Many of us just can’t get through the day without our morning cup of java, whether it comes from the home drip machine, the corner coffee shop, or a coffee pod machine at the office. Coffee is not only a great tasting treat, but it’s a great pick-me-up for a lull in your afternoon. It is no mystery that coffee contains caffeine, but does anyone know just how much? The question arises, who is consuming more caffeine? A coffee drinker, tea drinker, soda drinker or chocoholics? Let’s take a look at just how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee, and what that means.
It may surprise you to know that the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee can vary depending on various factors. It depends on the type of coffee and the way it’s been brewed. For instance, ordinary drip-brewed coffee has about 150 milligrams of coffee per cup (that’s 7 ounces to a cup). Other types of brewing can produce a cup with anywhere from 80 to 175 milligrams per cup.
Instant coffee, though, comes in somewhere between 65 to 100 milligrams. Decaf coffee even has some traces of caffeine, and espresso shots are around 80 milligrams each. This is usually pretty negligible—less than 6 milligrams for brewed decaf and less than 3 for instant. Yet, it is there.
So, how does that compare to other foods? It would be difficult to get an accurate idea of how much caffeine is actually in a cup of coffee without some scale on which to judge it. Twelve ounces of iced tea contains about 70 milligrams of caffeine, with hot brewed tea usually having between 40 and 60 milligrams. Also, instant tea has about 30 milligrams. A caffeinated soft drink might be anywhere between 20 and 40 milligrams, and 8 ounces of cocoa could be between 3 and 30. An ounce of milk chocolate offers 1 to 15 milligrams of caffeine, and an ounce of more potent dark chocolate 5 to 35. Caffeine pills range between 100 and 200 milligrams of caffeine each, and a caffeinated cold medication comes in at about 30 milligrams.
Of course, there’s a wide range for every cup, since even the same person using the same ingredients and equipment every day is going to produce a cup of coffee or tea with vastly different caffeine content. Coffee is one of the more potent sources of caffeine, but it’s not the most potent or the only one out there. So, just how much caffeine is in your cup of coffee? It all depends on how it’s made and the particular cup you’re drinking.
