Where did this beverage come from, whose effects were first warned about, unusually, by the Government itself? According to its label, W Shaka, its official name, is manufactured and marketed by Venerable Capital S.L., a company based in Madrid. However, it is neither sold nor consumed in Spain, as an employee of the firm confirmed to 14ymedio. “We are the producers and distributors, but we do not sell in Spain; we only send the product abroad,” the employee explained by telephone, without being able to explain why.
In the European country, ordinary energy drinks, without being mixed, are highly regulated, and consumption in regions such as Galicia is directly prohibited for minors, according to a law passed at the end of last year. One of the countries where Venerable Capital sells, Ivory Coast, has prohibited imports of Shaka and other similar beverages since 2023.
Shaka would not be legal in Spain either, and not precisely because of the alcohol or its combination with taurine or caffeine, something that is not prohibited per se. It is the vitamins it contains that are prohibited from being mixed with alcohol, according to European regulations. Specifically, Regulation 1925 of 2006 establishes that vitamins or minerals may not continue reading
be added to beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol.
The composition of the product, in its usual presentation on the Island, the vodka version, in a recognizable blue-and-black can, consists of 18% alcohol by total volume and, among other ingredients such as sugar and preservatives, vitamins B2, B6, B12, niacin, and pantothenic acid. The vodka content is 45%, almost half, while taurine accounts for 0.37%, the equivalent of 370 milligrams per 100 milliliters, and caffeine for 0.03%, or 300 mg/liter.
Showing this equivalence is relevant: above 150 mg/l, the European Union considers it a “high caffeine content,” and alongside this specific warning, the label must state, “Not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.” This is a requirement Shaka does comply with, although bureaucratic formalities do nothing whatsoever to reduce its danger.
Last Sunday, a report in the official press again warned, based on several accounts, about the harmful effects of the energy drink. “They call it an energy drink so that it sounds like healthy fuel, but the reality is very different,” physician and university professor Julio César Hernández Perera explained in the report. “That word is nothing more than a marketing hook,” he denounced. “The energy they promise is not nutritional, but rather a dangerous artificial stimulation, a chemical jolt caused by massive doses of caffeine and an excess of sugar that punishes the cardiovascular system as if it were a violent acceleration.”
When the mixture is combined with alcohol, “the danger doubles, because it masks alcohol intoxication and leads young people into a state of false wakefulness”
When the mixture is combined with alcohol, he continued, “as happens with the famous Shaka Mixer, the danger doubles, because it masks alcohol intoxication and leads young people into a state of false wakefulness that can end in the emergency room.”
The media in Sancti Spíritus have also reported the story of five young people, between 18 and 22 years old, who ended up in that situation and were treated for intoxication at the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital. One of them arrived unconscious and had to be admitted to the intensive care unit.
Yaneisy Valdés Gutiérrez, a toxicology specialist, explained this to a reporter from Radio Sancti Spíritus, who added: “This video aims to alert not only those adolescents and young people but also their parents, so they know what is happening.” The doctor said that the five patients came from the same group of friends, and four of them presented “mild symptoms” such as “sweating, irritability, nervousness, severe headache, and weakness.”
The young people, Valdés reported, described effects such as “I feel very bad” or “I feel like I’m going to die,” but they were treated “appropriately” and recovered without complications. The friend who arrived “in a coma” did require hospitalization, as well as “mechanical ventilation to save her life.” The young woman had consumed two cans of Shaka, according to the doctor’s account based on the girl’s own testimony once she regained consciousness.
She told the specialists that after a first can, “sealed” and opened by herself, her behavior began to change, and her friends even told her that “she wasn’t herself.” After drinking the second can, “she doesn’t remember what happened.”
