. And a lot of the acidity in energy drinks comes from the carbonic acid in the carbonated water and the citric acid that’s added. But those are present in a lot of sodas as well. They all have the carbonated water and a lot of them have citric acid as well. Something like Fanta is probably more acidic than most energy drinks.
The whole energy drinks are super bad because they are so acidic is mostly nonsense. The same was said about coke as far back as I can remember (and I’m an old man). Sure it’s very acidic, but lots of things we eat and drink are acidic, that’s something most of us can handle just fine. A lot of people think orange juice is a healthy drink, but it’s usually more acidic than soda and unless you squeeze the fruit yourself usually contains just as much if not more sugar.
Not to say energy drinks are good for you, the combination of sugar and stimulants such as caffeine and taurine is most definitely not good. But the same can be said of many things we consume. Our bodies like a lot of the things that aren’t exactly good for you. I’ve seen old folk complain about young folk drinking energy drink, whilst they themselves are drinking coffee with two sugars. When consumed in moderation energy drinks are totally fine.
Not on the same scale obviously, but this exists.
My guess has a few factors to it (in no particular order):
Cost soda syrup is likely a lot cheaper than the chemical concoction for energy drinks.
Safety Energy drinks pose a much greater health risk if the concentrations are off. Companies would have to prevent young children from accessing the machines (if they are used in restaurants). They would also have to prevent customers from drinking too much. I can also imagine chugging a bunch of the syrup would likely kill you (it’s bound to happen).
Flavor Control soda companies already accept and plan for the difference in fountain vs bottled sodas. I feel energy drink companies want as much control as possible to keep their brand image perfect.
Energy drinks cost almost as much as any other soda. There’s no mystical more expensive ingredient in them.
@TriflingToad I’d like one for scotch… or just straight-up everclear. <sob>
Bars usually have redbull dispensers around here. But as others have mentioned, caffeine in bulk can do damage. I once went to a gas station and they had energy drinks on tap. I’m had a 48oz energy drink with energy shots. I TALKED WITH CAPS LOCK ON FOR 4 DAYS NON-STOP.
Out of sheer idiocy I grabbed a can of a new energy drink and it had 300mg if caffeine. I normally drink 500ml of tea a day but that thing had me vibrating through walls 50% into the can.
500ml of black tea is going to be maybe 100mg if we’re generous, no wonder!
300mg is a lot at once, you can get more than that drinking an extra large coffee, but that’s super variable, don’t know how accurate this is
people can easily go over the recommended limit (400mg a day I think)
It’s usually sold as red bull, I.e. Someone orders a vodka red bull and they will give them vodka and that, but it’s some off brand shit in the guns, and they still charge like it’s a red bull. Pro tip, don’t order that shit if it comes out of a gun.
People would kill themselves by over consuming it.
Panera bread had a charged lemonade energy drink and two people died.
In addition to what everyone else is saying, a really good reason not to have energy drinks on a soda fountain, aside from the fact that the energy drink soda would cost far more than a regular soda, is that energy drinks contain a lot of caffeine and if they were on dispenser some idiot would go and fill up a 64 Oz energy drink and drink the equivalent to 5 to 8 Red bulls in a single sitting.
No gas station wants to deal with the legal ramifications of “exploding people’s hearts because they are too stupid to understand that these things can be deadly”, because if people are dumb enough to chug Red Bull until they die they are also dumb enough to sue because of the deaths.
A regional gas station near me has their brand of energy drinks in soda dispensers like this one.
I just want them to make a flavor with ibuprofin already mixed in
I feel I’m going to regret asking this but why?
Didn’t they do that at Panera Bread and a few people died?
