How Much Caffeine is Really in That Soda?

The Fun Guy writes "The Institute of Food Technologists summarizes some recent research on food. All things considering, it should settle some arguments among geeks about the caffination of beverages. 'Caffeine is a well-known stimulant added as an ingredient to various carbonated soft drinks, but which drink contains the most, and how can consumers know? A study in the Journal of Food Science used high-performance liquid chromatography to analyze the caffeine contents of 56 national-brand and 75 private-label store brand carbonated beverages. Caffeine contents ranged from 4.9 mg/12 oz (IGA Cola) to 74 mg/12 oz (Vault Zero). Some of the more common national-brand carbonated beverages analyzed in this study were Coca-Cola (33.9 mg/12 oz), Diet Coke (46.3 mg/12 oz), Pepsi (38.9 mg/12 oz), Diet Pepsi (36.7 mg/12 oz), Dr Pepper (42.6 mg/12 oz), Diet Dr Pepper (44.1 mg/12 oz), Mountain Dew (54.8 mg/12 oz), and Diet Mountain Dew (55.2 mg/12 oz). The authors found that store-brand beverages generally contained less caffeine, and they also suggest that consumers would benefit from having the actual caffeine content labeled on the beverage.'"

The only answer that matters...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not enough.

How much caffiene is in a...

[Bill Wong]

Quad Espresso in an iced venti cup plus ten additional shots of espresso? Yes, that's fourteen shots in total.

I have to repeat that order everytime I order at Starbucks, because it doesn't click the first time they hear it.

Re:How much caffiene is in a...

[Sawopox]

That has got to cause your sphincter to enter into almost immediate shock. I'd be unable to get more than 10-15 feet before this drink emptied me completely.

Charging means reliable

[badriram]

dont you know that if someone charges for something, it means it is better. The more expensive the product the better its quality automatically gets. that is why free software sucks compared to apple or ms software, dont you read the research they release. /sarcasm

Re:$39?!

[HeLLFiRe1151]

Yes, but it's a $59 value.

Because furlong per fortnight

[flyingfsck]

is a measure of speed and would not work in this case and a hogshead is more than most people can drink, they had to use gram per fluid ounce...

Re:Measuring units?

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm sure the only measures they have of caffeine is in mg and it wouldn't make sense to convert it to metric."

I always have trouble converting mg to metric as well. I can never remember if it's add 0 then divide by 1. Or multiply by 1 then subtract 0.

ummm

[commodoresloat]

Please stop retarding the world with your garbage non-standard unit system.

In other news, high amounts of caffeine seem to correlate with aggression and a tendency to lash out against others...

Re:Jolt?

[ari_j]

Do they have Crystal Pepsi? How much caffeine is in that? Does it age like a fine wine?

How much? Well, this is Slashdot, so:

[Kohath]

It's an ALARMINGLY small/medium/large amount. Be alarmed.
It's a CONSPIRATORIALLY large/medium/small amount. They're out to get you.
It's a nasty CORPORATE amount. You should be randomly angry that your soda isn't made in some guy's garage by 11-year-old soda hackers.
It's an ANTI-CONSUMER amount. Consumers deserve more/less at a lower price (free if there was any justice, man).
It's an UNSCIENTIFIC amount. Those Christians wouldn't let stem cells evolve into the right amount -- we hate them.
It's an amount that VIOLATES YOUR RIGHTS. Online.
GEORGE BUSH hates your soda and makes the caffeine the wrong amount. Cheney hates the can.

The amount is most unfair to women and minorities and we could get it fixed if they'd stop outsourcing all the soda engineering jobs to Bangalore.

Diet Mountain Dew ??!?!

[2.7182]

Yechh! I'll have the crab juice.

Re:Jolt?

[evilviper]

Do they have Crystal Pepsi? How much caffeine is in that? Does it age like a fine wine?

After Crystal Pepsi went out of production, I bought the last 6-pack on the supermarket shelves... (I wasn't much of a fan, but it wasn't bad)

I can assure you, 6 months after the expiration date, Crystal Pepsi tastes like dirt in water... Not a slight hint of dirt, mind you, but a slight hint of only Crystal Pepsi in your can of dirt-water...

They missed a few in their tests...

[ljkopen]

Namely the following:

Caffine-Free Coca-Cola,

Caffine-Free Diet Coke,

Caffine-Free Dr. Pepper,

... etc ...

Re:How much caffiene is in a...

[GreggBz]

Screw that, homess, I like to crush up about 9 vvivirian in a pedestals and motor, and then disolve the powder in visine.
A feqww half dozeen drop2ws in the eyyeys, I'm reararanging furniture! straingt to the bRAIN, STRAIT TO THE BRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Re:Jolt?

[kennygraham]

Wouldn't trust that list. Look at these mg/oz measurements:

Starbucks Grande Caffe Latte: 7.25
Starbucks Tall Caffe Latte: 4.83

They come from the same source coffeepot, yet they have different concentrations. Go figure.

1. Lattes don't have anything that comes from a coffee pot. They're espresso based, not coffee based.
2. The tall lattes have a higher milk/espresso ratio than the grandes. More milk per oz means less caffine per oz.

IANASEBIDO (I am not a starbucks employee, but I dated one)

Re:Jolt?

[Plutonite]

We are more interested in the fact that you dated, rather than worked as, a Starbucks employee than in any information regarding coffee you may appear to posses. This is slashdot you see. Everything is working as per usual, nothing strange happening with the mods.

Re:Jolt?

[GuldKalle]

So you're saying it does get better with age?

Re:Jolt?

[g0dsp33d]

I'm pretty sure you'd reach death by diabetes first, or even over-hydration(desalinization?). Or possibly just loose the will to live after about can 40.