COCKTAIL GIVES TRADERS A LEGAL HIGH AND TASTE FOR TROUBLE

A VOLATILE new cocktail, nicknamed "The Shambles", is turning
sharp-suited City traders into football hooligans. Police have stepped
up patrols to combat the sometimes violent aftermath of the latest
fashionable drink - an explosive combination of champagne and Red
Bull, a caffeine-based energy drink.

It tastes like mildly alcoholic fruit juice but after repeated doses
the pleasant buzz that follows can turn the drinker into a raging
bull. Traders searching for the ultimate "legal high" after a
high-pressure week have seized on the drink as the nearest pure rush
to that said to be produced by snorting cocaine.

Red Bull, which its makers claim improves physical and mental
reaction, is a combination of caffeine and taurine, an amino acid.
Taken neat it gives the drinker a buzzing sensation but mixed with
alcohol the effect can be devastating. The Shambles is the tipple for
those who want to get drunk in style, but Red Bull and vodka is an
equally popular "Friday flattener".

When favourite City drinking haunts call time, the area becomes a
flashpoint as rampaging drinkers taunt the police. Officers have
increased their presence around Bishopsgate after an increase in
drunken violence by City workers.

The 34.75 price of a vodka and Red Bull is no deterrent to the
drinkers who pack pubs on Fridays. "It's by far the most popular
drink. People spend 370 each a night on them," said one barman.

Yesterday afternoon a group of drinkers were building up for a big
session in the bar. Ian, a 31-year-old trader, ordered the first of
what he hoped would be many Red Bull cocktails. "We aren't drinking it
for the health benefits," he admitted. "You get a nice quick rush from
the old vodka and 'redballs'."

Trouble can result from a couple too many. "It is a very laddish
thing. People think they can take on the police after the bars shut
but now there is a much higher presence on the streets," he said.

The Austrian-based firm that produces Red Bull, which uses the slogan
"Red Bull gives you wings", denied that mixing the drink with alcohol
was dangerous. The company said: "It is not the non-alcoholic part,
but the alcoholic part of a drink that should be taken with caution."

Black coffee - a stiff dose of caffeine - is usually taken after,
rather than during, a drinking session. The new habit of taking
caffeine while knocking back the alcohol makes scientific sense,
writes Dr Thomas Stuttaford.

Alcohol acts as a depressant on the brain, while caffeine is a
stimulant. Caffeine increases alertness, improves mental facilities
and may even improve muscular performance and co-ordination so that
drinkers of this brew may totter less.