Energy Drinks

[Buffalobiian]

Coffee... when I think I had to wait till 28 before needing to drink some on a regular basis... and maybe even too much.

There's something strange with coffee and tea. Both have caffeine as the booster component, however I find coffee to boost harshly and over a short time period. Tea tends to have a less strong effect, but over a greater period of time. Can't really tell why since in both it's the same active molecule.
Maybe in coffee you get more, so you feel like an overboost that doesn't last long but make the after boost seem very weak... whereas tea being softer, an equal level of cafeine may be analysed as stronger since there's no constrast effect.

Well, I don't know if this is what's happening, but that phenomenon can be explained from a pharmacological point of view. Basically, when drugs go into the body, they're being metabolised/eliminated by the body, mainly by the liver and/or kidneys. In the case of caffeine, it's broken down by the enzyme codenamed: CYP1A2. If tea has another drug/component in it that also requires being broken down by the same enzyme, or inhibits the activity of that enzyme, the caffeine doesn't get eliminated as fast, and stays in your body longer.

/Pharm lecture

The term soda is just about never used here. Most Auzzies just refer to it as soft drink.