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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?

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[-] IMongoose@lemmy.world 99 points 1 month ago

Panera bread basically did and a few people died, so that probably didn't help.

[-] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago

I miss the old Panera, with the Lemonade That Kills You™

[-] ebolapie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Land of the free my ass

[-] desktop_user 7 points 1 month ago

damn press always ruining fun, if mildly dangerous, foods.

[-] ComicalMayhem@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Wasn't it like super caffeinated though?

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah... It was energy drink.

[-] POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 20 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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 infographic containing information on caffeine content for sizes of Starbucks coffee

people can easily go over the recommended limit (400mg a day I think)

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

Costs. These types of machines are generally free refills. You take a 32oz coke, and say actual cost to the store for you getting that coke is about 15 cents. You paid $2.30. Most people get 1 refill. But even if you get multiple, they still make profit.

I don't know wholesale costs of monster, but I know a 20oz bottle in stores here costs about $2. While a 24oz can of monster costs about $9.

It wouldn't surprise me if a 32oz fountain of monster cost the store like $0.70 wholesale. So there's no way they could make profit if people got multiple refills.

Plus, if you try to sell the monster at a higher cost than coke, what would stop someone from dumping the coke, and refilling with monster? Paying the lower innitial price, and now getting refills.

[-] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

WTF? Monster costs $9? That's insane.

But you’re right it's cost. I had a Soda Stream and I had the red bull syrup for it so the ability is there and the materials exist.

[-] BussyCat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

That’s because monster overcharges, caffiene powder is cheap and you could add it to soda for cheap

[-] QualifiedKitten@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

If you can get ahold of it, yes, very cheap. The problem is that a little goes a very long way, so it's not so easy to get a hold of anymore, at least in the US.

It was probably 10 years ago that I discovered that I could buy a 500g bag of pure caffeine powder for about $20, plus a milligram scale for another $20. I was drinking quite a bit of sugar free Red Bull at the time, and had been ordering them by the case ($50ish?) to save a little money, so it was a no brainer for me to switch to caffeine powder. Break even point was maybe 2 weeks worth of caffeinated beverages.

The bad news is a few people OD'd on caffeine powder around that time (completely unrelated to me), so it was pretty much banned. The good news is that 500g is a fucking shit load of caffeine. I often get my caffeine from more traditional sources now (coffee, tea), so that bag may end up lasting me the rest of my life.

For some additional context, a 250mL (8.4 oz) can of Red Bull contains 80mg caffeine, while a 1/16 teaspoon (~0.3mL) scoop of pure caffeine powder is about 200mg. That works out to less than 0.5¢ ($0.005) of caffeine per Red Bull, and I'm not even getting wholesale pricing.

[-] BussyCat@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

You can get it super easy in the U.S. for cheap

Here is lab grade caffeine

That if you wanted to make 150mg energy drinks it would cost less than 3 cents each.

If you want to just mainline caffeine I would recommend caffiene pills they are preportioned and are cheap here are the equivalent to 100g pre measured out for under $20

But my point still remains that the cost of caffeine is completely irrelevant to the cost of energy drinks

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[-] random 3 points 1 month ago

wtf? 0.5l of coke and 0.5l of monster cost the same where I live

[-] JudahBenHur@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

where the fuck you live that a monster costs nine dollars

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I was hoping they meant 9 Australian dollars but even then it would be too much.

Seems like they are $1.83 at Walmart if you buy them per 12 ($21.98 / 12 = $1.83 each) https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monster-Energy-Original-Energy-Drink-16-fl-oz-12pk/581272641

To be fair, they're about 500mL per can instead of about 700mL but still, that would be $2.75 if you convert it to what Lost_My_Mind listed.

[-] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

Plus, if you try to sell the monster at a higher cost than coke, what would stop someone from dumping the coke, and refilling with monster? Paying the lower innitial price, and now getting refills.

People have been doing that for years with buying water, and then filling it with fountain drinks.

