Subject: Functional Foods

• Sex and the Olathe 30

  May 28, 2008

• Weird Drink Roundup: Red Espresso and Alcohol ßG Killer

  September 4, 2008

• Noooooo! Sparks to disappear and come back unrecognizable

  This is a sad day for people who like waking up at 4 a.m. in flop sweat with their hearts going 200 miles-per-hour. Twelve buzz-kill state attorney generals who brought claims that Sparks -- the caffeinated alcoholic energy drink -- was being marketed to underage drinkers and have reached an agreement with booze giant SABMiller to reformulate the recipe so as not to include caffeine or taurine or any energy-drink ingredients.  As an of-age Sparks drinker whose enjoyed it on bike rides, at C

  December 19, 2008

• Green tea ginger ale. Yuck.

  Normally I try to keep my reviews to alcoholic substances since it's more fun for me and, besides, nobody wants to read about Diet Coke or Dr. Pepper's newest flavor creation that will be gone in two months. Also, I don't drink many sodas. However, I do drink ginger ale -- and when I saw that a new hybrid called green tea ginger ale was just named the best beverage product of the year by an influential consumer group, I had to try it.Green tea ginger ale is made by Canada Dry, so I was expecting

  January 30, 2009

• Booty Call

  May 6, 2004

• Gatorade: a cure for what ails ya

  Flickr: DJ Linda LovelyGatorade has been promoting its new G line of low-calorie drinks with a team of athletes -- the Super Bowl ad featured 16 different stars. But athletes aren't Gatorade's real target audience. It's hungover people!Our sister blog The Snitch in San Francisco did some research among store clerks and estimates that 50 percent of all Gatorade sales are for hangovers; the percentage goes up on weekends. For most out-of-shape people, it's the only reason they have to drink Gatora

  February 20, 2009

• Bands of Sisters

  December 13, 2007

• Stay Crunk

  October 11, 2007

• Next Day Air

  May 14, 2009

• Nothing to see here folks. Rockstar Energy drink is in no way connected with Michael Savage.

  Did you know that Michael Savage's son is the founder of the popular Rockstar Energy drinks? You didn't? Well that's the way the radio shock-jock (to put it nicely) wants it to be. Savage is using legal means to silence Web sites and even Facebook groups publicizing the connection."Savage Nation" holds the third-largest radio audience in the country. Just to be clear, Michael Savage (real name Michael Weiner) has no connection to Rockstar. Even though his son is the founder and CEO and even thou

  June 9, 2009

• Fortified with nonsense

  The blog Consumerist has recently been poking some holes in the idea that Naked Juice is as natural and healthy as it claims to be. One astute reader noticed that the nutrition label for Strawberry Kick showed that it contained zero vitamin C, even though it supposedly contained 14 whole strawberries, a fruit packed with vitamin C. The company responded that the vitamin C is lost during pasteurization, but added that another Naked Juice flavor, Power-C Machine, has "added boosts" of vitamin C. "

  June 16, 2009

• Tonight: Music Showcase Pre-party featuring SeedLove, Reach and Howard Iceberg, Chad Rex and Tommy Donoho at the Czar Bar

  Can't wait for the music showcase on August 6? Neither can we, and that's why we're throwing a little pre-party tonight that'll give everyone a small but potent taste of the eclectic awesomeness that is the Pitch Music Awards (and, by extension, our town's music scene). Actually, I'm not sure whether this party was planned by our savvy marketing people or the folks at Czar Bar -- but either way, I'm grateful to both parties that it's happening, because it's basically turning CZBZ's (get it? lik

  July 16, 2009

• More energy drinks, less taurine

  ​Pick a synonym for "movement" and there's probably an energy drink or shot attached to it: Amp. Charge. Go Fast. Explosion. Even Steven Seagal has a Lightning Bolt energy drink (with the disquieting flavor of Asian Experience). The energy drink market has blown up this decade, with sales increasing 240 percent between 2004 and 2009. Analysts have predicted it will be a $10 billion (that's billion) market by 2010. With that much money being poured into game fuel, companies are considering the

  September 1, 2009

• Burn Rubber

  September 3, 2009

• Thai truck drivers and energy drinks

  ​If it seems like energy drinks have taken over the world, that's because they have. But one place where the growth of energy drinks has stalled is Thailand. Now a study from market research firm Zeneath suggests that might be the reason for an international energy-drink slowdown. Energy drink sales in Thailand declined 41 percent in 2008 as a sluggish economy impacted truck drivers -- the country's largest consumers of energy beverages. And although this feels a bit like chaos theory, wherei

  October 15, 2009

• Real-life cocktails and Duff Beer from The Simpsons

  ​If a few drinks make you animated, just imagine what a few drinks based on animation might do. The Simpsons Archive Web site has noted the appearance of actual Duff Beer on shelves in Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium. Duff is the fictional beer brand, not seen on store shelves for close to a decade following 20th Century Fox's successful lawsuits in 1996 and 2001 to have Duff Beer pulled from the market. Here's Hop Talk's video review of the beer, which is apparently brewed in Belgium. The r

  November 11, 2009