BevBlog

Britney Spears, rushed to the hospital this morning and placed on something called “psychiatric hold,” did something vaguely normal last night. She bought a case of Red Bull.

America’s favorite train-wreck-in-action bought the case while driving an apparently rented Mercedes coupe around Beverly Hills, feigning a British accent, and wearing a bright pink wig. As it was L.A., even that part of the story was vaguely normal. Still, psychiatric hold is a bit out of the ordinary.

Of course, the paparazzi followed.

For pictures and more information, click here for X17 Online, or here for Gossip Girls.

Could an entrepreneur find the next convenience store refreshment frontier in ice?

Apparently, ice is not just for cooling your beverages anymore.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that fast food chains including Sonic and Taco Time sell cups of ice to their customers, and some ice fans have gone so far as to install Sonic-style ice machines in their homes.

A few years ago, the singer Amy Grant wanted to find the perfect Christmas gift for her husband, Mr. Gill, the country-music star. She had a Scotsman machine costing several thousand dollars installed in their garage in Nashville.

“I’ve chewed ice my whole life,” says the 50-year-old Mr. Gill. Growing up in Oklahoma, he says, he judged restaurants by the quality of their ice. Today, he says, when he travels outside the U.S., he finds slim pickings.

“Europe is a drag,” he says. “I ask for ice, and they give me one or two cubes. They’re stingy with their ice. I’d never survive there.”

For the full article, click here.

We know a lot of consumers love Red Bull, but Samer Bader, 31, of Glen Ellyn, IL really loves Red Bull.  So much so, in fact, that on two separate occasions he hijacked two trucks filled with Red Bull.  He netted over 800 cases of the stuff.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not all rock stars like Rockstar, according to a recent AP report.

According to the story — which quickly got out onto the interwebs — Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has sued the the Rockstar energy drink company, claiming it wrongfully posting a photo of him holding a can of Rockstar on its Web site.

The mohawked, heavily tattooed Barker, made claims of invasion of privacy, unfair competition, and misappropriating his likeness to promote the product in his suit.

The lawsuit said the Rockstar website published a photo of Barker “holding a can of one of Rockstar’s beverages, and identifying him and his endorsement by name” without his consent, according to the AP.

A search of the Rockstar website found no reference to Barker; he and his wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, were recently photographed celebrating that company’s sponsorship of the X-Games, but we didn’t see that on the site, either.

But then again, so was this guy, and he ain’t suing.

The eyes of the world turn to Iowa today, and if any of those eyes belong to Red Bull distributors, chances are they won’t be contributing to the presidential campaign of one candidate, former Senator John Edwards.

Edwards, a former 12-pack-a-campaign trail-day Diet Coke drinker, gave up caffeine after the 2004 election. Perhaps that’s not the best idea if you’re planning on pushing through an uninterrupted 36-hour “marathon for the middle class” at the close of the Iowa Caucus campaign, as Edwards did, but maybe it makes it all the more admirable.

Or, if you’re in the energy drink camp, it might make it all the more foolish. Watch this video from an Edwards press bus visit and you’ll see that the sleep-deprived-but-chipper candidate pulls no punches when it comes to his favorite — and least favorite — beverages.

“Red Bull? That stuff’s nasty,” he told the reporters, who had attempted to offer him some.