Who needs coffee for breakfast when you can pour Wired Wyatt's caffeinated maple syrup over your Wired Waffles? Remember Cracker Jack? This year saw the advent of Cracker Jack'd Power Bites, with as much caffeine per serving as a cup of coffee.
Americans, it turns out, are willing to gobble up caffeine in all kinds of foods — from potato chips to sunflower seeds to beef jerky. Not to mention gummy bears and marshmallows. Energy-boosting foods racked up more than $1.6 billion in domestic retail sales last year, up nearly 50 percent from five years ago, according to the market research firm Euromonitor International.
The trend, experts say, reflects a rush by food manufacturers to cater to consumers' increasingly frenetic lives — and to cash in on the popularity and profitability of high-caffeine energy drinks.