As banned caffeinated alcohol drinks disappear, what’s next? DIY Four Loko?

Caffeinated alcohol drinks like Four Loko and Joose are being whisked off store shelves faster than college kids can stock up.

The fallout from the Food and Drug Administration’s safety warning Wednesday on what amounts to a ban on such beverages remains to be seen.

“I’m afraid that horse is already out of the barn,” columnist Nicole Brochu writes in the Sun Sentinel in Florida. “And in fact, some drinkers, taking a cue from a trend that started in European bars, were already mixing their own alcoholic energy drinks when fashionable labels like Four Loko, Joose and Max hit the scene.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that drinkers who mix alcohol and energy drinks are three times as likely to binge drink as those who don’t. Read the entire CDC warnings here.

And that may be what makes the mix so popular. A Temple University psychology professor in this Scientific American story explains the chemical side of the allure (think dopamine).

Still, manufacturers promise the popular fruity alcohol drinks will return without the caffeine, as this Associated Press story explains.

Which begs the question: What will the next drink craze be?