Wednesday, March 20, 2013

World's strongest coffee?


I note that a company calling itself Death Wish Coffee has just introduced what it claims is the world's strongest coffee.  They caution darkly:  "Death Wish Coffee is the most highly caffeinated premium dark roast organic coffee in the world. This is Extreme Coffee, not for the weak. Consider yourself Warned."

Yahoo! Shine reports:

A single 12-ounce cup of coffee at Starbucks contains approximately 260 milligrams of caffeine according to EnergyFiend, a caffeine database. The same cup from Death Wish Coffee contains 520 milligrams, double the amount, and enough to give you some serious jitters.

. . .

But before you indulge in that hopped-up brew, proceed with caution.

Last year, the FDA posted several warnings about illness and deaths related to the consumption of energy drinks that contain large amounts of caffeine. Monster Energy, which has been named in a suit involving death of a teenage girl by cardiac arrest after she drank a 24-ounce can, contains 480 milligrams of caffeine. According to Consumer Reports, the daily amount of caffeine consumed for a healthy adult should not exceed 400 milligrams.

There's more at the link.  However, a Huffington Post reporter wasn't all that impressed by it.

Personally, I think I'll pass . . . but if any readers try the stuff, do please let us know in Comments how you found it.

Peter

10 comments:

Douglas2 said...

ON the need for caution:
http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/17/nyt-message-on-energy-drinks-be-afraid-s

There seems to be a bit of a moral crusade against energy drinks. I hadn't been aware of it until a discussion at work, where I found young people today are pretty ignorant of the caffeine levels both of coffee and tea, but also the drinks that print them right on the can or bottle.

Mikael said...

Twelve ounces is a pretty big cup of coffee... a regular coffee cup is more like half an ounce. So to exceed the recommended limit with regular coffee cups you'd need to drink about... 37 of them.

Mikael said...

PS: That means that with this super coffee, you'd need to drink about 18-19 regular coffee cups worth to exceed the daily limit. About 9 ounces.

dave said...

Mikael, where do you get half an ounce? I've never seen a cup that small; typically 8oz is the smallest I see, with 12oz, 14oz, and 16oz being common.

Douglas2 said...

dry weight, ground coffe will weigh perhaps 0.25 oz per tablespoon.

An espresso serving is often about 2 fluid oz. I suspect this coffee is supplied in an espresso grind.

The markings on the average home drip filter coffee maker are 6 fl. oz.

Coffeshop paper cup sizes are 12, 20, and 24 fl oz

Mikael said...

Oops, my numbers are a victim of the decimal error. I was thinking an ounce was about 30cl, rather than 30ml. Ok so the recommendation is to drink no more than a cup and a half, or one large cup, per day.

Back in high school I didn't drink coffee but I could have 4-5 caffiene pills(100mg) in a day, plus sodas with caffiene. These days I rarely have more than one cup of coffee.

Scott said...

And if you're feeling really brave (or caffeine-dependent), there's the Black Blood of the Earth.

http://shop.funraniumlabs.com/products/750ml-death-wish-bbote.html

Triple cold brewed coffee, so it has none of the bitter oils of hot-brewed coffee.

This also means significantly higher caffeine concentrations, though BBotE hasn't been tested to a google search. The creator recommends not more than 100ml/day of 'regular strength' BBotE and not more than 50ml/day of Death Wish, cut with 3 parts hot water.

But I have a nasty caffeine addiction left over from the Navy that I should really get around to kicking. No distilled caffeine for me.

Scott said...

Oops, missed a link. BBotE has about 40x (yes, forty times) the caffeine of regular hot-brewed coffee.

Has your heart exploded yet?

Anonymous said...

Son got a pound of whole bean at Christmas. It didn't last long. Nobody else got a taste, he went through it way fast! Said it had a nice flavor though.

skreidle said...

Background on the Black Blood of the Earth that the other Scott mentioned:

http://www.funraniumlabs.com/the-black-blood-of-the-earth/

(Interestingly, they also have a product named Death Wish.)