Comment in mailbag item about brewing coffee with Krank2O:
Personally, I do recommend it. It won’t pick you up quite like a 6-shot latte, but a couple of cups will get you going. As you said, “God bless America”
What about decaffeinated coffee? How much caffeine does it contain?
According to a Good Housekeeping Institute Study, the average home-brewed decaf contains about 2.4-2.8 milligrams of caffeine per 8oz cup. Store bought decaf (i.e. Starbucks) was higher with about 9mg.
Being a kid who lived in the NorthWest for several years, I know a bout this stuff (they love caffeine over there). There’s an imported sodi-pop from Sweden or Switzerland, called Afri-Cola. Good stuff. It supposedly has more juice than Jolt and Dew combined. It has caffeine listed twice on the ingredients list. One of them is the first ingredient listed. Has Anyone else ever had the stuff?
Look, Babar, I understand you’re new here, and we’re glad to have you, but…
This forum is devoted to comments on articles in the feature called Cecil’s Mailbag. If you would read the article being commented on, which you can do by clicking here: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcaffeine.html … you would see that the question of Afri-Cola was already mentioned in the article.
Saves yourself and us a whole bunch of time if you read the article BEFORE making the comments.
And please, please, would the posters of the first comment provide the link, so that we don’t get bogged down in having people provide the wonderful information that’s already in the freakin’ article???
Opps…
Just wondering: how up to date is your data on caffeine in Mountain Dew? When I first learned about its caffeine content in a medical school class, I became an avid drinker. However, in the past couple of years, I no longer find it listed in the ingredients (as a medical resident, I’m still constantly looking out for high caffeine sources to get me through my calls). Is it a cover-up? Or simply a Canadian phenomenon?
Also, would coffee brewed with Krack2O really be so lethal, considering the diminished caffeine gradient between the coffee and the water?
A response to RoknRob:
The thought that I might have failed the Master was so upsetting that I rushed into action. A phone call to Pepsi immediately revealed two things:
- The Pepsi offices are not open on weekends.
- The automated menus that can give you nutritional information about Pepsi products on weekends do not actually work right.
This same call, a little less immediately, revealed two more things.
- Nutritional information for Mountain Dew and Caffeine Free Mountain Dew are accessed by pushing 4, not 3. 3 gets you Pepsi One, rather than 2. The mind boggles.
2)There is such a thing as Caffeine Free Mountain Dew. This, to me at least, seems to imply that there is indeed caffeine in Mountain Dew.
Pepsi Co. confirmed that there are 55mg of caffeine in Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew, but no caffeine in either in Canada (or in Caffeine Free Mountain Dew, obviously). There’s also 170 calories and 70mg of sodium in regular and 0 calories and 35 mg of sodium in diet. I’ll let your medical expertise figure out what to do with that.
As for the caffeine gradient issue… well, I’m not 100% sure how that would work without doing some calculations that I’m really not up for.
Truth be told, I’m not sure that a gradient effect would apply. The concentration of solid caffeine is much higher that the concentration of caffeine dissolved in water. Since ground coffee is a mixture, not a solution, as far as the caffeine is concerned it’s pretty much pure. Certainly there is some solubility limit for caffeine in water, but I suspect that it’s no where near the amount one normally finds in soda.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that coffee brewed with caffeinated water wouldn’t be as strong as if you brewed normal coffee and then added the extra caffeine separately. There may well be some effect. But I suspect that you’d still end up with something stronger than you’d expect.
Also ,for the record, I never said that such a brew would be lethal. Just really really strong. The LD 50 of coffee (lethal dosage for 50% of the population is 10 grams orally. That’d take about 50 cups of really strong coffee brewed with Krank2O. That said, I’ve heard med school horror stories which suggest that may not be as improbable as it sounds.
Mainly my warning against brewing with caffeinated water was to cover my own butt. I think the packaging of Krank2O warns against brewing with it. Though frankly, I’d never have even thought of it if the package hadn’t told me not to do it.
To Son of Dex:
Thanks for the reply. I admit feeling rather gyped. No caffeine in Mountain Dew in the Great White North, eh? This SUCKS! If only Jolt was more readily available around here…
Oh, well. Back to Coke, I guess.
Thanks again for The Straight Dope!
Rob
Ok, so maybe this skates on the edge of an appropriate comment on the mailbag, but anyone have info on the caffeine content of those chocolate covered expresso beans?
