Bawls (marketed as BAWLS Guarana) is a non-alcoholic, highly-caffeinated soft drink. Created in 1996, the citrus-and-cream soda-flavored beverage leans heavily on the caffeine and natural flavor of the Amazonian guarana berry. Packaged in unique cobalt-blue bottles and cans, the drink was well received by gamers, to whom the company quickly began extensively marketing (through both sponsorships and video games themselves). The soda's name has an unclear provenance, and is still sold—alongside six other flavors. History In 1994, Hobart C. Buppert III (born ) was a student at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. While traveling through Vienna, he found club dancers were paying for cans of non-alcoholic, highly-caffeinated, "sludgy brew" derived from guarana beans. Himself unable to tolerate coffee, Buppert saw potential in refining the drink he saw in Europe, and received permission from Cornell to develop a business plan as an independent study. Buppert graduated from Cornell in 1995 with a degree in finance. In 1996, he took out a loan for to launch Hobarama in Miami Beach, Florida. That November in South Beach, he launched his first product: Bawls Guarana, a soft drink with three times the caffeine of Coca-Cola Classic. Bawls capitalized upon trends of the mid-1990s by being highly caffeinated, derived from natural ingredients, and having a gimmicky premise. By 1998, Bawls was not only popular in the nightclubs of New York City, South Florida, and Southern California, but was spreading to grocery stores in the US and Europe. In its first year, Bawls brought in revenue of . By 2000, Bawls was distributed by Arizona Distribution, and two years later, Hobarama moved into new Miami Beach offices at 311 Lincoln Road. By November 2009, Hobarama was struggling, and creditors like Fifth Third Bank forced out chief executive officer (CEO) and founder, Buppert. A restructuring plan was put into place, and the company was entertaining any buyout offers. On stable footing by 2012, the company bought out competitors Crunk Energy Drink and Strut & Rut. Jon Gunnerson was the company's CEO in 2014, which had since moved its offices to Twinsburg, Ohio. The marketing and higher caffeine content of Monster Energy delivered the first damage to Bawls' market share in 2002 by being more-widely appealing. The company later lost even its gamer niche to brands including Mtn Dew Game Fuel, Rockstar, and G Fuel—a brand with over 111 times more social-media followers. In 2022, the