Coca-Cola | Caffeine and You

Guarana Soda: Brazil’s National Buzz

May 17, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

The caipirinha may be Brazil’s national cocktail, but Brazil’s national drink is a carbonated, caffeinated quencher known as guarana soda.

Brazil’s guarana soda industry dates back to 1907, and today is Coca-Cola’s fiercest competitor. Guarana Antarctica is the leading big-name brand, but collectively hundreds of smaller brands, many regionally made, make up more than 50 percent of Brazil’s soft drink market.

The guarana plant itself is more than just a caffeine buzz. It’s a symbol of Brazilian history and pride. It’s also an economic boost, since guarana production helps supply the worldwide energy drink industry with caffeine, which in this case is known as guaranine.

So where does guaranine come from? The substance hails from the seeds of the guarana plant, hence the name. Native to the Amazon basin, guarana vines bear clumps of grape-size, Christmas-red berries and can climb as tall as 35 to 40 feet. When the three-sided guarana fruits ripen, the capsule splits to reveal a black seed poking out of a white aril – they look like arm-length clusters of Muppet eyes. (Native legends say that the first guarana plant sprouted from the eye of an infant god.) Essentially, the seeds are dried, ground, and brewed into tea or processed as an extract.

But how the Amazon tribes cultivate, process and use guarana is far more interesting, as my post on The Children of Guarana explains.

Pop Goes Guarana: Antarctica Competes with Jesus

Commercially grown guarana may not meet the tribal natives’ gold-standard of quality, but it still packs a power punch. Throughout South America, it’s made into guarana-based sodas that tingle the taste buds with their spicy, berry-like flavors. Variations now inundate the North American market. You’ll find guarana in Bawls, Monster, Rockstar, Full Throttle, and other energy drinks, and in many energy shots.

To taste a South American brand, try Brazil’s Guarana Antarctica (find it in Latin markets and online). It was created in 1921, and the canned soft drink has been zipping around the world ever since. It’s Brazil’s most popular soda, after Coca-Cola. (It tastes a bit like ginger ale, if slurped while chewing Double-Bubble gum.)

And speaking of Coca-Cola: The global beverage giant now bottles its own pink, bubbly, bubble-gum-tasting soda known as Guarana Jesus – which is not some weird holy drink, but rather it’s named after its inventor, Jesus Norberto Gomes (a pharmacist who created it in 1920).

The original company was sold to Coca-Cola, which originally sold it in only in its birthplace, the Maranhao state in northeastern Brazil, but now has expanded. Ironically, Jesus (the drink creator, not the Creator) was an atheist and excommunicated by the Catholic Church for assaulting a priest. Humorous ad slogans make the most of the brand identity and have kept the heretical tone alive:

“Abençoe sua sede!” (Bless your thirst!)

“Fé no estômago” (Faith in your stomach)

“Guarana Jesus, porque nem só de pão vive o Homem”

(Guarana Jesus – because man does not live by bread alone)

For more about guarana, check out the Guarana Profile in Caffeine Basics.

An Army Marches on Caffeine

January 4, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Say ciao to regular chow. MREs now buzz with caffeine-enhanced foods.

Soldiers are getting a new arsenal of powerful weapons, but these are the kind you eat. Beef jerky, chocolate pudding, gum, mints, juices – all caffeine-enhanced – are now standard weapons to fight soldier fatigue and enhance alertness. The U.S. Department of Defense and military divisions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are jointly researching – and recommending – the use of caffeine on the battlefield.

Caffeine and Ammo

The Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) has one mission: “to maximize the Warrior’s survivability, sustainability, mobility, combat effectiveness and quality of life by treating the Soldier as a System.” The Massachusetts facility features a biolab, parachute drop tower, wind tunnel, mist chamber – and test kitchens, where caffeine is a prime ingredient.

Caffeine, they say, improves cognitive performance for both battlefield and office soldiers alike.

A typical meal-ready-to-eat (MRE) may contain such caffeinated items as mints, gum, cranberry drinks, maple syrup, and beef jerky – nutritious, delicious caffeine you can sink your teeth into. U2 pilots and battlefield soldiers squeeze caffeinated chocolate pudding from a tube – which tastes better than eating freeze-dried coffee straight from the jar (a practice in earlier wars).

Tea, Kola, and Coke

Caffeine has long been part of a soldier’s toolkit. In 1942, Winston Churchill asserted that tea was more important to his soldiers than ammunition. At the same time, the German war office ordered thirty tons of kola nuts, long used by African warriors for kola’s “courage-producing” capabilities. Coca-Cola has always given American soldiers a physical and psychological boost, especially during WWII. In Vietnam, soldiers literally ate instant coffee to stay awake.

Today, American soldiers say they get their biggest jolt from 5-Hour Energy Shots, which aren’t included in the MREs. They buy them on their own, by the case. Most of the younger soldiers drank energy drinks and shots in civilian life, and take their buzz seriously. Many combine energy drinks with alcohol, a dangerous practice that the military actively battles against.

In Air or on Land: Gum to Go

Stay Alert caffeinated gum was initially a joint project by Walter Reed Army researchers and Wrigley’s Gum. After the gum’s success with American troops, Israeli’s elite pilots and special operation forces added it to their supply arsenal in 2011. The pilots were skeptical at first, but after getting past the taste, they now carry caffeinated gum on all missions lasting more than 48 hours.

Less Perky Jerky

The amount of caffeine the military uses in its jerky remains classified. But civilians and veterans with a craving for caffeinated jerky can get their fix from Perky Jerky, available online and in stores. Today’s Perky Jerky is not as perky as the original version, which the makers claimed was the same as “two cans of Red Bull.” Perky Jerky toned down its caffeine content after the FDA noticed the caffeine, 150 mg per serving, exceeded the allowable limit for a food additive. Perky Jerky still gets a decent boost from guarana, but the makers say the new dosage is comparable to that of a Diet Coke (which is 45 mg).

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents

Flavor-Enhancer Myth: Colas Get a Pass

January 5, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Coke claimed caffeine was a flavor enhancer

The FDA almost banned caffeinated soft drinks in 1980. But Coca-Cola and its rivals successfully argued that caffeine was merely a flavor enhancer – not a drug. The FDA agreed to allow caffeine in soft-drinks if it didn’t exceed .02 percent, or 71 mg per 12 fluid ounces. In addition, caffeine was not required to be listed as an ingredient.

But does caffeine really enhance the flavor of soft drinks?

In 2011, researchers suspected that caffeine was being added to beverages for other reasons. “The majority of people cannot taste the difference between caffeinated and non-caffeinated soda,” said the author of the study, Dr. Jennifer Temple. The team tested whether over time, teens would prefer caffeinated beverages over comparable non-caffeinated ones.

Teens repeatedly sampled various unfamiliar soda drinks and rated their likings of each. The sodas contained different amounts of caffeine. Over time, participants increased their liking of soda with the highest caffeine levels. But there was no change in preference for soda with low or no caffeine. Plus, the amount of caffeine made a difference: the more caffeine a soda contained, the more teens liked the beverage. Dr. Temple concluded that caffeine in sugary carbonated beverages teaches adolescents to prefer those beverages.

So caffeine may be the secret ingredient that brings people back to a product – again and again and again – but not because it enhances flavor, as soda companies claim.

This raises the question of whether caffeine is addictive, or at the very least, habit-forming – a topic to come in Chapter 8: Your Pattern: Habit, Safety, and Addiction.

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents