Buzz Beer.
Posted on 07/03/2008 1:48:36 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
WASHINGTON—Anheuser-Busch will remove the caffeine, guarana, and ginseng from its flavored malt beverages Tilt and Bud Extra, and is calling on its competitors in the industry to similarly stop making pre-packaged caffeinated alcohol beverages. The move comes as part of agreements reached with the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest(CSPI), which in February threatened to file suit against the company over the drinks, and a group of 11 state Attorneys General, which has separately been investigating the company.
Miller Brewing Co., which markets caffeinated alcoholic drinks under the brand name Sparks, is not a party to the settlement agreements and is increasingly likely to face litigation over the beverages. The young consumers of caffeinated alcoholic drinks are at greater risk of binge drinking, injury, drunk driving, or sexual assault than are drinkers of conventional alcoholic drinks, according to research conducted at Wake Forest University.
“We are pleased that Anheuser-Busch has agreed to take the caffeine and other stimulants out of its alcoholic drinks, and that it was not necessary to formally proceed with litigation,” said CSPI alcohol policies project director George A. Hacker. “We particularly appreciate the call that Anheuser-Busch is making to distillers and other brewers to likewise reformulate these ill-conceived products.”
Anheuser-Busch will also take down the web site for Bud Extra while it removes the stimulants from the products, and will replace the Tilt website altogether with a new address once the reformulation is complete. CSPI had raised a number of concerns with some of the marketing statements on the sites which the group said were designed to appeal to young people, or to give the impression that one could drink more of these particular beverages without becoming intoxicated.
Those youth-oriented appeals remain in abundance on the web site of Miller’s Sparks web site. The site, which sometimes displays text on school-notebook-like lined paper, offers a recipe for a drink called a “Lunchbox” which consists of half Miller beer and half Sparks. A juvenile video on the web site proposes consuming Sparks for breakfast, alongside omelets; elsewhere coupons offer “free high-fives” with purchase of Sparks. CSPI says that such carefully calibrated appeals to very young people are irresponsible, especially considering the research that suggests the Sparks formulation is risky in the first place. (In addition to the stimulants, Sparks contains more alcohol than typical beers, six or seven percent.)
CSPI’s litigation director, Steve Gardner, credited the Attorneys General for their investigation into the products.
“Not for the first time, state Attorneys General have filled a gaping void left by disinterested federal officials, who should have cracked down on these particular products long ago,” said Gardner. “Frankly, Miller Brewing is lurching on very thin legal ice if they continue to market these dangerous drinks.”
CSPI has previously negotiated settlements or voluntary changes in marketing practices by Kellogg, Frito-Lay, Pinnacle Foods, Quaker Oats, and others. This is the first alcohol-related initiati
Belch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, who needs a ride?
How’d I become the DD?
I don’t even like caffeinated alcoholic beverages!
Or Buttweiser for that matter.
I just figured, if they required Buttweiser to stop selling beer with alcohol, they’d hit others as well.
nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest(CSPI
1) people with too much time on their hands, 2) people who want to control everyone to their way of thinking, 3) nonprofit, yeah right, I bet the government gives them hard earned public monies, 4) the public has no interest in this organization, and 5) when people like this will leave us alone, this country will be in better shape.
I get your drift.
Bud is not real beer. The notion that it is real beer was created by a Billion dollar ad campaign and well paid attorneys that sued the German city of Budweis for the right to use the name..
These days, Firerock Pale Ale, Negra Modelo, Guinness, an occasional Steinlager if hot and just want to chug something cold.
Buzz Beer.
I’ve seen caffeinated drinks sold at bars & restaurants that serve alcohol./der
What’s the difference?/der
Jagger-bombs are quite popular in college towns.
Oh, I get it, ban caffeine first...baby steps...
You got that right
1) Non-profit doesn’t mean that there are no profits or millions to be made
2)These people are control freaks
3) They will never leave anyone alone
Ginseng doesn’t have caffeine in it. Why are they removing that?
Even still, I'd rather keep the choice to drink them than allow some busybody fascist "Public Interest" to make a permanent decision for me.
i can drink an espresso with every beer i have and it's legal... but i cant drink it if it comes in the beer??? AtlasPuked.
A & B should have told these vultures to go pound cement. Now they’re going to keep at them with more ridiculous assertions.
And the reason for this is ????
...that the liberal nanny-state pantywaists are evidently tougher than the corporate pantywaists who always seem to throw their customers under the bus at the slightest threat from some non-involved third party.
Guess it’s back to Jaegerbombs.
I really hate these people.
Ya know, pretty soon, with these “moral busybodies” running loose, we will all be drinking 3-2 beer and eating food that tastes like what they serve at the local Old Folks’ Home.
So, why didn’t A-B tell CSPI to pound sand? They could have alerted their customer base to what was going on and urged them to gang up on the nannies with email, phone calls and letters, telling them to stay off everyone’s backs. That would have made a big splash.
Center for Science in the public interest = Tax payer funded anti-American, anti-capitalist, socialist extortion ring.
I’m going to go buy some Sparks now and support Miller Brewing company. Hopefully they will tell these parasites to drop dead.
I think a big corp like Miller might consider playing hardball with groups like this. They could hire a whole team of PI’s to investigate everyone associated with this group. Where there’s leftist America haters, theres dirt to be found, gauranteed.
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