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Newsflash: Gourmet Coffees Have Lots Of Caffeine
Evangelion writes "According to the Globe and Mail, gourmet coffees (Starbucks, Second Cup, etc) apparently have
lots more caffeine than their non-gourmet competitors. One jumbo (20-oz) contains an entire day's worth of C8H10N4O2." Remember, for best effect, drink it through the day, not all at once.
Hah! I knew it was true! Conspiracy Brother had it right all along!
Hmmm.
TH-th-th-that's a t-t-t-total load of c-c-c-crap! Stewardess! Another Venti! Now!
if they do this on purpose, so they can hook you then make you come back to more.. Caffeine withdrawls suck, and if the home-made stuff isnt as potent, people are pretty much the slave of starbucks (or have to drink 2x more home-made coffee)...
one large at 8 am.
another large at 10
another at 12
another at 2
another at 4
another at 6....
I wonder how many people actually drink straight up coffee at their gourmet coffee shops. It's been my experience here in Seattle (home to Starbucks) that most folks are ordering lattes, caramel machiattos, mochas, etc. than a regular cup o' joe.
-- jchenx
There may be a lot of caffeine in a 20oz cup, but for an equal volume gourmet coffee should have less caffeine than the cheap stuff. The reason is that it is pure arabica, while utility grade coffee contains large amounts of robusta beans. Robustas have a lot more caffeine than arabicas. That assumes, of course, that the cheap coffee is not also brewed weaker than it should be.
Buy a coffee roaster and green beans in bulk from Sweetmarias (I have no connection with them other than as a satisfied customer), and then buy a good espresso machine like the Rancilio Silvia, then enjoy the best damn espresso drinks in life for less than $.50 cents a shot. And who the fuck is worried about caffeine overdosing anyway? If you're heart doesn't palpitate, you haven't had enough!
The article seemed to indicate that because they use 2 tbsp coffee per cup brewed, you end up with more caffeine than other coffee. Is that all there is to it? "GOURMET COFFEE USES MORE COFFEE AND IS THEREFORE STRONGER." Well, duh. Insert $obligatory_canadian_intelligence_insult.
I thought perhaps there was some conspiracy where they were doping coffee with extra caffeine or something.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning, It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Someone just dared to call Starbucks a gourmet coffee. Stay in your seats, the coffee nazis will be arriving in 3...2...1...
I find that it doesn't matter what type of beans you use, as long as you make it with Water Joe and grind up a hand full of NoDoze with the beans.
Thats the sort of thing that gets me going... And probably leads to situations like my signature.
-JungleBoy
"You never know when some crazed rodent with cold feet might be running loose in your pants."
-Calvin
You know, I can accept a certain status-quo hatred of Seattle-area based MegaCorps like Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, and so on... They are hated, for the most part, because they have money that the haters do not. There are other reasons to be sure, but it all amounts to the fact that they represent The Man, and hating The Man is en vogue.
Why then, do so many die-hard penguins and independant bookstore shoppers insist on supporting Starbucks? If coffee has an archetypical "The Man" figure, who has way too much money, produces shoddy goods, and destroys good quality companies with its monopoly-like tendancies, it is Starbucks. They put great coffee houses out of business, the kind that you may have met some of your best friends at. They use inferior beans, cooked at too high of a temperature, for too short an amount of time, just to increase output. That's right, you're drinking a bean that was treated worse than those poor saps on WB's Superstars.
Why God? Why of all people, do you, "The Man"-hating intellectuals, actually give them your business?
-The Libra
"Please be patient--The future will begin momentarily."
for Fair Trade Certified Coffee
Consider choosing to pay a little extra for your coffee to encourage sustainable agriculture, preserve rainforests and help out the long term social fabric of coffee growers and their families.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Ok so 300 is the upper limit. But...
Health Canada recommends that adults limit their consumption of caffeine to 400 mg daily -- the equivalent of about four small cups of coffee.
So Canadians think it's ok to drink 33% more than is healthy? And yet, they try not to call it caffine addiction. Interesting.
Every so often I quit coffee, just to do it.
Rather than quit cold, and get the nasty headaches, it's a heck of a lot easier to gradually reduce -- I start with my regular level, and then the next day have a bit more than half as much, and so on for a few days, till it's just a sip.
Or, you can quit cold and get a wicked headache for a day or so...
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
I drink about 20 Oz of green tea a day and I admit, the caffeine and other teaish goodness is liquid motivation.
It seriously can be rocket fuel and wears off smoother than coffee does.
The tea I use needs to be purchased specially at a Chinese tea store and is not prepackaged. It is White Dragon Pearls. Little rolled balls 1/4 of an inch in diameter with young tea leaves and flowers.
I'll put about 40 balls in a 20 Oz glass Campbells soup jar - or a mason jar and nuke for 3:30 to 4 mins. Then let it sit till it is golden - 10 - 15 mins. Filter the Tea into another 20 Oz glass and sip away. Save the leaves because you can generally brew another batch out it this. This tea does not get bitter and you can sip it all morning and into the afternoon.
The stuff is about 40 bucks a pound but that's about 1/2 to a whole year of tea. A bargain at any price.
