WTF! FOUR LOKO IS BACK BUT IT AINT THE SAME!

Four Loko is back, but now it's more booze than buzz.

A tamer version of the fruity drink - made famous for mixing the equivalent of three cans of beer with three cups of coffee - is back on city store shelves four months after authorities pressured the company to pull the concoction.

The revamped cans look identical to the banned version and still boast a 12% alcohol content, but the new brew has no caffeine, taurine or guarana. Health and government officials have deemed that mix toxic when blended with booze.

"Caffeine or not, if they are still selling it to kids, we will be cracking down. Kids still like it," said Michael Jones, who runs the State Liquor Authority's city operations.

Nicknamed "blackout-in-a-can," Four Loko has been blamed for several deaths of drinkers under 21 across the country. Authorities in Michigan, Washington State, Oklahoma and Utah have banned the sale of Four Loko and similar caffeinated-alcohol drinks.

New York worked out a deal with the drink makers and their distributors in November that ended the sale of the caffeinated concoction.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration then warned the drink makers to change the formula.

The overhauled drink has been on shelves in New York for six weeks, officials said.

The Clover Deli on the corner of E. 34th St. and Second Ave. in Kips Bay had 30 cans of Foul Loko stacked in their front window next to cans of Red Bull, hoping the colorful display attracts drinkers.

"It still has the name. Kids are going to go crazy," said Four Loko fan Danny Ambrose, 18, from Staten Island. "Now, it's basically a beer."

Sadda Wallace, 19, from Harlem said she knows a kid who had his stomach pumped after drinking Four Loko.

"It looks like a can of juice. It's still an alcoholic drink," she said. "They just need to ban it."



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