So you’re wanting to know which coffee has the most caffeine, and while this is a very simple question with a very simple answer, it’s also a slightly less simple question, with a less simple answer, and if that has just confused the heck out of you, apologies, but it’ll all make perfect sense in just a minute.
Firstly let’s just offer some gratitude toward the amazing psychoactive drug known as caffeine and the lovely, tasty, satisfying caffeine delivery method known as a cup of coffee.
Some people will do a double-take at the “psychoactive drug” comment, as most of us coffee lovers don’t think of ourselves as drug users, but technically speaking we are. Caffeine is a drug, it’s a stimulant, a psychoactive substance, in fact, the National Institutes of Health state that caffeine is the “most consumed psychoactive drug in the world”.
But thankfully, it’s not a controlled substance, which is why we don’t tend to think of it as a “drug”, so it’s both legally and socially acceptable, phew!
For me, though, and for most specialty coffee lovers, coffee is so much more than purely a caffeine delivery method.
If all you’re looking for is caffeine, there are other options. Coffee doesn’t only deliver caffeine, it contains over a thousand compounds, of which caffeine is just one, and in my opinion, it’s all of these components as one whole, that makes coffee so special, it isn’t purely the caffeine.
Have you ever taken a caffeine tablet or a pill or tablet that contains caffeine in addition to another ingredient? I have, by mistake actually!
I thought I’d fished out a box of paracetamol from the back of the medicine cabinet, but I’d actually grabbed a blister pack of a cold & flu tablet that turned out to be a mixture of caffeine and paracetamol. The amount of caffeine they contained was equal to about half the caffeine I’d usually consume in one coffee, yet the effect they had on me was strange, I felt jittery and had palpitations, which is what led me to investigate what I’d actually taken!
Also, when I consume other caffeinated beverages, I don’t get the same kind of buzz that I get from coffee.
When I have my first coffee of the day (especially when I purposely leave it until slightly later in the day instead of having my first coffee as soon as I wake up) I can literally feel my mood changing, this doesn’t happen with any other caffeinated food or drink I’ve ever consumed.
So look, I’m no doctor, I’m not even a real Barista, I just play one on YouTube, but in my opinion, Coffee delivers a LOT more than only caffeine. So if you’re researching what coffee has the most caffeine because you think that it’s purely the caffeine that is responsible for the impact your cup of coffee makes on you, and you want to amplify that, I’m going to make a suggestion that could change your life!
That suggestion is that if you currently drink “normal” mainstream coffee – instead of seeking the same coffee that you usually consume but with higher caffeine content, try freshly roasted specialty coffee beans. If you can buy whole bean and grind them yourself just prior to brewing, even better!
Why should this make any difference? When you buy mainstream coffee, commodity coffee, from the store while you’re buying your groceries, even without having a discussion about the quality of the coffee beans, or the roast profile, we can be fairly certain that most of this coffee is going to have been roasted quite a long time before you end up with it, so it’s not fresh.
Unless you see a roasted on date, then it’s not freshly roasted, and it could have been roasted anywhere from several weeks to several months from when you end up throwing it into your cart. Just as with any other fresh product, nutrients are degraded by the staling process, so the masses of compounds that your coffee contains are going to be in some form of deterioration by the time you open the bag or tin.
If you thought coffee was a simple thing, you’d be very wrong, by the way, as will be clear as soon as I start to list just some of the organic compounds that coffee contains:
- Hydrocarbons
- Acids
- Ketones
- Esters
- Lactones
- Phenols
- Thiophenes
- Pyrroles
- Oxazoles
OK, I’ve heard of a couple of these, most of us know that coffee contains Acids, but what the heck is an Oxazole? If you answered: “Ah yes, these are aromatic heterocyclic compounds which contain a five-membered ring consisting of three carbon atoms, one oxygen atom, and one nitrogen atom”, then you’re either AI (which is where I got this answer from!) or you’re much more intelligent than I am!
The point is, coffee is a very complex organization with a huge array of organic compounds, of which caffeine is but one, and in my very non-scientific opinion, purely from my own experience, many of the other compounds have an impact not only on how coffee tastes, but on how it impacts our systems, so when we enjoy freshly roasted high-quality coffee beans – we’re enjoying it in it’s most vibrant and most potent state, as far as I’m concerned.
