# Where does additive caffeine come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151 "2013-04-30T22:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/1 "2013-04-30T22:47:16Z")
The news has lately been reporting that caffeine is now being added to all sorts of things from gum to potato chips to candy. Hmm…well, I’m a bit of a caffeine addict myself but honestly, I’ve always gone to the standard beverages that contain it naturally. It would never occur to me to purchase caffeinated potato chips or gum. That said - where does the caffeine for these products come from? Is that where all the caffeine they remove from decaff coffee and tea goes? How is it added to the gum-candy-chips-whatever products? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/2 "2013-04-30T23:10:04Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Is that where all the caffeine they remove from decaff coffee and tea goes? Pretty much. They remove it from Sanka and add it to Mountain Dew. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/3 "2013-05-01T03:50:27Z")
Typo in thread title fixed. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![AGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/4 "2013-05-01T04:50:25Z")
Guarana is one of the main sources of caffeine used in energy drinks and other foods and soft drinks. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/5 "2013-05-01T11:40:51Z")
My university’s caffeine-purification plant was a pretty important source of income when I was there. They’d buy it from decaf makers and purify it until it was good enough to add to food or to pharmaceutical compounds. We used to joke that we ought’a drink only sodas from the school’s clients, since what the heck, their business assisted our tuition. It started as a yellowish powder (a description which fits over 90% of raw, impure chemical compounds) and finished as shiny-white tiny crystals. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/6 "2013-05-01T22:25:07Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > They’d buy it from decaf makers and purify it until it was good enough to add to food or to pharmaceutical compounds. “Including jerky, soap, and brownies” [Add Caffeine to Everything](http://diysupplements.com/add-caffeine-to-everything/) ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/7 "2013-05-01T23:37:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > “Including jerky, soap, and brownies” > > [Add Caffeine to Everything](http://diysupplements.com/add-caffeine-to-everything/) In the super market this weekend I saw some shampoo with caffeine. Do you absorb caffeine through the scalp? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/8 "2013-05-02T01:55:57Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > In the super market this weekend I saw some shampoo with caffeine. > Do you absorb caffeine through the scalp? Yes, [through the hair follicles](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18070215). No idea what the actual absorption would be from caffeine-laced shampoo, though. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-additive-caffeine-come-from/657151/9 "2013-05-02T10:31:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Pretty much. They remove it from Sanka and add it to Mountain Dew. Maybe they do, but I doubt that that is where most of it comes from. Surely the market for decaf coffee is tiny compared to that for caffeinated soft drinks (not to mention other caffeinated products): it is not just Mountain Dew, it is also Coca Cola and other colas, and all those “energy drinks”.