I suppose you could counter it the same way that some stores handled the soda refill issue. Have the energy drink refills behind the counter, where only employees can refill it. Have a special cup so employees can tell which customers actually bought an energy drink. Also gives employees a chance to intervene if someone tries to get too much and kill themselves (like with the Panera Bread lemonade/

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[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The inevitable howling from Karens when their children get ahold of a 64 ounce Big Gulp of the stuff notwithstanding, the main issue is that fountain availability would pull back the curtain on the supposed value of energy drinks. These are no more expensive than Coke or Pepsi or Sprite for their bottlers to produce, but they've successfully bamboozled the public into believing that a Monster or a Red Bull or whatever is "worth" 4-6x more per ounce than a normal soda. This is obviously bullshit, but if you were able to dispense it at the same rate and the same price as normal soda the jig would be up and the energy drink brands, not to mention the convenience stores selling most of them, would have an absolute cow.

[-] FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

they've successfully bamboozled the public into believing that a Monster or a Red Bull or whatever is "worth" 4-6x more per ounce than a normal soda

Christ is this actually true? I've never had them...

God people are stupid

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

God people are stupid

And, we have a winner!

Words to live by: Don't step in the marketing.

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[-] Thrawne@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

I just want them to make a flavor with ibuprofin already mixed in

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 day ago

I feel I'm going to regret asking this but why?

[-] Thrawne@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Because im old and caffine dependent. I already abuse both, just want to save time

[-] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago

A regional gas station near me has their brand of energy drinks in soda dispensers like this one.

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] ptz@dubvee.org 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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.

[-] brightandshinyobject@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

QuikTrip has RoosterBooster

[-] daggermoon@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I think I saw one with a Mountain Dew Gamefuel or whatever it's called

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[-] 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago
[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago

sounds like a boner pill

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Didn't Panera kill someone with one of those?

[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 5 points 1 month ago

I still maintain that someone with that level of caffeine sensitivity should have either:

1 - Read the fucking sign that said it was caffeinated, or

2 - Not drank a mystery liquid in lieu of signage

"but why would you think lemonade would be caffeinated?" People with severe food allergies don't just shove random food in their mouths, why would this person?

[-] burgersc12@mander.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

This is the sign that people did not read

[-] MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Did they have caffeine sensitivity? I just thought they consumed a fuckload of it.

[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 2 points 1 month ago

One of the people did, I don't think she had a lot.

[-] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Honestly maybe we should just drop the dumb flowery marketing names like "Charged Lemonade" and call it "Lemonade with a metric fuck ton of Caffeine"

[-] Bubs@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Energy drinks cost almost as much as any other soda. There's no mystical more expensive ingredient in them.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago

Don't know about where you live, but in the EU, there's a hard upper limit on the caffeine concentration in drinks you can legally sell.
Any syrup designed to be watered down before you drink it would be above the limit and therefore illegal.

[-] SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I've had postmix based energy drink in the Netherlands, so that's not true. Ingredients are not held to the same standards as premixed drinks.

To answer op's question, I think it's more of a supply/demand case, and a postmix doesn't display the brand as well as a can of an energy drink does (which is also marketing).

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I haven’t done the math but I can’t imagine that’s the case or most sodas would also be illegal in their concentrated form.

[-] lordnikon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Didn't they do that at Panera Bread and a few people died?

[-] Free_Opinions@feddit.uk 5 points 1 month ago

A major truck stop chain in Finland just recently started doing exactly that.

[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As much as i do consume energy drinks with a meal i do think we shouldn’t normalize it to much.

Also in a “restaurant” the strong flavor can be said to ruin the taste of the food. Though of course in practice we aren't going to these placed for fine dinning and often precisely to get a chemical fix the places themselves still like to uphold some perception of being cullinary.

[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 4 points 1 month ago

Not on the same scale obviously, but this exists.

[-] bizarroland@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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.

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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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