Obviously caffeine is a stimulant, a lot of people rely on in it, through coffee, to start off their day.
We know a chemical engineer and he gave us the chance to ask a few questions about caffeine. We wanted to bring some certainty on the most common asked questions about coffee and caffeine.
When Is The Ideal Time To Have A Brew?
According to the U.S. Department of Defence, you get the best out of you coffee and least downside, if you have your coffee between 9am and 10am. When we say the best out of your coffee, we mean functional benefits. On the other hand when we mention downsides we mean the effect of caffeine hindering your ability to sleep.
Other research shows that the effects of caffeine vary depending on when and how often you consume coffee/ caffeine. At the end of the day everyon is different so even though research says between 9am and 10am is ideal, there is no perfect time to drink coffee.
How Much Caffeine Is Safe To Drink?
An Australian group of researchers did a study on how many cups of coffee it took to change someones heartrate. A negative impact of caffeine over-consumption is an increased heartrate.
The group managed to find out that it took 8.5 cups of espresso based coffee to see a measurable different a persons heart rate, up until that point the effects were unable to measure.
Another way to find out the how much coffee is safe to have is looking at the safety data sheet for caffeine. Do you drink the toxic limit, you would have to have 25 litres of filter coffee. I love coffee as much as the next person but there is no chance I could drink that much.
Does Caffeine Extract First?
This is a bit of a myth in the coffee industry.
Some people think that caffeine extracts the quickest and there is less caffeine is in the coffee towards the end of the extraction. This is not the case.
Caffeine is consistently found accros the extraction, whether it be espresso of filter coffee. Only 20% of the caffeine in the coffee used is available the rest remains in the used coffee grounds/ puc.
The longer the extraction, the more caffeine in the cup, but at no point is more or less extracted.
Does Decaf Coffee Contain Caffeine?
Short answer, YES.
It's pretty tough to get rid of all caffeine in coffee, even with the many processes we use to try do so.
A lot of decaf coffees still have around 1-10% of the caffeine, depending on the coffee and method. So there is still a bit of caffeine but a lot less than normal.
Does Espresso or Filter Coffee Have More Caffeine?
So which brewing method, if any, extracts the most caffeine.
So, in terms of concentration of coffee, espresso is higher, filter coffee on the other hand has more caffeine in the cup due to the amount of coffee in the cup.
These results may vary, depending on how much ground coffee is used and how much water is used when brewing.
Does Dark Roast Have More Caffeine?
Just because dark roast coffee tastes a lot stronger, it doesn't mean there is any more caffeine.
Some people also think that the more coffee is roasted, the less caffeine is in the coffee. This is also untrue as caffeine is a refractory molecule, which means it doesnt change when exposed to high temperatures.
Darker roasted coffee does taste stronger, because after bean roasted for longer, it becomes more soluble.
Stronger, but not in caffeine.
Comments