[alexjplant]

It's cultural.

Rave kids who listen to melodic dubstep drink Ghost because they like everything brightly-colored and artificial. Good ole' boys blowing stuff up in the woods drink Bucked Up or Rip It because they work hard and want something grab-and-go from Wal-Mart. Gamers love Bawls (or whatever the equivalent is now) because it tastes refreshing and keeps them up all night at LAN parties.

Coffee is for sophisticates who do yoga and listen to NPR and pay taxes and have jobs. It's unprocessed (drying, roasting, and fermenting be damned) whereas energy drinks are made in a factory. How would you rather imbibe your psychoactive insecticide: the natural way? Or the ARTIFICIAL way?!

Side note (as a guy with single origin beans in his freezer and an Aeropress): AMP Energy slapped and they should bring it back.

[throw2ih020]

This comment feels like reading a forum in the mid-2000s, haha.

The Rip It people are usually vets - Rip Its were the only ones you could get reliably while deployed in the ME.

I don't know anyone who actually drinks Bawls - most of my gamer and IT friends do Monster Zero and Monster Ultra. You can get them basically everywhere and the fruity ones actually taste pretty good.

LAN parties haven't really been a huge thing in a long time, sadly, outside of convention-style events.

[opan]

Cherry AMP was great until they started putting sucralose in it. It was close to how Mtn Dew Game Fuel used to taste before they... started putting sucralose in that.

[crysin]

The original AMP is still around! At least in the US midwest.