If you disagree, that’s fine, but all I’d say to this is do you have “fresh” fruit and veg that is weeks or months old, and if not, why not? I rest my case ;-).
If at this point you’re thinking “Kev, shut up, I just want to know which coffee has the most caffeine, answer that question already” – OK then, if that’s all you want to know, here you go:
What Do You Mean by “What Coffee”?
When I said that this question isn’t quite as simple as it seems, the reason for that is simply down to the way the question is asked. When you as “What Coffee Has The Most Caffeine”, what do you mean by “What coffee”?
There are multiple answers to this, depending on what you meant, so I thought I’d answer them all so you can pick the one you were really seeking an answer to, but hopefully, you’ll find them all at least mildly interesting ;-).
Which Coffee Species Contains The Most Caffeine
Here I’m talking about species, not varietal. The species most of us are aware of, are Arabica and Robusta, these are the only species of coffee that are widely available, and of these Robusta contains the most caffeine. Generally speaking, Robusta contains around double the caffeine that Arabica contains.
So if you’re only drinking coffee for the caffeine, and you literally just want to drink the coffee with the highest caffeine content, you might want to go and seek out a 100% Robusta. There aren’t very many options for 100% Robusta coffees, and it’s not something you’ll usually find from a specialty roaster, but here are a couple of options if you want to try it.
DEAD OR ALIVE COFFEE No3 – 100% Robusta
Nguyen Coffee Hanoi Peaberry Robusta
I’m not a fan of 100% Robusta, personally, I find it to be too astringent for my tastebuds, but if you’d not tried them, I wouldn’t just make the assumption that you won’t like them either, give them a try. Robusta is the most popular when blended with Arabica, as they can provide that flavor punch and the caffeine kick that many people are seeking, not to mention the rich crema that Arabica/Robusta espresso blends are known for.
In case you’re interested, by the way, although these are the two commonly commercially available species of coffee, there are LOADS of others, some of which you might have heard of if you’re a coffee geek like me ;-), such as Liberica & Excelsa, but many of which you might not be familiar with. What’s that, you want a list of ALL the recognized species of coffee, wow, you don’t want much, do you? ;-), here you go:
- Adenocalyx
- Affinis
- Amplifolia
- Anthonyi
- Arabica
- Arabicoides
- Bonnieri
- Brevipes
- Brienii
- Burchellii
- Canephora (known as Robusta)
- Congensis
- Costatifructa
- Dewevrei
- Dybowskii
- Eburnea
- Eugenioides
- Gallienii
- Gilletii
- Gyroides
- Heterocalyx
- Kirondron
- Klainei
- Laurifolia
- Lebruniana
- Liberica
- Macrocarpa
- Mannii
- Mogeneti
- Montekupi
- Mufindiensis
- Nana
- Neuracantha
- Niameyensis
- Nsefuensis
- Occidentalis
- Pachyphylla
- Pocsii
- Poggei
- Quarrei
- Racemosa
- Rehmii
- Rigidula
- Rowlandii
- Saberi
- Schweinfurthii
- Sessiliflora
- Spartioides
- Stipulata
- Stuhlmannii
- Tshikalakalaensis
- Usambarae
- Vanga
- Velutina
- Zanguebariae
If you want a list of these in order of the most caffeine, by the way, I can’t help you there ;-), sorry! It wouldn’t be of much use anyway, as it’s only really Arabica and Robusta that are commonly available, although Liberica and Excelsca coffee beans can be sourced too, and these contain slightly less than Arabica, around a third less generally speaking.
Which Type of Coffee Contains The Most Caffeine – Single Origin Vs Blends
If you’re wondering if single origins or blends contain the most caffeine, then generally speaking, what is often labeled as “espresso blends” will usually contain the most caffeine.
Espresso blends tend to be a blend of Arabica and Robusta, so the Robusta content increases the overall caffeine content of these kinds of blends vs single origins or 100% Arabica blends.
