Four Loko's Founders Discuss Their Energy Beer

The Fix:

Before it was banned nationwide, Four Loko, the wildly popular energy beer denounced by the White House as "liquid cocaine," was blamed for a surge in underage binge drinking, scores of date rapes, and a vicious gay bashing. Shocked by the criticism, the company's young founders dodged the press for almost a year. But last month The Fix convinced them to tell their story for the first time.

Read the whole story: The Fix

Comments

[Thaag Tidestalker]

07:18 AM on 04/26/2011

Is Four Loko the new Absinthe, then?

[thembaforum]

03:37 AM on 04/26/2011

These four gentlemen have collectively learnt more about business and "done" more "real commerce" than the nations 5 million MBA students all put together. Congratulations.

[Bike Commuter]

05:29 PM on 04/25/2011

GIobal warming. They forgot to add that Four Loko is responsible for gIobal warming.

[Bike Commuter]

05:37 PM on 04/25/2011

It's all about the bigger cans. The high aluminum content, along with the products of fermentation, are singlehandedly responsible for global warming. Just like Four Loko is responsible for alcoholpoisoning, and not the people where are drinking more alcohol than they should.

[Leninist]

05:24 PM on 04/25/2011

gee, maybe this drink is repsonisble for the economic disaster as well! Try to be abit reasonable huh?

[thembaforum]

03:39 AM on 04/26/2011

It is surely responsible for many undergrads taking the important step of signing up for more education, call it "buying education while influenced".

[kyeshinka]

05:08 PM on 04/25/2011

Four Loko is responsible for a gay bashing? I wonder how many gay bashings, date rapes, suicides, and vehicular homicides were the result of someone drinking a beer produced by more powerful conglomerates? Meanwhile, people go to jail for smoking pot which has yet to contribute to a tiny fraction of the problems I listed.

[justan olnamvet]

05:24 PM on 04/25/2011

And tobacco users are heavily taxed for not doing the things you listed. And the lost war on drugs continues to drain the treasury as the bodies continue to pile up.

[SportyJim]

05:06 PM on 04/25/2011

Isn't it really up to the consumers of this stuff to behave themselves? Are we really to the point where we have to protect us from the enemy ourselves? (was that a ST lyric?)

[Leninist]

05:24 PM on 04/25/2011

our entire drug policy has been like that for, well, foreever...

[Miss Peaches]

04:21 PM on 04/25/2011

I don't know what could be worse...the room is spinning...you want to pass out...but your wired on caffeine and can't...wooo whooooo....let's do it again next weekend

[Bumpier Shrimp]

04:02 PM on 04/25/2011

Where are the "Hands off my body!" signs?

[holierdandao]

03:22 PM on 04/25/2011

I think the company will be fine. I had only four loko once before they took the caffeine out. And I vowed to never have it again, until they removed the caffeine--I just didn't like the way my body reacted to the mix. However, now that they've removed the caffeine, I've actually drunk the beverage on several different occasions--very little difference between it and its predecessor.

[johnqpublik]

03:05 PM on 04/25/2011

Last I heard alcohol itself was responsible for a lot more deaths than Four Loko. We should probably ban that too.

Why weren't Red Bull and Vodka's banned as well? How about Irish Coffee?

[shthar]

02:29 PM on 04/25/2011

I hope they learned to market upscale not downscale.

[sho-nuff]

02:22 PM on 04/25/2011

It took the government all of 2 minutes to pull this but it's taking months to legislate pill mills in Florida the absolute worst in the nation....there is NOTHING I believe in less than the ability for this country to regulate what is truly ki//ing you....WS, Pharma, Republicans....

[Miss Peaches]

04:22 PM on 04/25/2011

You can keep waiting on the legislation of pill mills. The elected officials and their families are frequent users. They only regulate when it doesn't affect them personally.

[sho-nuff]

08:05 AM on 04/26/2011

good point...

[alteredstory]

02:18 PM on 04/25/2011

Yeah, no. It's about people being horrible, not about what they drink while they're doing it.

[Natems86]

02:01 PM on 04/25/2011

Yea blame the drink instead of the Rothlisberger drinking it

[Keyop]

01:57 PM on 04/25/2011

Four loko deserves shelf space if Grain alcohol Everclear can be sold. Save the drama for your mamas and let the mommy boys cry about 4 Loko.

[marianproletarian]

02:20 PM on 04/25/2011

Everclear is illegal in many places.