How Many mg Of Caffeine Is In Coffee?
We all know that caffeine is one of the key ingredients in coffee.
It’s tasteless, but it is the thing that activates that buzz at the base of your brain - the kick that gets the day well and truly started!
It’s only natural that you’d start to wonder, at some point or another, how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee?
Well, we’ve got the answers to that question and so many more in this article - so let’s get to it.
So firstly:
How Many mg’s of Caffeine is in Coffee?
A cup of coffee contains roughly 100mg of caffeine.
However there is a huge difference between types of coffee and the way it’s brewed. Plus the volume of coffee.
Take a look at the recent study by Which? that highlights the difference in the UK’s high street coffee shop’s caffeine level per coffee.
Image: Which?
How Much Caffeine Is Too Much?
Well, this is something that’s quite hard to answer.
Caffeine is a very potent chemical, at least in terms of the effects that it has relative to the volume of the chemical itself.
This is because it was developed by coffee plants as a natural insecticide, so the concentration has gotten higher and higher through evolution to be more effective against bugs.
Now, this may shock you, but humans are quite different from bugs.
This means that while caffeine cannot affect us in the same terrible way, it instead gives us the energy boost that we all know and love.
It is possible to have so much caffeine that you overdose, though you’d need around two hundred cups of coffee to reach that amount.
To overdose on caffeine, you need to have around 200mg of caffeine per kilo of bodyweight.
A cup of coffee contains around 100mg of caffeine, so two cups of coffee per kilo of bodyweight. Therefore, for a person weighing around 100kg, you’d need two hundred cups of coffee!
The reality is that you’d likely reach an uncomfortable level of caffeine in your bloodstream a long way before that.
If you’re a seasoned coffee drinker, you likely already know how much coffee is the sweet spot for you.
If you’re not too practiced, then we’d recommend easing your way in - drink a cup of coffee, and keep an eye on how you’re feeling for the next couple of hours.
If you start to feel shaky and anxious, you’ve gone too far.
Is 200mg Of Caffeine a Day a Lot?
200mg of caffeine is as much caffeine as there is in two cups of coffee, roughly.
The actual number of cups is a little trickier to define because of variations in the individual beans, but the conversion is roughly 100mg of caffeine in 1 cup of coffee.
So, looking at it in those terms, you’re essentially asking if two cups of coffee per day is a lot.
Of course, going from no coffee to two mugs may feel like a lot, but we don’t think that two cups of coffee per day is a lot for most people. In fact, that’s probably roughly average.
Most coffee-drinkers tend to have a cup of coffee when they wake up, and then another at some point during the day, or in the early afternoon to get them through the final few hours of work.
Therefore, two mugs is probably a rough average for most people.
How Many Cups of Coffee is 400mg of Caffeine?
As we just pointed out, the general rule of thumb is that one mug of coffee contains 100mg of caffeine.
This can deviate a little depending upon the precise beans and size of the coffee that you’re drinking, but it’s a useful number to use as a rough estimate.
This means that 400mg of caffeine equates to roughly four cups of coffee. That’s quite a lot to drink in one sitting, but spreading it out through the day makes things a little easier on a person.
An easy way to think of it is in the same way that you might think of drinking alcohol.
Drinking several pints of beer over the course of a few hours isn’t too tricky, but drinking several pints of beer all in one go could have quite a pronounced effect on you.
Photo: Business Insider
This figure will change a little if you’re not drinking black coffee, and you’re instead drinking espresso or even milky espresso drinks.
A double shot of espresso has around 120mg of caffeine in it, so drinking three (and a bit) espressos would get you 400mg of caffeine particularly quickly.
The amount of caffeine in a drink doesn’t change when you add hot, steamed milk to it. It is argued, though, that the milky content of the drink makes you feel the effect of the caffeine a little less.
Therefore, you could get 400mg of caffeine with just over three lattes, but you would likely not feel the effect of the caffeine quite so strongly.
How Do I Cut Back On Caffeine?
There are plenty of ways to cut down on the amount of caffeine in your diet, but the first that we would recommend is to find an alternative to some of the coffee in your day.
For example, if you find yourself drinking a cup of coffee every day just for something to fill your midmorning break at work, you could opt for a cup of herbal tea instead, since that will be caffeine-free.
We’d recommend trying out a rooibos tea, it’s naturally caffeine-free, and really tasty, too!
We’d also recommend looking for non-coffee sources of caffeine in your diet. There are plenty of foods with caffeine in them, since it’s a chemical that’s present in the seed pods of a number of plants.
For example, chocolate has a small amount of caffeine that will increase your overall intake if you have a little on a regular basis.
Another example is soda - a number of sodas, and particularly cola-flavored sodas, contain caffeine to some extent. Cutting them out of your diet can represent a significant decrease in the amount of caffeine you’re having.
We hope that, throughout the course of this article, we’ve been able to answer your questions about caffeine, and how you can be sure to manage the level of it in your diet.
Whether your next coffee is standard or decaffeinated, happy brewing!
How much caffeine is in coffee vs Coke?
Coffee generally speaking has more caffeine than coke.
On average, 240ml cup of coffee contains about 95 milligrams of caffeine, while a 355ml can of Coca-Cola contains around 34 milligrams of caffeine.
However, these amounts can vary depending on the type of coffee, the roasting method, and other factors.
What does caffeine do to your body?
Caffeine is a stimulant that affects the central nervous system. When consumed, it can produce effects such as Increased alertness and concentration, Boosted energy levels, Elevated heart rate and blood pressure, Improved physical performance, Reduced fatigue or an Increased metabolism.
However, excessive caffeine consumption can lead to side effects such as jitteriness, rapid heartbeat, and difficulty sleeping.
It is important to consume caffeine in moderation, as everyone's tolerance to caffeine is different and excessive consumption can lead to negative effects on the body.
