Kansas City Food Blog

​Pick a synonym for "movement" and there's probably an energy drink or shot attached to it: Amp. Charge. Go Fast. Explosion. Even Steven Seagal has a Lightning Bolt energy drink (with the disquieting flavor of Asian Experience).

The energy drink market has blown up this decade, with sales increasing 240 percent between 2004 and 2009. Analysts have predicted it will be a $10 billion (that's billion) market by 2010. With that much money being poured into game fuel, companies are considering the product ingredients in light of both consumer questions and marketing possibilities.

According to findings from the research firm Mintel's Global New Products Database, taurine was present in 21 percent of energy drinks in 2008, a decrease from 27 percent in 2009. Taurine, a naturally occurring amino acid, has been a controversial ingredient in energy drinks because of concerns that it's bad for you.  
 
As long as you're looking at the ingredients on the side of the can, MLive recently offered a guide to picking a crash-free energy drink. The key appears to be avoiding those that are high in sugar and not considering energy drinks as a potential mixer with alcohol. These are stunning revelations.

In looking at additional trends that could impact the energy drink market, Mintel also identified a growing category -- fruit juice supercharged with natural enhancers. Mintel's new products expert Lynn Dornblaser believes it's a question of how the market will perceive something positioned as juice:

These new, natural energy-enhancing products could threaten to steal share from their less healthy counterparts. Often they are not sold in the energy drinks aisle, but in the juice or alternative beverage aisle, which may protect them from the unhealthy stigma some consumers associate with energy drinks.

If the new fruit juices can end Red Bull's animated advertisement campaign ("Red Bull Gives You Wings"), then bring on the energy juices.