Comments on: Tea Contains Less Caffeine Than Coffee

By: Joe Zimmerman

Joe Zimmerman — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:40:30 +0000

I have been drinking coffee, expresso coffee, since 1965, started in Spain, where I lived a total of 6 yrs. I have done a lot of research on coffee, go to Europe every year for 1 – 3 months, & I have tried starbucks coffee. Like myself, the Spanish (Spain) people I know & the Italians as well who come here LAUGH at Starbucks Expresso. It is a joke. I doubt seriously that it has 30 grams of of caffeine, let alone 330. At most Starbucks I have seen, they hide behind these tall machines, like a wall, so you can not usually see how much coffee actually goes into their milk, sugar & other flavors the put in it. I have managed to peek & see a very small watery amount of coffee
added to there expresso. The 330mg probably came from Starbucks themselves. Not only that their coffee does not even smell like real coffee. In Europe they most of there coffee from Africa. Go over & try some, come back & have a good laugh.

By: smAlbany Small Business Day 2010 |

smAlbany Small Business Day 2010 | — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:43:49 +0000

[...] I started my day remembering a blog I’d read the night prior. Tea Contains Less Caffeine Than Coffee on the Broken Secrets blog. I couldn’t get my caffeine soon enough! I rarely drink [...]

By: Adam Snider

Adam Snider — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:44:49 +0000

Actually, espresso is generally more concentrated that coffee. If you server them in equal sizes, the espresso would be stronger.

It’s because espresso is served by the shot, rather than by the cup, that it ends up being “weaker” than coffee.

By: Starbucks Drink ID Codes « Broken Secrets

Starbucks Drink ID Codes « Broken Secrets — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:22:10 +0000

[...] of caffeine. If you want to spike it, each additional shot of espresso adds 75mg of caffeine. Yes, espresso has less caffeine than coffee [...]

By: Joyce Melton

Joyce Melton — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:41:30 +0000

Besides caffeine (named after coffee) tea has another stimulant, theophylline (from Greek roots meaning tea leaves). Theophylline is a more potent stimulant than caffeine and is sometimes used as an asthma drug. Fortunately, a cup of tea has only a milligram or two of this stuff.

Cocoa has theophylline also plus theobromine, a compound that can be both a stimulant and a relaxant. The chemical difference between these three is small, all three are methylated xanthines.

The kola nut has all three.

By: Chad Upton

Chad Upton — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:29:23 +0000

Yes. You can find the sources at the bottom of the post (above the related posts and horizontal rule).

By: Theron

Theron — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:22:14 +0000

Can you cite your source for this information?

By: Alain Roy

Alain Roy — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:59:37 +0000

Thanks–very interesting!

One small suggestion: you should consider normalizing your serving amounts, to make them directly comparable. I had to do a wee bit of math to compare the caffeine in black tea to that in Mountain Dew.

By: jdurley

jdurley — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:03:29 +0000

Very informative! I didn’t realize about Espresso. I’ve seen the Dunkin’ Coffee establishments in Spain. I was afraid to go in, in case they dunked me in a large vat of coffee. Heh. Actually, I found it challenging to get coffee in Spain. Unlike Paris, where any bakery will make you a wee cup of espresso for 1E, the bakeries in Barcelona just shook their heads at me. You have to go into bars for that. Luckily the bars were generally open in the morning!

By: Elbyron

Elbyron — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:59:54 +0000

Thanks for including Tim Hortons in the coffee comparison! I know you don’t have them in many parts of the U.S. yet, but they’re the #1 coffee seller in Canada.

I think if you’re going to show the caffiene for Coke, you should also show Pepsi so people can see how they rank. Per 12oz, regular Pepsi has 37.5mg, while Diet is slightly less at 36mg. However, Pepsi One (which we don’t have in Canada) has a whopping 55.5mg making it the highest of the non-energy drinks!

By: thebackroadslesstraveled

thebackroadslesstraveled — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:11:46 +0000

Great information. Thanks.

By: Chad Upton

Chad Upton — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:32:21 +0000

Great point Ian, I added espresso to the comparison.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:55:00 +0000

I think it’s odd you didn’t mention espresso, because having worked at Starbucks, I came across a lot of people who were confused about caffeine in espresso versus coffee. A shot of espresso only has 89 mg of caffeine, therefore if a grande latte has 2 shots it would only be 178 mg versus 330 for a grande coffee. People still come in all the time and just want coffee because, “espresso will keep me up all night,” “espresso is hardcore,” or “espresso has too much caffeine.”