This Is Why Jägerbombs Make You Act Insane

Oh, energy drinks! Other than providing a short burst of mania that can sometimes be useful on long drives or hungover football games, they seem to do more harm than good. From increasing “high-risk” sexual activity to messing with brain chemistry to inflating male egos and head injuries, these beverages seem to turbocharge some of the worst human behaviours.

So why not take it and mix it with that other problematic elixir—you know, the one that leads to about 88,000 deaths every year according to the CDC? Yes, that’s right, alcohol! Jägerbombs, bro!

As crazy as this train of thought may sound, combining the guarine- and caffeine-induced high of energy drinks with the mellowing effects of alcohol makes it a potent party mix, but one that is under growing scrutiny.

A recent study from the Research Society on Alcoholism found that mixing high-caffeine energy drinks with alcohol makes people more prone to drinking past their limits, compared to the addictive effect of consuming booze alone. Researchers at Northern Kentucky University made 26 “adult social drinkers” (13 male, 13 female) attend six drinking sessions that involved alcohol and energy drinks in every imaginable permutation.

On each test day, participants were administered one of six possible “cocktails”: vodka mixed with a decaffeinated soft drink, vodka and a medium energy drink, vodka and a large energy drink, a decaffeinated soft drink, a medium energy drink on its own, and a large energy drink.

After each drinking session, participants were asked to rated their desire to drink more, and their breath alcohol concentration was measured via breathalyser. What they found was that drinking alcohol led to an increased desire for more booze, but that an alcohol-caffeine mixed drink made participants crave it even more.

“In summary, this study provides laboratory evidence that energy drinks combined with alcohol lead to a greater desire to drink alcohol than the same amount of alcohol consumed alone, and are consistent with animal studies showing that caffeine increases the rewarding and reinforcing properties of alcohol,” researchers concluded. In other words, caffeine can mask the effects of alcohol and make drinkers crave even more alcohol. Caffeine is a stimulant, and its buzz can keep you alert enough to believe that you’re hardly as wasted as a blood alcohol reading would confirm.

Anyone who ever had the fortune or misfortune of experiencing the original formulas of Sparks and Four Loko—two ultra-caffeinated malt liquor drinks that surged in popularity in the mid- to late aughts, before being forced to alter their ingredients—likely saw firsthand how they can easily lead to the darkest blackout of your life. After a can or two of the stuff, you’d be soaring with destructive energy like a cocaine-addled bird of prey instead of curling up in the corner and passing out like a responsible party-goer. Four Loko, in particular, made appearances in several well-publicized mass hospitalisations and criminal cases, with fatal DUIs and charges including rape, murder, and torture blamed on the demented effects of the beverage.

In this study, these scientists may have also inadvertently answered the question of why on Earth people would ever mix an herbal liqueur like Jägermeister with the strange, sugary chemical taste of Red Bull: Maybe they think it’s worth it to avoid the FOMO that comes with passing out too early.