My name is Jeff and I'm a junkie. Self-admitted, self-proclaimed, and good, bad, or indifferent....un-ashamed. I used to do Mountain Dew, almost exclusively, until I jumped head first onto the energy drink bandwagon. Thanks to the energy drink craze, any backwall refridgerator of a gas station or convenient store is now a caffeine junkie's paradise. No more are we limited to Moutain Dew, coffee, or week substitutes as our source of go-go juice.
Highly caffeinated drinks have been out there for a while (Jolt, etc), but Red Bull was the first to go nuts with marketing and started the whole craze. I remember trying Red Bull when this whole thing first started. I couldn't (and still can't) stand that stuff!! Very simply put: It tastes nasty! One sip brings to mind every horrific, disgusting practical joke and retaliatory story you've ever heard about beverages....to keep things in good ~taste~....I'll just leave it at that.
Good thing is, many other companies jumped on the chance to start producing super-charged drinks and started improving and mixing things up a bit. Now there are all kinds of drinks and flavors out there to give you the extra boost you need or desire. Also, many energy drinks actually have a few "good" ingredients like Ginseng and Vitamin B. Since Caffeine does physically have addictive properties, I usually will do a caffeine fast once or twice a year to help myslef feel better about the whole thing. I'll admit I get a headache for the first few days, but that's what aspirin's for.
By nature, I'm an energetic person & I enjoy being that way. Unfortunately, I also require alot of rest to be myself and have a busy lifestyle that doesn't allow for as much rest as I probably need. This also probably explains why more than 1/2 American adults consume more than 300mg of Caffeine per day. I prefer an energy drink over coffee (especially in warmer times of the year), and again, at least the energy drinks contain some fairly healthy ingredients. (notice how I'm making myself feel better..again :)
Honestly, I don't limit myself to energy drinks exclusively - I like alot of soft drinks out there. Anyway, my personal favorites are AMP, Full Throttle, Vault, Mountain Dew, Cherry Coke, and of course, anything from Starbucks, especially frappuchinos! I just tried Coca-Cola's BLAK which is very interesting. It tastes like, and actually is, coffee and coke mixed together. It comes in 8oz bottles and can be found at Meijer in the coffee isle. I've had two bottles and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. There is now Tab Energy, which is in the pink bottle and has been marketed at the female consumer. It boasts 95mg of go-go-chem in a very small package. It will certainly keep you awake and feeling alive for a late-night project, social gathering, or exam-cram!
Anyway....I've spilled my beans. I've confessed! I've come out of the caffeine closet! I love caffeine and caffeine loves me!
I've included a couple of links. One that is a great chart showing caffeine content in almost every soft drink imaginable. The other is a link to an article on How Stuff Works.com explaining how Caffeine works. This article makes me want to consider stopping my caffeine craze.....ok....I've considered....now back down to the soda machine. Thanks for listening. I toast a Coca-Cola Blak to you!
-jeff
http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database/
http://home.howstuffworks.com/caffeine.htm
7 comments:
BLAK is new to me. i'm not a coffe drinker though so i probly wouldn't like it.
I'm a moderate caffeine addict, a couple cups of java in the morning to get me going. For a while I quit caffeine for a couple months. When I started drinking it again, I sure felt perky! Funny thing is, it's only like that at the beginning - now I just get moving, not so much perky. Maybe when I quit for a while instead I actually got enough sleep. If you have enough sleep AND drink caffeine, then boy am I perky! :)
That is awesome! I thought you wrote this post really cool! I also really liked the "How things work" website!
I must admit, for a while I was really getting addicted to Starbuck's Frappachino's-Mocha!
Also with the link, I could check out how to change brake pads for Anna's car.
I have never noticed any difference in me when I drink caffeine. If anything, it puts me to sleep. Honest. If I drink a lot of coffee I get sleepy.
i really don't notice much of a difference either. I think that my brain probly produces so much dopamine on its own that i don't really need a whole lot to perk me, exept maybe chocolate.
i actually prefer aromatherapy for perking.
Dude, where's your chatterbox?
It's down there where it usually is, at least on my computer. I'm not really suprised it didn't show up on yours, Blogger seems to be really slow lately, and didn't load a couple the photos on my page earlier for me.
I am thinking about moving my chatterbox closer to the top, though.
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