history of energy drinks

History of Energy drinks

 

The First real energy drink was in Japan in the 1960’s which was called Lipvitan–D. IT contains vitamins such B1, B2 and B6 as a mix together. It also includes ingredients such as taurine which is quite common, it was first found in bulls as an amino acid, it is now naturally occurring in humans, it also includes niacin which is known as vitamin b3 and nicotinic acid. It has taurine and niacin in the energy drinks because it was proven to give an energy boost and helps people with their concentration.

The first actual subset of energy drinks was released in the early 1900’s which nurses used to give to patients when they lacked in energy, the drink they gave to their patients contained kola nuts which had a high dose of caffeine in them. They reckon this was the foreshadowing of energy drinks and soft drinks.

The First branded energy drink that was released in the United States was in 1949, Mark Schwartz was the manufacturer of this, and he produced a drink which contained a mixture of vitamin b, caffeine and sugar. As soon as it was released he was starting to make major money within a matter of months.

 

The first energy drink to be sold in Britain was in 1927, when they brought out lucozade. In 1927 it was originally called glucozade as it was made out of glucose syrup, glucose is a form of sugar. Until 1929 they changed the label to lucozade. Lucozade then was only for people who were ill and lacked in energy, in 1985 they realised that lucozade could be drank as an everyday bases even when you aren’t ill at all. Their original slogan was “lucozade aids recovery” in 1985 they changed their slogan to “lucozade replaces lost energy”. Also in 1985 they released energy tablets.

 

In 1982 Dietrich Mateschitz founded red bull, he was influenced by lucozade which was being sold outside of Asia. He also got influence when he was in an Mediterranean bar drinking tonic drinks (energy drinks) and decided to start marketing an energy drink but with different flavour. He included different ingredients such as, carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, sodium citrate, taurine, glucuronolactone, caffeine, inositol, niacin, D-pantothenol, pyridoxine HCL, vitamin B12 and artificial flavours. He then started marketing red bull and made very good money of it!

The Barr family has been making fizzy drinks in Scotland since 1880, but it was in 1901 they launched their mixed flavour drink called Iron-Brew. During World War 2, Iron-Brew was not recognised as a "standard drink" by the Government, so disappeared from the shelves of shops for the duration of the war.
But when the war ended, as unavailable products started to be reintroduced to shops, the Government brought in new food labelling regulations, and Iron-Brew which was not actually brewed had to change its name. It was the company Chairman that came up with the idea of using the phonetic spelling, which was duly registered as Barr's own trade name. So in 1946 Barr's Irn Bru went on to the shelves of shops all over Scotland. In 1959 the business started by Robert Barr was bought by his brother's company A.G.Barr & Co. Ltd. forming one large family business, which became a public company in 1965.

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