And it makes me motivated AND feel good about the world. At least till it wears off. Then it's back to my unibomber style shack and dreams about getting rid of that principal Skinner.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Is there a legal limit for caffeine content?
The answer to that is it depends on the country. A few examples of laws related to caffeine content for food and drinks include the following:
In the United States there is a limit of 6mg of caffeine per liquid ounce in beverages. There is also a limit of 200mg in pills such as Vivrin.
From, article, a 20oz coffee has 400 mg of caffeine, or 20 mg/oz - so would it be illegal for Starbucks to sell that same coffee in the States?
Who knows, maybe the coffee FAQ is wrong...but it was on the internet so it must be true!
...
"There are certain advantages to caffeine but, after 300 milligrams [daily intake], you start getting into health problems," Dr. Marcone said.
...
Problems arise, he said, when people cut back. "You develop headaches, you are irritable, you seek caffeine to relieve those adverse effects," Dr. El Sohemy said.
...
Health Canada recommends that adults limit their consumption of caffeine to 400 mg daily -- the equivalent of about four small cups of coffee. The health regulator says that because of its diuretic and stimulant properties coffee can cause insomnia, headaches, irritability and nervousness.
Okay, as a physician and a caffeine user I just have to comment. I have no idea where they came up with their 400 mg/day cutoff, but it wasn't from any published data I've seen. Public health nannies have been looking for something bad about caffeine for decades. From "It'll stunt your growth" to "it'll rot your bones" they keep looking for some reason why we shouldn't drink coffee.
The facts, unfortunately, are quite contrary. Caffeine is a drug, albeit a very benign one. Yes, you can overdose on coffee. A truly unpleasant experience, but one that is quite survivable (in large part because coffee doesn't carry very much caffeine compared to the dangerous dosing). You can overdose on No-Doz too, and that actually is more dangerous because you'll get more in before you start feeling it. Neither, however, is seen very often in actual emergency practice (other ingestants, like alcohol or Tylenol, are MUCH more dangerous in moderate overdose).
Caffeine increases alertness and learning. It's been reliably shown to improve test scores (especially for those of us who can't think without it). Interestingly, large public-health studies have correlated a high caffeine intake with decreased gallstones and with a markedly decreased incidence of type II diabetes, although I'm not fool enough to call it causality when I only have correlation.
And that's it. No increased cancer risk (they checked). No increased hypertension (they checked). No increased risk of coronary artery disease (they checked). No increased risk of psychiatric disease (well, okay, I didn't actually read that one, but most of us in THIS forum came by our psychopathology in other ways anyway).
Doctors are not the world's best source of public health information. They live lifestyles that make programmers look positively healthy (I know - I do both professionally). Still, doctors don't smoke any more (seriously - it's down to a few percent) and they don't drink to excess the way they used to. Drug use is relatively uncommon (although not unheard-of, unfortunately) and seriously frowned upon. But caffeine is ubiquitous in the hospitals and clinics, and there's a good reason. Compared to the stress of getting through the day without it, most of my colleagues share my basic view, which is that there are few Good Things in this world, but coffee is definitely one of them.
Possibly True Story, with names changed to protect the guilty:
So a certain anonymous individual went into a Starbuck's one morning last year, a bit cranky because he had to be up earlier than usual. He spoke to the individual at the cash register...
Anon.: I'd like a medium chai, please.
Register Person: Do you mean tall or grande?
Anon.: I mean medium.
Register Person: We don't sell a size called medium.
Anon.: "Medium" is a description, not a name. You sell three sizes. I'd like the one in the middle.
Register Person: We call that size "grande."
Anon.: Right.
Register Person: So what is it you'd like?
Anon.: I'd like a medium chai, please.
Register Person: You mean a "grande."
Anon.: Haven't we already been through this?
Register Person: I just would like to be certain.
Anon.: You can be certain I'm not going to use your ridiculous trademarked name, when a descriptive adjective completely connotes my intent.
Register Person: It's not a ridiculous name -- it's Italian!
Anon.: Yes, and "chai" is either Chinese or Sanskrit. What's that got to do with it? The word I want in English is "medium."
Register Person: Dude, what have you got against Italians?
Anon.: Nothing. Well, perhaps they bear some responsibility for Madonna, but I think she's actually from New York.
Register Person: Bay City, Michigan, actually. That'll be $3.50.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
This person has obviously never drank coffee in the United States. American coffee, when not served too weak, usually tastes like battery acid (or, in culinary terms, "robusta," apparently.)
I had to realize the article was from a Canadian paper before I could understand why they were making such a big deal over gas station and donut shop coffee being weaker. In America, that is not only the norm, it barely rates above "hot water that somebody has dipped a dirty rag in."
People, American coffee sucks. I never knew this until I lived in Germany, where the coffee you buy in your supermarket is incredibly superior for the same price as American store-bought coffee. I had to defend American coffee to my German friends because I had no idea what they meant by our coffee being weak.
Heck, here in Japan, they sell coffee in "regular" and "American" styles, where "American" is used synonomously with "weak." I've even had the waitress at a restaurant, unprompted, apologize to me that the only coffee they have to offer is American.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life