It's equivalent to 'bum wines' in the US. Huge market would be teenagers and problem drinkers. They absolutely drink it in a single serving, it's an incredibly cost effective, high sugar way to get out of your mind. We certainly employed its dubious abilities in my teens.
In college we used to mix Sparks or Four Loco with Vodka -- "maniac juice".
Nothing good ever came of it. Redbull mixed with anything e.g. Jager, was also known to lead to terrible things. Sort of an entry level cocaine and scotch.
It is a bit funny that Four Loko got this reputation, when alcohol+caffeine have been helping people make bad decisions faster for ages (it isn’t like the FDA is gonna somehow ban rum and coke).
Because there's practically no caffeine in a rum and coke.
Very fuzzy napkin-math incoming: if you were to consume an equivalent amount of caffeine as a Four Loko via rum-and-cokes, you've now had about 50oz of rum. The caffeine would, uh, not be the problem.
Edit: Hm, though maybe this says more about my "rum, wave a Coke over it" preferences.
Haha, that could be it. I guess it is a mixed drink anyway so you could do whatever, but coke has a pretty overpowering taste, so if you want to taste the rum, you’d have to go pretty strong I guess.
Fair, another comment mentioned Red Bull and Vodka which would probably have been a better example, but I suspect that’s more a case of “we’d ban it if we could.”
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen or heard about rum and coke resulting in the same effects as four loko or vodka Red Bull. Could be the formula, could be the intent of the drinkers. I don’t think it’s a cognitive bias, but there is a rowdiness at a party with a keg and then there is a different level at a party with 40s.
I truly think it ought to be taxed heavily to repay the costs that society bares for it's existence.