In the eyes of most people, coffee is a drink that is consumed to refresh oneself, but its aroma also attracts a group of friends who pursue delicious food, including those who are intolerant to caffeine but are "greedy", such as the customer mentioned at the beginning of Qian Street.Today, in this article, Front Street will talk about the caffeine content of various types of coffee, as well as everyone’s misunderstandings about caffeine.
How much caffeine a coffee bean contains depends first on its variety and the altitude at which it is grown. Taking the two most common coffee varieties, Robusta has about 2 to 4% of its caffeine content, while Arabica has about 0.9 to 1.4%, which is usually only half of that of Robusta. Most of the conventional freshly ground coffee on the market uses Arabica varieties. Only a few add a small proportion of Roman beans to the blend in order to make the espresso richer in fat.
The higher the altitude at which it is grown, the lower the caffeine content tends to be. High-altitude planting areas have lower temperatures and fewer pests and diseases, so coffee trees do not need to secrete too much caffeine to resist pests. This also explains why Robusta grown at lower altitudes contains so much caffeine, so this standard is mainly for Arabica species.
Front Street once popularized science that when brewing coffee, the lighter flavor molecules will be released first, while the heavier macromolecules will be incorporated into the water later. Caffeine, whose chemical formula is "C8H10N4O2", is a large-mass molecule, so like flavor substances, the amount of caffeine released is also related to the extraction time. That is, the longer it is steeped, the higher the caffeine content.
Therefore, the caffeine content of espresso drinks is not the highest. The caffeine content of drip coffee, which is mainly made by hand, and immersion coffee, which is mainly French press, is slightly higher. Although cold brew and ice-drip coffee are extracted at low temperature, the long extraction time makes the caffeine content higher than the previous ones.
The following is the approximate caffeine content reference of common coffee categories given by Front Street based on the daily quantity produced:
Front Street needs to emphasize one more point here. The above values are based on regular extraction and are not absolute results. The actual caffeine content of a cup of coffee is also related to the extraction rate. For example, if two cups of Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee are brewed here, one is finely ground and the other is coarsely ground, and other parameters remain the same, then the fine grinding will definitely release more flavor substances than the coarse grinding, and the caffeine content will naturally be higher. In other words, if the coffee is ground finely, the taste will be richer and more refreshing.
On the Internet, there are often popular science articles telling us that an adult cannot consume more than 400mg of caffeine per day, otherwise it will affect health. Friends who are sensitive to caffeine will think about how to calculate the specific caffeine value through the drinks they drink, so as to avoid excessive intake. So, they ask questions like "How much caffeine is in a cup of coffee?"
You know, from a barista's perspective, in addition to the coffee variety, planting altitude, and brewing time, multiple factors that affect the extraction of coffee substances also determine the amount of caffeine it contains. Taking hand brewing as an example, differences in grinding degree, water temperature, water injection method, and powder-to-water ratio will directly change the extraction of caffeine, so it is difficult to measure it with specific values.
Front Street noticed that some friends believe that caffeine is related to the degree of roasting. They feel that the darker the roast, the lighter the coffee beans will be. When weighing the same weight of beans for brewing, the amount of dark roast coffee required will be greater than that of light roast beans. In addition, the structure of dark roast beans is fluffier and it is easier to extract flavor substances. Therefore, they feel that dark roast beans have more caffeine and are more refreshing.
However, many studies have shown that the degree of roasting of coffee beans actually has no effect on caffeine. At this time, friends who have personal experience may say: I do feel more refreshed after drinking dark roasted coffee! It only means that in your subconscious mind, only bitter coffee with a thick taste can refresh you compared to sour coffee with a soft entrance. This is why many people mistakenly believe that espresso has the highest caffeine content.
For some friends who are caffeine intolerant, whether it is instant, bottled coffee, freshly ground espresso, Pour over(V60) filter coffee, or long-time brewed ice-drip or cold-brew coffee, the caffeine content of these drinks is still relatively high, and it is easy to fall asleep after drinking it. If you really want to drink coffee but don’t want to consume caffeine, you can choose artificial decaf coffee, which contains almost no caffeine.
FrontStreet Coffee
No. 10, Baoanqian Street, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
