This sidebar accompanies a story that appears in the Feb. 27 edition of Forbes magazine.
5-Hour Energy’s ubiquitous bottle is no beauty, with its shrink wrap and crudely silhouetted running man (his name is Steve, by the way). Inside the bottle: 4 calories, zero sugar, “a blend of B-vitamins, amino acids and nutrients,” and “about as much caffeine as a cup of premium coffee,” according to 5-Hour’s website.
A 2010 test by independent reviewer ConsumerLab.com found vitamin levels thousands of times higher than recommended daily allowances and 207mg of caffeine—a massive amount per ounce, but less than the 260mg in a Starbucks tall coffee.
Forbes commissioned our own lab test to check these figures. FAI Materials Testing Laboratories just outside Atlanta used a method called GC-MS -- gas chromotography-mass spectometry -- to check caffeine levels in 5-Hour Energy and 5-Hour Extra Strength. FAI found less than ConsumerLab.com: 157 mg of caffeine in the regular 5-Hour, and 206 mg in its Extra Strength counterpart.
The exact formula remains a secret—and has put Manoj Bhargava on the receiving end of lawsuits. Parent company Living Essentials initially outsourced the manufacture of its elixir to Custom Nutrition Laboratories in Carrollton, Tex. In 2007 it replaced Custom but continued using the same formula. Custom sued, and the case went on for almost two years, moving among state and federal courts in Texas and Michigan until the parties settled in 2009 for undisclosed terms. Custom’s position that it owned 5-Hour’s formula never changed.
So does it work? I started taking 5-Hour Energy as an experiment while writing this story, popping my first shot in front of Bhargava in his Michigan office. I felt anxious for a half-hour, then incredibly productive. I took at least one shot daily for two weeks and never experienced a downside. All that stopped me from carrying on was the $4 price tag (this is New York City, so I'm paying at least 25% more than I would in, say, Detroit) and the looks of concern from my colleagues at my mounting addiction.
