Coffee-kick added to beer
2005-02-02 10:49
St Louis - Couch potatoes across the United States no longer need two mugs for their daily competing brews of coffee and beer, following the launch by a big brewery of a new beer infused with caffeine.
Anheuser-Busch said market tests of its new concoction in clubs and bars, which are recommended to serve the beverage cold, like a cocktail, had been a success prior to launch.
The brewer said it is targeting young drinkers of mixed drinks "who have many choices in today's competitive market" according to Dawn Roepke, Anheuser-Busch's manager of new products.
Mixing alcohol and caffeine is not entirely new in the US market, where the mix of energy drinks like Red Bull with vodka or whiskey - itself a drinking concept long popular in Thailand and other Asian countries - has spread through nightclubs for several years.
One 296mm-can of the new "B to the E" beer, or B-E for short, delivers 54mg of caffeine, about half the normal amount for a cup of coffee.
The new brew is also spiced with guarana, an Amazonian herb, ginseng, blackberry, raspberry and cherry offering "a great mixture of beer and new flavours for adults to enjoy", the company said.
Despite a well-recognised appreciation for both beer and coffee, some US reviewers remain to be convinced by the new product.
Comparing it to a competing alcohol-caffeine drink, "Sparks", that hit the market last year, a Washington Post reviewer said that B-E at least "does not taste like cough syrup. It doesn't taste much like beer, either."
Based in Saint Louis, Missouri, Anheuser-Busch is best known for Budweiser, the biggest-selling beer in the world, as well as Busch and Michelob.