this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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Kinda dumb question but I figured it fits the sub lol

so these boxes are at my work and they're a syrupy hyper sweet mixture that when combined with carbonated water make soda and it got me thinking:

why don't they sell ones for like Monster energy?

is it because of the costs, or kids accessing it, or some law?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Didn't Panera kill someone with one of those?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As much as i do consume energy drinks with a meal i do think we shouldn’t normalize it to much.

Also in a “restaurant” the strong flavor can be said to ruin the taste of the food. Though of course in practice we aren't going to these placed for fine dinning and often precisely to get a chemical fix the places themselves still like to uphold some perception of being cullinary.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

There's no technical reason why you couldn't. It's probably just some stupid marketing reason like:

  • A. Monster doesn't want to sell its concentrate this way.
  • B. They do, but not at a price that would justify including it as an option among other common self serve beverages.
  • C. Stores don't want to offer unlimited access to dangerously high levels of caffeine after a Panera customer with a pre-existing heart condition drank about a gallon of caffeinated lemonade and then dropped dead in the dining room.
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Not on the same scale obviously, but this exists.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Don't know about where you live, but in the EU, there's a hard upper limit on the caffeine concentration in drinks you can legally sell.
Any syrup designed to be watered down before you drink it would be above the limit and therefore illegal.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I haven’t done the math but I can’t imagine that’s the case or most sodas would also be illegal in their concentrated form.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Probably liability and insurance.

What do you think would happen if you offered huge drinks, unlimited amounts or large capacity drinks of caffeinated, or energy supplements in a machine. What do you think a bored teenager with a bunch of his friends on a Friday night would do? They'd try to drink five gallons of Monster Energy just to see what would happen.

Someone would suffer a heart attack or some medical emergency and lawyers would have a field day milking concerned parents and restaurants with access to millions in insurance.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

@TriflingToad I’d like one for scotch… or just straight-up everclear. <sob>

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Didn't they do that at Panera Bread and a few people died?

[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Panera bread basically did and a few people died, so that probably didn't help.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I miss the old Panera, with the Lemonade That Kills You™

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Costs. These types of machines are generally free refills. You take a 32oz coke, and say actual cost to the store for you getting that coke is about 15 cents. You paid $2.30. Most people get 1 refill. But even if you get multiple, they still make profit.

I don't know wholesale costs of monster, but I know a 20oz bottle in stores here costs about $2. While a 24oz can of monster costs about $9.

It wouldn't surprise me if a 32oz fountain of monster cost the store like $0.70 wholesale. So there's no way they could make profit if people got multiple refills.

Plus, if you try to sell the monster at a higher cost than coke, what would stop someone from dumping the coke, and refilling with monster? Paying the lower innitial price, and now getting refills.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There at least used to be, and I got royally screwed by it.

The employee hooked the wrong "orange" syrup up to the dispenser, and what I thought was 32oz of Orange Crush (caffeine free) was 32oz of some Orange energy drink. Needless to say, I was up all night and ended up having to call off work the next day because I was so exhausted and useless (I'm very sensitive to caffeine).

Probably also less common due to liability. Panera got into hot water with their highly caffeinated lemonade.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If I were to guess... it's probably because the chemical makeup of energy drinks would damage the machine? Maybe it's more acidic or something?

TBH I am 100% guessing here, talking out my ass, having done ZERO research on the topic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Those machines are usually all plastic, acid doesn't hurt them. And a lot of the acidity in energy drinks comes from the carbonic acid in the carbonated water and the citric acid that's added. But those are present in a lot of sodas as well. They all have the carbonated water and a lot of them have citric acid as well. Something like Fanta is probably more acidic than most energy drinks.

The whole energy drinks are super bad because they are so acidic is mostly nonsense. The same was said about coke as far back as I can remember (and I'm an old man). Sure it's very acidic, but lots of things we eat and drink are acidic, that's something most of us can handle just fine. A lot of people think orange juice is a healthy drink, but it's usually more acidic than soda and unless you squeeze the fruit yourself usually contains just as much if not more sugar.

Not to say energy drinks are good for you, the combination of sugar and stimulants such as caffeine and taurine is most definitely not good. But the same can be said of many things we consume. Our bodies like a lot of the things that aren't exactly good for you. I've seen old folk complain about young folk drinking energy drink, whilst they themselves are drinking coffee with two sugars. When consumed in moderation energy drinks are totally fine.

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