If you’re buying specialty espresso blends from small-batch roasters, they may tell you on their website (or if you ask them directly) what the percentage of Arabica is, which will give you an idea of how much caffeine the blend will have, but from experience, I’d expect a lot of small batch roasters to be using up to 10% of Robusta in their Arabica/Robusta blends, maybe 15% in some cases, but anywhere over 20% is fairly rare.
If you’re buying bigger brand espresso blends, Segafredo Zanetti Intermezzo, for example, is 60% Arabica, and 40% Robusta, which makes it one of the highest Robusta and therefore one of the highest caffeine content blends.
Segafredo Intermezzo
Which Roast Level Contains The Most Caffeine?
Maybe you’re wondering which roast profile contains more caffeine, and that’s actually a good question in my opinion, simply because it’s not what most people would think.
This is quite a confusing subject, and as a result, there are assumptions and myths on both sides of the argument, some believing that caffeine content is somehow enhanced by roasting darker (which actually turns out to be true!) and many believe in the commonly repeated myth that lighter roasts contain more caffeine.
Strength is often attributed to roast level, with darker roasts being classed as “stronger”, and most people would think that “stronger” means higher caffeine simply due to the way that coffee is commonly labeled with the roast level being used as a level of intensity. Roasting darker can bring out the roasty and smoky notes you’ll usually get from a darker roast, so from that perspective, you may say it tastes more intense, or stronger, but this doesn’t mean it contains more caffeine.
Cortado vs Cappuccino
Theoretically, a darker roast should probably contain less caffeine, because it would appear to make sense that the longer you roast beans for the more caffeine will be released due to evaporation, or whatever – this, I think, is what a lot of people think, and is probably where the myth comes from that lighter roasts contain more caffeine.
Caffeine does something called sublimation, which is something I know a bit about, as it’s what I used to do in my previous life (Before being a full-time coffee blogger, I worked with a printing process called dye sublimation which uses this scientific process) and this is where a substance (in this case caffeine, but it works with dye molecules too) turns directly into a gas, and then back into a solid, without going through the usual liquid phase.
Fun fact, this is how dry ice works, you know the fake smoke sometimes used on stage (not the same as a fog machine, they work differently) this is solid carbon dioxide which is sublimated (the correct level of heat applied to cause the sublimation process) in which it turns straight into the gas form of carbon dioxide.
Here’s the thing, ALL roast levels are taken beyond 352.4ºF / 178ºC, so whatever caffeine sublimates during roasting, it happens to all roast levels, and taking a roast hotter or roasting for longer will make little or no difference to sublimation.
But what about evaporation?
Evaporation is something that happens to liquids, not solids, so caffeine doesn’t evaporate, and sublimation isn’t evaporation, it’s a different chemical process that bypasses the liquid phase. Having said that, caffeine does melt, at which point the melted caffeine becomes a liquid, and can evaporate.
The melting point of caffeine is 487ºF to 490.6ºF / 235ºC – 237ºC, and beans wouldn’t usually reach these temperatures during roasting. The temperature during the second crack is usually approx 467.2°F to 470.8°F / 224-226 ° C.
So we can conclude from this that whatever caffeine leaves the beans due to sublimation, happens to all beans regardless of roast profile and that most beans even if they’re taken to and beyond the second crack, are unlikely to reach the caffeine melting point.
So based purely on science, without even doing any testing, I think we can be fairly certain generally speaking, a light roast is not going to contain more caffeine than a dark roast.
In fact, from James Hoffman’s testing, he concluded that the opposite is true! He tested three roasts, light, medium, and dark, and the dark roast had 8.5% more caffeine than the light roast.
Why is this? Well, James concluded the same thing I would assume, which is that because more moisture is removed during darker roasting, dark roast beans are lighter, so an 18g dose of dark roast beans actually contains more coffee beans and therefore more caffeine. He counted the beans in each dose and determined that the increase in coffee to make up the same dose weight, was 7%, not 8.5%, so it didn’t quite add up, but he figured that the 1.5% difference is probably simply that darker roasts extract a bit more readily so he’s probably just extracted a bit more caffeine from the darker roasts.