Looks like it did not take long before one of the states, Connecticut, attempted to challenge Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) over claims that its "Enviga" beverage can actually burn calories by ingesting it. That's right -- unlike most soft drinks that actually add a pretty large calorie load to the person drinking it, Enviga contains some natural ingredients that are connected to burning calories. This comes with no physical effort, according to Coca-Cola, although physical effort is the tried-and-true method of calorie burning.

Connecticut's Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, stated today that his office has begun an investigation into claims by Coca-Cola and Nestle that Enviga can actually burn calories. What are these "magic bullet" ingredients? Well, some of them are green tea and a green tea extract known as epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG.

Coke's claim of Enviga "burning calories" is based on the claim from Coke that EGCG speeds up metabolism and increases energy use. So, apparently by pseudo-connection, anything containing that component must burn calories. Umm, I don't think that would pass scrutiny, but without anything from the FDA that I know of, authorities in Connecticut are stepping up to the plate here by demanding copies of all scientific studies, clinical trials, tests and papers that prove the calorie-burning claim by next week.

When I wrote about the new "Enviga" calorie-burning green tea soda from The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) earlier today, I happened upon Hank Greenberg's blog, almost by chance, and his off-hand comment that "to show how hated Coke is: Merrill Lynch came out with a report Friday reiterating a 'buy' on Coke and the stock slipped." What's more, the stock fell a touch on the news of the Enviga launch, not recovering perceptibly until today; three trading days later and on love for a potential successor to CEO Neville Isdell [president of international operations Muhtar Kent is expected to be promoted to COO].

So I took a look at Greenberg's column in the Wall Street Journal this weekend [subscription required], in which he called Coke a comeback kid in the making, quoting those who think the company is "a company starting on its way back with several of the most powerful brands in the world." Coke of 1998 -- when the stock price was at its peak -- is the Coke I'm most familiar with, a Coke that was the home team for the Atlanta Olympics, a Coke that, in my then-adopted home region of the South, was everyone's legacy stock (like Microsoft was the Northwest's legacy "grandma" stock).

Then, a loved leader died. After Roberto Goizueta was felled by lung cancer in 1997 (don't smoke boys and girls!), M. Douglas Ivester took his sparkling shiny red company and, with the considerable assistance of successor Douglas N. Daft, drove the stock price down, down, down. Isdell has failed to woo the hearts of Wall Street and we're left with a profitable, cash-rich Coke, stocked with a stable of brands that define the word "Brand," that everyone hates.

And. What better time to buy than this?

Remember the 90s? Ahh, the 90s, when I was in high school and college and we all believed that (a) bagels and cereal were diet foods and (b) drinking a Diet Coke with your pizza was a good way of cancelling out the calories.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) has announced that it will be releasing a new calorie-burning soft drink called "Enviga" in November, just in time to balance out your Thanksgiving dinner I suppose. That's right, I said "calorie-burning." It could be that my pizza/diet soda strategy from 1992 could finally actually work!

Enviga uses green tea extract (EGCG, which has nothing to do with an EKG, much though my mind immediately leaps there), caffeine and calcium, and the company says it is actually proven to burn calories. Investors seem cautiously optimistic and have sent the stock up a bit, about 20 cents, since the announcement.

I don't know. First of all: the packaging looks to me like those alcoholic drinks -- totally the wrong association for Coke's target market. Second, I connect calorie-burning with the fen-phen troubles of the late 90s (yep, those darned 90s again). Third, as Sarah Gim from Slashfood points out, Enviga is only "proven" to burn calories in "healthy people with a lean to normal body type" -- those that don't really need to burn any more calories. Sarah, Sarah! Don't you know that customers don't read the small print??

It remains to be seen whether Enviga will crash and burn due to confusing packaging, or it will soon be on the desks of millions of lean-to-normal female high school and college students, who are certain that they're in need of losing just five more pounds. If I know anything about their collective psychology, I'd be betting on option #2.