Kansas City Food Blog

​If it seems like energy drinks have taken over the world, that's because they have. But one place where the growth of energy drinks has stalled is Thailand. Now a study from market research firm Zeneath suggests that might be the reason for an international energy-drink slowdown.

Energy drink sales in Thailand declined 41 percent in 2008 as a sluggish economy impacted truck drivers -- the country's largest consumers of energy beverages. And although this feels a bit like chaos theory, wherein a specific group of employees in one country could dramatically alter the sales of a product category -- it may be a sign of how interconnected the economy is becoming. 

Zenith estimates that the drink volume grew by two percent internationally in 2008, compared to 14 percent annually in the five previous years. And considering there was still strong growth in a number of regions -- specifically Eastern Europe and North America -- the precipitous decline in Thailand would appear to have dragged down the aggregate total.

The other surprising figure from the Zenith study is that 3.9 billion liters were sold in 2008 -- that's 131,874,689,700 ounces of energy drink. That is one tremendous World of Warcraft session for the entire planet.   

The United States is the largest consumer of energy drinks per capita at 4.2 liters (about 139 ounces) per person annually. That's more than 16 Red Bulls for each of us (each can of Red Bull has 8.3 ounces). No wonder everybody is so antsy these days.

[Image via Flickr: icatus]