HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Attorneys general in 27 states including Maine urged Anheuser-Busch Inc. to issue warnings about mixing alcohol with caffeinated energy drinks, such as its new “Spykes” flavored malt beverage drink.

In a letter to the company Thursday, state officials accused the beer company of marketing Spykes and other products to underage drinkers and failing to deter minors from using them.

It’s the latest criticism of Spykes, a 2-ounce bottle of flavored malt beverage meant to be mixed with beer or other drinks, or consumed as a shot. With colorful packaging and four flavors – lime, mango, melon and hot chocolate – Spykes measure 12 percent alcohol by volume. The St. Louis-based maker of Budweiser and Bud Light rolled the product out broadly last year.

“This caffeinated alcoholic beverage is one of an insidious new generation of starter drinks – luring underage drinkers with caffeine, fruit and chocolate flavors and cute, hip packaging,” Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

Francine Katz, Anheuser-Busch’s vice president for communications, said critics misunderstand the behavior of underaged drinkers.

“They drink for instant impact,” Katz said. “The fact that Spykes are sold in 2-ounce bottles and thus have a total alcohol content equivalent to one-third of a glass of wine makes it much less likely that illegal underage drinkers will choose Spykes as opposed to a 70- to 80-proof hard liquor product.”

Spykes also contains caffeine, ginseng and guarana, which are components of energy drinks popular among teens and young adults.

The company rejects arguments that Spykes is marketed to teenagers.

“To attack the one product in this category with the lowest alcohol content and a very limited distribution makes no sense,” Katz said.

Blumenthal said Thursday that the attorneys general were also considering a lawsuit because consumer warning labels on the product are “virtually illegible” because of the bottle’s size.

Anheuser-Busch said in a statement Thursday night that when the company learned of the label issue it temporarily halted production of the drink and informed the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

The company said it discovered the lettering on the mandatory health-warning warning label on Spykes bottles contains 41 to 47 characters per inch, depending on the line measured, making it slightly smaller than the required 40 characters per inch.

“We corrected the labels and the TTB approved them immediately, and then we resumed production,” said Joseph Jedlicka, vice president of legal and state affairs for Anheuser-Busch.

The content of the warning label is accurate and the height of the letters is correct, but the width of the text is too narrow, the company said.

Attorneys general for the District of Columbia, Guam and the following states also signed Thursday’s letter: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.