We’ve shown you some crazy things on this blog come out of snack and drink vending machines. We’ve shown you drink vending machines that distribute entire bottles of wine. We’ve shown you snack vending machines that distribute different kinds of baby carrots. We’ve shown vending machines that provide camera film, roses, umbrellas, and even fast food.
But no vending machine in the world distributes something as scary and shocking as Four Loko.
An alcoholic energy drink, Four Loko is packaged in 23.5 oz. cans and has 12% ABV, making it closer to a bottle of wine than a can of beer when it comes to its alcohol content and ABV.
The name includes the number “four,” because the drink originally had four main ingredients: Alcohol, Caffeine, Taurine, and Guarana, but it also contains (wait for it!) carbonated water, sugar, and artificial flavoring.
The danger in Four Loko is from the combination of alcohol and caffeine, as the effects of drinking caffeine often mask the effects of drinking alcohol. It has been banned at several colleges and Universities, including Central Washington University, where the drink was directly blamed for the hospitalizing of nine students.
It is not sold in four separate American states, and several members of the European Union have already banned its importation. And according to my nephew, a sophomore at Tulane University in New Orleans, it tastes terrible.