Four Loko
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| Type | Malt beverage |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Introduced | 2005 |
| Alcohol by volume | 6%, 12%, 14% |
| Flavor | Various |
| Related products | Tilt, Joose, Sparks, Axehead, Blast |
| Website |
fourloko.com drinkfour.eu |
Four Loko is a line of alcoholic beverages sold by Phusion Projects of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Phusion operates as Drink Four Brewing Company. Four Loko, the company's most popular beverage, debuted in the United States market in 2005 and is available in 49 states, and in 21 countries including Puerto Rico, Chile, The Bahamas, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China and Europe. The name "Four" is derived from the original drink's content of four standard drinks.
Four branded products have been the object of legal, ethical, and health concerns related to the company allegedly marketing them to the underaged and the danger of combining alcohol and caffeine. After the beverage was banned in several states, a product reintroduction in December 2010 removed caffeine, taurine, and guarana as ingredients, and the malt beverage is no longer marketed as an energy drink.
Phusion Projects was founded in 2005 by Chris Hunter, Jaisen Freeman and Jeff Wright after graduating from Ohio State University. As students they had enjoyed caffeine mixed with alcohol, and recalled buying Thai energy drinks from a nearby Asian market to sell to other students at a markup, claiming that they were "importing the stuff from abroad". They would later describe themselves as "our own target market".
In 2005, the entrepreneurial team designed a prototype "energy beer" now known as Four Loko. Marketed as a "premium malt beverage" in cherry and berry flavors, the drink contained taurine, guarana, caffeine and wormwood, the supposed psychoactive ingredient of absinthe. After a year, the company was running low on investment and decided to drop the wormwood, focusing instead on improving the flavor and increasing the alcohol content.
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