Hacker fuel (can't live without it)

It's not your "old" age. I'm 23 and I absolutely agree. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=55250

It is probably the taste of Taurine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurine).

Taurine was originally extracted from bull's balls and hence when you drink a RedBull, you are giving a bull a ... lets say, doing a bull a favor :-)

(Taurine is not extracted from bull semen nowadays, of course ( probably coz this is not scalable :-p ) and it is claimed that the whole Tauine-Bull thing is a myth... but myths are fun to propagate)

http://www.google.com/search?q=taurine+semen

Hm. Didn't know it struck anyone else the same way. What my father does is fills one of those giant AMPM Big Gulps (or what the fuck ever they're calling them) with a mix of all the different energy drinks they have. Guess what that giant plastic mug always smells like to me? Bad bubble gum.

Try the Rockstar Juiced series. They're 50-70% fruit juice and don't taste like bubble gum. My only concern is that they contain sucralose, a substance I generally avoid.

Most energy drinks contain high doses of B vitamins. B vitamin deficiency causes fatigue, weakness, and depression. I'm not sure if mild B vitamin deficiency is common or if very high doses do the opposite, but I've noticed a bigger mental boost from some energy drinks than from a similar amount of caffeine without the vitamins.

Taurine a stimulant? I thought that's a relaxing aminoacid they put there so you won't get too nervous with all that caffeine.

As a recovered Mountain Dew head, I agree. The sugar in Mountain Dew is the worst of it. I used to require five or so Mountain Dews every day. When I slowly stopped drinking it (I switched completely to coffee to avoid caffeine withdraw) I stopped getting really hyper then crashing five times a day. My concentration is much better without Mountain Dew. It took me about five weeks to switch (one less can per week).

Not too long afterward I got my caffeine intake down to whatever is in two to four cups (or shots of espresso) of coffee a day, where it's been ever since.

Now, a few years later, I'm in the process of limiting myself to two cups (or shots of espresso) a day. I'm down to three, but it's fairly difficult to go lower -- which sucks.

Don't drink all this shit! Drink water and sleep when you're tired; maybe have a cup of coffee a day. Your concentration will be much better. There's natural variance in energy levels throughout the day. Stimulants just make the highs higher and the low lower -- but they also make the highs shorter and the lows longer. Check up and really pay attention to yourself through the day -- you'll likely want to reclaim your energy back from all these supposed "energy drinks" and other garbage.

It's not even worse than any other carbonated soda. I would say it is marginally better, because it has fruit juice in it! I'm not joking, look at the label.

Probably true, but it tastes a lot better than redbull.

Jasmine tea is delicious. You should try brewing it from real jasmine tea pearls (a small ball of green tea with a jasmine flower hand-wrapped around it). Most (all?) of the bagged jasmine tea is basic green tea with jasmine flavoring added.