Kids Go Crazy for Caffeine Pouches

Sunday, May 31, 2026

The pouches - flavored Blue Raspberry and Fruit Punch - weren't nicotine. The event is hosted by Wip, a start-up behind flavored "energy pouches." The products are part of a fast-growing category of caffeine pouches marketed as a trendier, cheaper and more discreet alternative to coffee, energy drinks and pre-workout powders. In recent months the pouches, which have circulated in social media mentions for some time, have been popping up more frequently in the wellness sphere and in social settings. Though many brands, including Wip, say these products are intended only for adults, experts who study adolescent behavior have noted that as more young adults talk about these pouches on and offline, they're entering the teenage lexicon as well.

Posted by retort at 01:39 PM | 17 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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This is nothing new. Does anyone remember Surge and Jolt Cola? One of their slogans 'Twice the sugar, three times the caffeine!'

#1 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-05-31 01:51 PM | Reply

If you're of Vietnam War era vintage, you likely remember the Dow Chemical commercials, from the producers of Agent Orange:

Without chemicals, life itself would be impossible.

#2 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-05-31 02:08 PM | Reply

This country has an unhealthy relationship with stimulants.

#3 | Posted by morris at 2026-05-31 02:12 PM | Reply

Wasn't there a caffeine water? Water Joe? Always wanted to make coffee with that...

#4 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-05-31 02:17 PM | Reply

This is nothing new. Does anyone remember Surge and Jolt Cola? One of their slogans 'Twice the sugar, three times the caffeine!'
#1 | Posted by sentinel

I do not remember Surge and Jolt Cola in pouch form.

#5 | Posted by rstybeach11 at 2026-05-31 05:21 PM | Reply

Big League Chew was in pouch form, though. And you could get both candy cigarettes and real cigarettes from vending machines.

#6 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-05-31 06:05 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

#6 | Posted by sentinel

What does that have to do with caffeine?

#7 | Posted by rstybeach11 at 2026-05-31 06:13 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Nothing.
As usual.

#8 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-05-31 10:04 PM | Reply

Is the topic of this thread specifically and solely about caffeine pouches, or kids being marketed to with unhealthy products in general? Don't be obtuse.

#9 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-06-01 12:13 AM | Reply

They still sell tobacco...and it is a poison that kills many millions of Americans, and all those young people will quite possibly be addicted to nicotine and die ten years early from tobacco related deaths, as did my father and both grandmothers. Start 'em on sugar and then caffeine and then tobacco and then expensive drugs from their physician.

#10 | Posted by Hughmass at 2026-06-01 07:21 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Is the topic of this thread specifically and solely about caffeine pouches, or kids being marketed to with unhealthy products in general? Don't be obtuse.

#9 | Posted by sentinel

The answer is a.

Everything else is commentary. Or derailing the thread. Happens a few dozen times a day here. For example,

Fun fact: Back in the day, one would see a greater incidence of tobacco billboards when driving closer to elementary schools. As you extended the concentric circles outward, the numbers would be less.

Makes a better argument than chewing gum, for god's sake, that was really a tobaccoesque substitute and probably partially funded by Big Tobacco.

Fun fact #2. One of the greatest antiauthoritarian books of all time, Ball Four, came from the same source as Big League Chew: Jim Bouton.

#11 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-06-01 10:28 AM | Reply

#11- you're just being pedantic and not arguing in good faith, IMO.

#12 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-06-01 12:49 PM | Reply

12. I'm serious. Most threads assume such a broad focus that they end up being about Trump, other Retorters, trans issues, God or Not, or socialism or capitalism. Maybe that's what everything boils down to (except for the trans issues).

Sticking to the topic mostly happens on science threads, because the true Know-Nothings (I am one) stay away from getting involved. But they are interesting to read.

#13 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-06-01 01:12 PM | Reply

#13- the article (and the summary of it at the top of this thread) specifically mentions the parallel of nicotine, so it's not solely about "pouches" or "caffeine" as you were implying. I get your point about how threads are often derailed by topic drift, but you were being hyper-anal in this case.

#14 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-06-01 01:29 PM | Reply

"They still sell tobacco...and it is a poison that kills many millions of Americans, and all those young people will quite possibly be addicted to nicotine and die ten years early from tobacco related deaths, as did my father and both grandmothers. Start 'em on sugar and then caffeine and then tobacco and then expensive drugs from their physician."

Yup. It's a systemic cycle. If it's not one thing, it will be another human addiction that's being exploited while the limited attention span of society is focused more on previous ones in their collective memory.

#15 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-06-01 01:35 PM | Reply

"#13- the article (and the summary of it at the top of this thread) specifically mentions the parallel of nicotine."

Summary: "The pouches - flavored Blue Raspberry and Fruit Punch - weren't nicotine." No other parallels mentioned.

but you were being hyper-anal in this case.
#14 | Posted by sentinel

You want me to get hyperanal? How many threads here end up talking about, oh, never mind.

#16 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-06-01 01:52 PM | Reply

O-kay. . . whatever. I'm not gonna argue with you anymore.

#17 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-06-01 02:37 PM | Reply