There's a joke in many cities that Starbucks is going to open a new store in the parking lot of the local Starbucks, but this is not true. Every working day, Starbucks opens four new outlets somewhere on the planet and hires 200 new employees. Meanwhile new coffee shops are opening so fast all over the world that even the most dedicated devotee of the triple-shot, no-foam, double-caramel, skinny macchiato can't keep track. Sales of Red Bull and copycat energy drinks with names like Red Devil, Roaring Lion, RockStar, SoBe Adrenaline Rush, Go Fast, and Whoop Ass are booming.
In fact, most babies in the developed world enter the universe with traces of caffeine in their bodies, a transfer through the umbilical cord from the mother's latte or Snapple.Ĭaffeine's pervasiveness is a cause for concern among some scientists and public health advocates, but that hasn't dampened its popularity. It is the only habit-forming psychoactive drug we routinely serve to our children (in all those sodas and chocolate bars). The drug is encountered not just at the soda fountain or the espresso bar but also in diet pills and pain relievers. The dual power to counter physical fatigue and increase alertness is part of the reason caffeine ranks as the world's most popular mood-altering drug, eclipsing the likes of nicotine and alcohol. Really all they've found is a new kind of caffeine delivery system." They get you out of an energy slump and make you more alert. "But we've known for centuries that caffeinated drinks work.
"The kids in the clubs, they think they've happened upon this great new invention," says Neil Stanley, director of sleep research at the Human Psychopharmacology Research Unit at Britain's University of Surrey. One 8.3-ounce (0.25-liter) can has two to three times the amount of caffeine as a 12-ounce (0.35-liter) can of soda.
The active ingredient in the hugely successful Austrian product Red Bull is a solid jolt of caffeine, blended with a handful of other ingredients. I drink these two tins, it's like drinking a pint of speed."įor Lee Murphy and other habitués of the all-night club scene around the world-not to mention a legion of marathon runners, mountain bikers, fighter pilots, college crammers, and late-night truckers hoping to cover another hundred miles (160 kilometers) before turning in-the canned concoctions marketed as energy drinks represent a fizzy new manifestation of one of mankind's oldest stimulants: caffeine. "By four or five in the morning you're totally blotto," the 29-year-old London nurse explains. "It's like putting your whole system on fast-forward," Lee Murphy shouts above the din as he glides across the floor with four-inch-high (10-centimeter-high) soles on his dancing shoes, a gold ring in his chin, and a slender silver and blue can of Red Bull energy drink in each hand. At seven in the morning we have trouble getting them out the door." And the kids say, 'I've had eight Red Bulls-I'm flying!' They'll dance right round the clock. "That's when we get the real rush at the bar for Red Bull. "Actually, we usually see a revival about half four or so in the morning," says Egg night manager Simon Patrick. But after a long night of liquor, drugs, tobacco, and earthshaking noise, most are still vigorously, and happily, strutting their stuff across that trembling wood floor. at the popular London club Egg, and a few dancers have collapsed on the sofas or taken refuge at the bar. Through a purple haze of smoke and sweat the strobe lights' red glare illuminates the dancing couples: men with mohawks and painted faces, women in vinyl skirts so micro they serve no functional purpose.
Over and over, the throbbing chorus of a dance hit explodes out of a battery of seven-foot-tall (2.1-meter-tall) speakers so powerful that the wood dance floor trembles, earthquake style, with every reverberating bass note. "Power! Money! Lust! Sex!" "Power! Money! Lust! Sex!"
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