Larry
So, how about brewing coffee with Krack20 (or Water Joe, another caffienated (sp?) water.) in a french press? (Also known as a plunge pot.) This brewing method usually results in more sediment, and a much more robust brew. I have found it to be the best way to truly extract the full flavor of fine coffee though. Depending upon your steep times, roast, and grinding method; you could probrobly get some serious caffeine. As fas as the LD 50, I wouldn’t sweat it. The twitching and nausea from elevated pH levels in your stomach would make you stop long before then. Aside from caffeine toxicity, coffee also contains theobromine, the same toxin found in chocolate (you know, the one that kills poodles that raid their owner’s Fanny May stash?). Theobromine has also been linked to nervousness and twitchiness from extended doses. This stuff is toxic to humans too, but you usually don’t see people eating 12 pounds of chocolate in one sitting. (As opposed to a 12 pound dog eating half a pound.)
-Pete
Dr Pepper is one of my favorite caffeine delivery systems. Anyone know how much caffeine it has?
Dr Pepper has 39.6 milligrams of caffeine in every 12 oz. can.
Now, of course, PepsiCo has presented us with the evil that is Storm. As best I can tell, they yanked their former lemon-lime offering, Slice (competed with Sprite and 7-Up), added caffeine, and reintroduced it as Storm.
Now, why is this evil? I’m as much a caffeine buff as anyone (preferably in coffee form), but I’ve always given my daughter (now 3 years old) lemon-lime soda for the precise reason that it is caffeine-free. Now, they go sneaking caffeine into Storm, and if I’m in one of those hated places that only offer Pepsi products, I’m out of luck.
A waitress told me that the fountain version of Storm (as opposed to canned or bottled) does not contain caffeine, but I wonder…
(BTW, for those parents who are about to chastise me for giving her soda in the first place, she drinks a lot of milk; soda is a special treat reserved for occasions where milk is hard to come by.)
I have the same complaint about Barqs Root Beer from Coca-Cola. It, unlike all the other root beers that I know, contains caffeine. I try to limit my intake of caffeine (Though since my son was born a few months ago I have had to up my intake at work…), so root beers used to be safe. No longer!
I was talking with a friend who is a Seventh-Day Adventist. She drinks root beer just because she could be pretty sure that it did not contain forbidden caffeine. I imagine Mormon’s have the same problem. (Though I did not notice any reduction in the number of shopping carts containing such things when I lived in Mesa, Arizona!)
Okay, I’m really sorry that I don’t have the book any more, but it made an impression, and I do remember this table distinctly. While in college, I took a class called Drugs and Society. One part of the class dealt with “lesser” drugs, like chocolate, caffeine, etc. The book for the class contained a chart listing caffeine content in soft drinks. Atop the list was Jolt, with around 72 mg per can. Coming in third was Mountain Dew, with just above 50 mg per can. Sorry, don’t remember the exact numbers.
I do remember being struck by the soft drink in second place: Sugar Free Mr. Pibb, with about 0.2 mg more than Mountain Dew. Regular Mr. Pibb was down around 32-37 mg with Coke, Pepsi and the rest.
Can anyone verify this? Ridicule me if you must, but I swear I saw this chart…
About the lack of caffeine in Canadian Mountain Dew, the reason is that in Canada, caffeine cannot be added to any drink as a “stand-alone” ingredient. In colas, caffeine is a natural by-product of whatever ingredients are throw into making them. Mountain Dew’s caffeine is added strictly as caffeine, not as part of another ingredient. Canada does not allow this to occur, and that’s why Mountain Dew has no caffeine in Canada.
KeithB: I am a non-practicing Mormon who is trying to get the husband and three rugrats into SOME kind of religious study. A few months ago, the newest two LDS missionaries came by trying to convert the hubby, a non-practicing Catholic. I had always known as a child that sodas, coffee, and tea were forbidden within the church, but according to these two, it’s not for the reasons I had believed. Their claim was that the tannic acid in the beverages, not the caffeine, were the culprit.
I’d be interested to hear from Snark and Monty, or others in the know.
BTW, these missionaries taught several lessons contrary to what I grew up with. I still have many family members in the church, but they are the kind that make you glad you only have to see them at Christmas. I wouldn’t feel right just giving them a call to ask why their kids can’t have a Coke.
Don’t know if this is too much after the fact, but Mello Yello (a Coke product for which I had to enter a detox program) supposedly is second only to Jolt (ignoring that Afri-cola stuff) in caffeine content. Maybe it’s not well known as it’s only available in the Southeast.
Well I’m well acquanted with Mello-Yellow here in the midwest, although I have say its pretty marginal. Basically it seems to be Coke’s attempt at Mountain Dew. Since Mountain Dew is well known for its higher-than-cola caffeine content, I’m not surprised Mello-Yellow is as well.
What I want to know is why no one has ever heard of Nitro Cola. This stuff is sold in every convienience store and supermarket in the St. Louis Metro area (over three million strong, by some estimates the third largest metro area in the country) but no where else in the world! Unlike other Colas which are artificially colored, Nitro is a light amber shade, is sold only in glass bottles and is the strongest legal stimulant you can buy in Missouri! (In Illinois and Kansas you can buy ephedrine minithins).