What Happened to Four Loko (Original Caffeinated Formula)? ⚠️ Scandal

Four Loko started not in a boardroom but in a fraternity basement. Chris Hunter, Jaisen Freeman, and Jeff Wright were Kappa Sigma members at Ohio State who used to buy Thai energy drinks from a nearby Asian market and resell them to fellow students at a markup, telling people they were importing them from abroad. When they graduated in 2005 they turned that same idea into a company. They later said they were their own target market, which in hindsight explains a lot.

The original Four was a small 12-ounce can with 6% ABV that barely moved off shelves. In 2008 the founders made a bigger bet: a 23.5-ounce can, 12% alcohol, the now-famous camouflage print design, and a price of around two dollars and fifty cents. That version became Four Loko. A single can held as much alcohol as 4.5 standard beers — a figure the FTC later required Phusion to print directly on the label after a 2011 settlement over deceptive packaging. The can also contained 156mg of caffeine, close to a strong cup of coffee. The combination was the problem. Caffeine does not lower your blood alcohol level but it does reduce how drunk you feel, so people kept drinking well past the point where their body would normally tell them to stop.

The drink also had an early ingredient that most people forget about. The original formula included wormwood extract, the same botanical used in absinthe. It was dropped in 2008 partly because it tasted bad. When wormwood left the recipe, alcohol became the fourth core ingredient, which is why the name Four Loko stuck.

The name itself came from the four main ingredients and what the founders described as a crazy blend of flavors. The word Loko is Spanish slang for crazy. The camouflage can design was introduced in 2008 alongside the reformulation and became one of the most recognizable pieces of packaging in convenience store history, which is not a compliment the brand probably deserved.

By 2010 the brand was making roughly 60 million cans a year and generating an estimated 150 million dollars in revenue. That growth brought the scrutiny that would end the original formula. In September 2010, 23 students were hospitalized at Ramapo College in New Jersey after drinking Four Loko. Then on October 9, 2010, nine freshmen at Central Washington University ended up in hospitals in Ellensburg and Yakima after a party in Roslyn, Washington. Their blood alcohol levels ranged from 0.12 to 0.35. A level of 0.30 is considered potentially fatal. One female student nearly died. Police initially suspected date rape drugs because the scale of impairment seemed impossible from alcohol alone. Toxicology later showed no drugs, only alcohol.

Washington State moved to ban Four Loko shortly after. Michigan, Utah, and Oklahoma followed. On November 16, 2010, Phusion Projects announced it would remove all stimulants from the recipe. The FDA issued formal warning letters the next day, declaring that added caffeine in alcoholic beverages was an unsafe food additive under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Three other companies received the same letters: Charge Beverages, New Century Brewing, and United Brands.

What happened to the remaining stock is one of the stranger parts of the story. Rather than destroying it, wholesalers shipped millions of cases to MXI Environmental Services in Abingdon, Virginia, one of only three facilities in the country equipped to convert products with extractable alcohol into ethanol fuel. Hundreds of trucks arrived carrying 2,000 cases each. MXI was processing four truckloads a day at full capacity. The alcohol was distilled out and sold to be blended into gasoline. The aluminum cans were recycled separately. MXI estimated the entire cycle took about 30 days before a Four Loko can returned to circulation as a different beer can.

At the same time a black market formed for the original formula. NBC New York reported in January 2011 that original Four Loko was one of the hottest products on Craigslist. Reporters bought a case of 12 cans for 80 dollars, nearly three times the retail price. Sellers described the cans as collectibles not intended for drinking.

The reformulated version launched in January 2011 without caffeine, taurine, or guarana. In 2011 the FTC reached a settlement with Phusion requiring the label to state the exact beer equivalent on every can. The brand kept going and in ways nobody expected. In 2021 Phusion launched Four Loko Records, a music label. The company has also run campaigns promoting STD testing. Four Loko still sells today across 49 states and 21 countries, at alcohol levels ranging from 6% to 14% depending on where you buy it. The caffeinated version that caused a federal regulatory crisis lasted roughly two years on shelves. The company it launched is still running.