What is happening with Shaka in Cuba is reminiscent of what happened in the United States with Four Loko
Another young man, the same report indicated, in an “altered state” resulting not only from drinking Shaka but also from mixing it with other alcoholic beverages, broke a glass door at the hospital. “We are talking about an intoxication that has presented moderate to severe symptoms in some of these cases,” the doctor insisted, recalling the composition of the concoction. The pleasant flavors in which the product is offered, such as strawberry, coconut, apple, or pineapple, Valdés said, “mask” the alcohol and are therefore “a motivation to continue consuming it.” Shaka, she added, causes dependence; “it is addictive.”
What is happening with Shaka in Cuba is reminiscent of what happened in the United States with Four Loko. Introduced in 2005, the original formulation of this beverage contained malt alcohol (12% by volume), caffeine, taurine, and guarana. With high doses of sugar and flavorings and bright colors, it became a phenomenon among young people and came to be known as “liquid cocaine.”
Alcohol intoxication and other problems associated with its consumption among students first led certain educational institutions to prohibit its consumption and then prompted U.S. authorities to take action. Specifically, they warned that caffeine caused people who drank Four Loko to feel awake without realizing that they were actually affected by the alcohol, just as happens with Shaka.
In 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. food and drug agency, sent letters to four beverage manufacturers—including Phusion Projects, the owner of Four Loko—saying that caffeine added directly to alcohol was an “unsafe food additive” and threatening to remove the products from the market. It never carried out that action because Four Loko removed caffeine, taurine, and guarana from its formulation, and it continues to be sold that way today.
“So many things are prohibited in Cuba, yet they don’t prohibit Shaka as they do in other civilized societies”
Of course, there is no similar regulation on the Island, which is why Venerable Capital has been able to enter that market. “So many things are prohibited in Cuba, yet they don’t prohibit Shaka as they do in other civilized societies,” a doctor tells 14ymedio. “It seems that our country is the captive market of a bunch of profiteers.”
On paper, a Spanish company can manufacture products that are prohibited in the country and export them. To do so, it has to apply to the Ministry of Health, a procedure that can be completed online. This means that at least this agency has all the details about the manufacture of Shaka in Spain.
According to its own website, Venerable Capital, which is primarily dedicated to marketing alcohol and tobacco—although it also sells non-perishable foods such as canned goods, pasta, and oil—exports to Latin American countries, in addition to Cuba, such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Panama, but mainly to African countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo. It also claims to have a presence in Dubai, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Tibet.
Its brands—for example, Olé packaged products, Bravo cigarettes, Santa Isabel beer, Bernardo Gálvez brandy, and Friday gin—are not seen in Spanish supermarkets, in any case, at least not on the mainland. Venerable Capital says it sells in Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands, territories with special tax regimes.
It is precisely on these islands and in Africa that the business group itself originated, according to the history recounted on the same corporate website, which dates back to the founding, in 1876 in Oran, Algeria, of Tabacos Jorro by Alicante native Vicente Jorro Tours. The boost provided by the entry into the company of Mallorcan financier and smuggler Juan March, at the beginning of the 20th century, enabled them to expand throughout Algeria and Morocco.
Always linked to tobacco, successive generations of the Jorro family continued expanding the business, until Fernando Jorro Sainz de Rozas promoted the creation of Compañía de Tabacos del Mediterráneo (Comet S.A.), the “embryo” of Venerable Capital. Today, the conglomerate itself states, it “brings together businesses involved in the trade, manufacture, and distribution of tobacco, beverages, food, flooring, and services.”
Shaka was quietly launched in the 2010s, but it did not reach Cuba until last year. There are no available sales figures, but there are indications that the Island has become the beverage’s main market within just a few months. Perhaps the desperation of young Cubans in the face of their lack of prospects has a great deal to do with the phenomenon.
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Havana, September 7, 2026 — From the moment she boarded the flight that would take her to France, along with 14 other judokas as part of the training process, Melissa Hurtado knew it would be the last trip she would make with the Cuban team. “I already knew I wasn’t going to return,” the athlete says in videos posted to her Instagram account. More than three years after that January 21, she says that “this story was not easy.”
