How Much Caffeine Is Actually in a Cup of Coffee? What's the Maximum Daily Intake? What Are Its Effects on the Body?

Coffee drinkers generally fall into two categories: those who consume coffee for its stimulating and mind-awakening effects, and connoisseurs who savor and enjoy coffee for its delicious flavor itself. Of course, there are also those who gradually develop coffee into a daily necessity after discovering its deliciousness through the former motivation.

However, this actually reveals a common misconception! Most people who drink coffee for caffeine intake believe that coffee contains the highest amount of caffeine—"after all, it's called caffeine, right?" In reality, this is not true! The fact is, tea contains more caffeine! Tea leaves contain twice as much caffeine as coffee beans. This explains why we might not experience insomnia after drinking a cup of coffee, but could stay awake until the next morning after consuming a cup of milk tea.

Getting slightly off topic, I believe what everyone cares about most are key questions like: how much caffeine does a cup of coffee actually contain, and how many cups of coffee can one drink per day? Let FrontStreet Coffee answer these questions for you! First, we need to understand: how much caffeine does coffee contain?

How Much Caffeine Is in Coffee Beans?

Coffee is a beverage made by brewing coffee beans. Without understanding the caffeine content in coffee beans, how can we determine the caffeine content in coffee? (Although this sounds circular, it's the truth~) Different varieties have different caffeine contents. Currently, commercially valuable coffee varieties are mainly divided into two categories: Arabica and Robusta. The caffeine content in Arabica varieties is around 0.9-1.4% (average 1.3%), while Robusta contains twice that "dosage," around 2-4%, with an average of 3%.

The fluctuations in these caffeine contents stem from changes that occur when coffee beans are grown in different regions and environments. Furthermore, varieties with extremely low caffeine content have been developed! Their caffeine content is about half that of regular Arabica varieties, which is why people call them "decaf coffee." (For more details, you can refer to the article "What is Decaf Coffee")

How Much Caffeine Does a Cup of Coffee Contain?

I believe most friends now understand how to calculate this~ That's right! You can calculate the peak caffeine content by taking the amount of coffee beans used (in grams) and multiplying it by the average caffeine content of that variety. For example, if 15g of coffee powder is used to extract a cup of pour-over coffee, the peak calculation would be 15g × 1.3% (Arabica average), resulting in approximately 195mg of caffeine in this cup of pour-over coffee.

However, it's important to know that this is the peak value, not the actual caffeine content. What does this mean? This cup of coffee would need to extract all the caffeine from the coffee beans to contain 195mg of caffeine! The actual caffeine content is much lower than this value! FrontStreet Coffee says this because caffeine is a "soluble substance." A coffee bean contains 30% soluble substances, but we don't need to extract all 30%. We typically only extract 18-22%. If all 30% of soluble substances were extracted, the entire cup of coffee would be unbearably bitter. Caffeine is a bitter substance, and as FrontStreet Coffee has shared before, although bitter substances are released throughout the entire extraction process, their rate is much slower compared to acidic and sweet substances. The higher the extraction efficiency of a cup of coffee, the more caffeine it will contain. Therefore, calculated according to normal extraction efficiency, a cup of pour-over coffee made with 15g of powder should actually contain approximately 60-90mg of caffeine!

Caffeine Content in Different Brewing Methods

Applying the above conclusions to other brewing methods, we can calculate their respective caffeine contents based on their extraction time and efficiency:

A cup of cold brew coffee (200ml/20g beans/12 hours) contains approximately 200mg of caffeine;
A cup of French press coffee (225ml/15g beans/5 minutes) contains approximately 120mg of caffeine;
A cup of pour-over coffee (225ml/15g beans/2 minutes) contains approximately 60-90mg of caffeine;
A shot of espresso (30ml/15g beans/30 seconds) contains approximately 85mg of caffeine.

Note: Espresso-based drinks such as lattes, cappuccinos, Dirty, and Americanos are all made with espresso as the base. Therefore, unless the espresso content is reduced, their caffeine content is equivalent to that of espresso!

How Many Cups of Coffee Can You Drink Per Day?

This has been a popular topic recently! According to research, an adult's daily caffeine intake should not exceed 400mg. This means that as long as consumption stays below this value, there should be no problem! Taking the average caffeine content of a cup of pour-over coffee as 80mg, you just need to control your daily pour-over intake to within 5 cups, and there will be no issue. (Although few people actually drink more than five cups~)

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No. 10, Bao'an Front Street, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

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