[3] Four branded products have been the object of legal, ethical, and health concerns related to the company allegedly marketing them to underage drinkers and the danger of combining alcohol and caffeine.
[4][5] Phusion Projects was founded in 2005 by Chris Hunter, Jaisen Freeman and Jeff Wright after graduating from Ohio State University.
[6] They had enjoyed caffeine mixed with alcohol, and recalled buying Thai energy drinks from a nearby Asian market to sell to other students at a markup, claiming that they were "importing the stuff from abroad".
Marketed as a "premium malt beverage" in cherry and berry flavors, the drink contained taurine, guarana, caffeine and wormwood—the supposed psychoactive ingredient of absinthe.
[6] After a year, the company was running low on investment capital and decided to drop the wormwood, focusing instead on improving the flavor and increasing the alcohol content.
Flavors included: Bottles came in packs of six and in September 2011, Phusion introduced 16 oz (475 mL) cans of their drink in hi-cone four packs known as Four Poco Loko, with 8% ABV and included flavors: Original formulations of both beverages were a malt liquor based, caffeinated alcoholic energy drink with added guarana and taurine.
[citation needed] On November 16, 2010, Phusion Projects issued a press release announcing that the company would be reformulating all Four brand beverages to remove caffeine, guarana, and taurine from the products.
[12] Flavors include: In 2009, a group of U.S. state attorneys general began investigations of companies that produced and sold caffeinated alcohol beverages on the grounds that they were being inappropriately marketed to a teenage audience and that they had possible health risks (blackouts).
[16] In October 2010, following the hospitalization of seventeen students and six visitors, Ramapo College of New Jersey banned the possession and consumption of Four Loko on its campus.
[17] As a result, Worcester State University stopped the sale of all energy drinks and they, as well as Boston College, informed their students of the risks involved in consuming Four Loko.
[24][25] On November 20, 2010, Oregon Liquor Control Commission's five citizen commissioners held an emergency meeting resulting in a 4-1 vote on the ban.
[29][30] Additionally, the Washington State Liquor Control Board voted to ban the sale of alcoholic energy drinks, which went into effect on November 18, 2010.
[33] It declared that beverages that combine caffeine with alcohol, such as Four Loko energy drinks, were a "public health concern" and could not stay on the market in their current form.
[34][35] The FDA also stated that concerns had been raised that caffeine can mask some of the sensory cues individuals might normally rely on to determine their level of intoxication.
The four companies that received the warning letter were: Since weeks before the FDA ruling, many drinkers and people seeking financial gain purchased large quantities of the drink,[36] which created a black market, with many sellers charging nearly five times the normal retail price.