CCR Day??

[matt t.]

They changed the formula, at the request of the FDA, to help kill the buzz.  Todd is a prime example of why caffeine is no longer an ingredient in Sparks.
I still have a few cans of the good stuff.
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It actually wasn't done at the request of the FDA, but rather because Miller voluntarily bowed to pressure from the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a bunch of state Attorneys General who were suing to have it discontinued.  The agreement was that they would remove the caffeine, ginseng, taurine, and several other ingredients, get rid of the "+" and "-" markings on the can, cease the "Sparks powers your night" and "Sparks give you the energy to..." marketing campaigns or anything that might imply that Sparks gave you energy, as well as their website and all ads showing people with orange tongues (evidently they were designed to appeal to young people).  I haven't seen anyone buy it since this all happened, except for a few people who didn't know and wondered why it didn't have the kick it used to.  The folks who sold McKenzie Brewing Company to Miller for $215M only a few years earlier must be laughing all the way to the bank. 

There were some questions as to whether  beverages that combine caffeine and alcohol were approved, as the Treasury Department (the group responsible for regulating alcohol) only permits "ingredients generally recognized as safe" by the FDA to be included in alcoholic beverages, and the FDA doesn't recognize caffeine or guarana as safe except in a narrow range of beverages, and as far as I can tell doesn't recognize ginseng or taurine (as an additive) as safe at all for human consumption.  But the issue was pretty vague and who knows how it would've turned out?

The week they discontinued it, I bought out the entire stock at Woodmans (large grocery store in Madison).  I've got an 18 gallon plastic bin entirely full of them in my basement that I'm saving for a special occasion.

Ethan
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When's the party I'm in. I'd like to try one some day  ;D.