While it lasted, Four Loko’s run made it New York City’s go-to “blackout in a can.” This is the story of that run, as told by the people who lived it (at least, the parts that they remember)
Photo: The Wisest Wizards In 2010, Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” was the song of the summer, the iPhone 4 was cutting-edge smartphone technology, and oversized, camouflage-printed cans filled with hypercaffeinated super-booze were fueling New York’s party scene. Against all odds, that fluorescent drink — the notorious Four Loko — was completely legal and widely available, until it very quickly wasn’t.
Freeman: It was like cherry vodka. That’s what we were aiming at, though it didn’t come out that way. We had a close group of friends that were our quasi tasting panel/research group. It was really our friends and family that finally said, “This is kind of good, I might drink this, I might buy this.” And we’re like, okay, we finally got something that we think is palatable, and that we want to go to market with.
Freeman: One thing that most people don’t realize is every alcohol product is so highly regulated. First you have to get a federal approval, and then you got to get each state to approve it. We had gone through every single thing, and everyone was like, “Yeah, this is fine.” The government actually had a limit on the amount of caffeine you could have in the product. They gave us the red line. So we’re like, “Alright, so we’re good.
Josh Ostrovsky, a.k.a. The Fat Jew, Instagram personality and co-owner of Swish Beverages: I first heard about Four Loko because it was a great thing to drink if you were looking to make some memories and then immediately forget them. For me, growing up in New York in the 1990s, it was all about the 40-ounce, it was all about Mad Dog 20/20, it was all about Steel Reserve. And then, as we moved into the 2000s, the branding of Four Loko, I think, was just iconic. It popped.
Ryder Ripps, conceptual artist: It’s a good rooftop drink. Or, if you’re going to someone’s house party, instead of getting a tallboy, you got a Four Loko. The Fat Jew: I always felt like there was a Four Loko formula. One Four Loko meant you’d do something kind of stupid that was probably fixable in the morning. Two Four Lokos was a level that you chose to get on if you wanted to make some really questionable decisions.
In November, 2010, New York legislators — including Senator Chuck Schumer and Assemblyman Felix Ortiz — increased pressure to ban sales of Four Loko after a series of high-profile cases in which underage or young people were injured, including the death of an 18-year-old girl on Long Island and an incident during which 16 Ramapo College students were hospitalized in nearby New Jersey.
Rosen: Normally, somebody has a few beers, they get a little buzzed, they know they’re getting a little high, typically, and hopefully adjust their behavior accordingly. The problem here was because of the stimulants in the beverage, it would lessen the overt effects that people would notice happening to them.
Harris: Conference call, after conference call, after conference call, then individual calls and sidebar calls. Emailing back and forth, you know. It was like the end of session for me, but it was a November day, a 13-hour Saturday. Rosen: You know, the beer wholesalers and distributors were making good money selling this stuff, and I tried to impress upon them the reasons for my concern. Basically we reached a voluntary agreement where they agreed to stop buying the product immediately, and then I gave them some very limited period of time in which they could sell off the product that they had in their warehouses. That was my way of not clubbing them to death on this thing and adding to their pile.
Johnson*: I remember when it was changed, so there was no caffeine any more. My friends and I would be texting each other, “Oh, my God. There’s a few left at this deli on First Avenue, we have to go buy them.” Watts: The vigil was awesome. People, they had candles out, it was in Union Square, and they did Beatles cover songs about Four Loko.
Wright: We lost 80,000 points of distribution overnight. So in order to get that back, it’s difficult and it also takes time and a lot of energy and some of the retailers you need to, you know, make them comfortable with the changes that we made to the product.
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