Four Loko, for people who take drinking seriously
Four Loko joins this warped tradition. And what I quickly came to see was that if you set out to engineer a booze delivery system that is as cloying, deceptive and divorced from the usual smells, tastes and presentation of alcohol as possible, you'd be hard pressed to come up with something more impressive than Four Loko.
It's a malt liquor in confectionary drag, not only raising questions about the marketing strategy behind it but also serving as the clearest possible reminder that many drinkers aren't seeking any particular culinary or aesthetic enjoyment. They're taking a drug. The more festively it's dressed and the more vacuously it goes down, the better.
Four Loko cans -- I paid $3.50 apiece for mine -- are something to see, each sporting a few ultrabright, childlike hues in a kind of rippling weave that evokes a camouflage pattern. Fatigues like these are what an army of Teletubbies would wear into battle.
This obsession with vivid colors extends to the beverage itself. The watermelon-flavored Four Loko, for example, is a shade of rosy pink that put me in mind of sherbet. Or bridesmaid dresses.
In Scotland over the last few years, a mass-market, caffeine-spiked sweet wine labeled Buckfast Tonic Wine has provoked public worries similar to those surrounding Four Loko. Government and law enforcement officials there have noted that Buckfast Tonic Wine consumption is common among young people who commit crimes while drunk.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Caffeine and Alcohol: Wham! Bam! Boozled.
By FRANK BRUNI
Published: October 30, 2010
Drinking the undrinkable, or how I tested Four Loko, the risky, trendy, double punch of caffeinated alcohol in sugary drag.