Introduction

Coffee and tea can be considered the world’s first energy drinks. Both of them contain caffeine and people have been using these beverages for year to receive an extra boost of energy for their day. I could remember my grandmother would wake up in the morning and the first thing she would do was to start to boil water for her morning tea. As a child I had no idea why she drunk tea. All I knew that if you added lemon and a bunch of the sugar to the tea, then it wasn't so bad. My grandmother was a local babysitter for the neighbourhood and the tea helped to give her energy for the day. My grandmother has passed away for years now but the idea of drinking something to gain energy didn’t pass with her. Tea and coffee has gotten a little out-dated and people today have adopted a new energy increaser, the energy drinks. The energy drinks as we know it today has gotten very poplar. From 2008 to 2012 the energy drink market has grown 60% (wallstreetinsanity.com). Energy drinks of today, besides coffee and tea, have been around for years. From it’s unknown origin, the energy drink has traveled around the world, and have gained substantial market shares in the functional beverage industry of several parts of the world. Europe is one of the largest functional beverages markets in the world. The energy drink has made a sizeable impact on the functional beverage markets in both western and eastern Europe. In this research project we are going to explore a number of objectives targeted to the impact of the energy drink on the european functional beverage market.

Aims & Objectives

Research Question:
To analyse the current and future impact of energy drinks on European functional beverage market.

Objective 1:
The Energy Drink: - The definition of the energy drink. - The history of the energy drink. - Define the Functional Beverage market