# Does roasting coffee change the caffeine content?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-roasting-coffee-change-the-caffeine-content/441778>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-roasting-coffee-change-the-caffeine-content/441778 "2008-03-18T14:45:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-roasting-coffee-change-the-caffeine-content/441778/1 "2008-03-18T14:45:47Z")

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Do darker roast coffees contain less caffeine than their more gently roasted brethren?

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**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-roasting-coffee-change-the-caffeine-content/441778/2 "2008-03-18T15:03:58Z")

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It would appear so.

> [@](#):
>
> Sucrose is rapidly lost during the roasting process and may disappear entirely in darker roasts. **During roasting** , aromatic oils, acids, and **caffeine weaken** , changing the flavor; at 205 °C (400 °F), other oils start to develop.[47] One of these oils is caffeol, created at about 200 °C (392 °F), which is largely responsible for coffee’s aroma and flavor.[15]

> **[Coffee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee)**
>
> Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially available. There are also various coffee substitutes. 
> Coffee production begins when the seeds from coffee cherries (the Coffea plant's fruits) are separated to produce unroasted green coffee beans. The "beans" are roasted and then ground into fine particles. ...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-roasting-coffee-change-the-caffeine-content/441778/3 "2008-03-18T15:06:15Z")

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:smack: I even [del]read[/del] skimmed the Wiki article before posting the OP.

Thanks, man.

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**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-roasting-coffee-change-the-caffeine-content/441778/4 "2008-03-18T15:17:32Z")

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No worries, just add it to your tab. 😉

I enjoy fielding questions like this. First and foremost, they distract me from things I should be working on. Secondly, they get me to read about something I’m interested in but otherwise wouldn’t have read about.