Four Loko Teases Seltzer Line With Nearly Triple The Alcohol Content

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It was once a caffeine-spiked alcoholic drink linked to the hospitalization of teens and college students across the country, now Four Loko is jumping into the hard seltzer market.

The brand behind the colorful cans of high-alcohol malt beverages, with flavors like strawberry lemonade, grape, watermelon and fruit punch, tweeted a photo of Four Loko Seltzer Sour. The can touts the drink as the "hardest seltzer in the universe". It contains 14% alcohol by volume -- nearly three times as much as leading alcoholic seltzers.

Four Loko joins a crowded list of alcoholic beverage lines entering the hard seltzer market, which now includes beer makers Pabst Blue Ribbon, Corona, Natural Light and others.

Four Loko's parent company, Phusion Projects, hasn't said when the product will be available in stores.

It was in 2010, after the Food and Drug Administration began investigating whether or not caffeine was a safe additive to alcoholic drinks, when Four Loko voluntarily removed caffeine from their malt beverages. Health officials say mixing caffeine and alcohol can have a confusing effect on the body and could trigger heart problems.