That Double Shot Americano

You wake up bleary eyed, and can’t even function until you get to your favorite caffeine dispensary for that double shot americano, and the jolt it will provide. Ahhhh, that first sip, you can feel your vision sharpening almost as soon as it hits your tongue.  Would it shock you to know that your friend having a cup of the light roast blend is actually getting more caffeine in her beverage than you are?  Is that simply because the darker the roast the less caffeine in your beverage?  Yes and no.

As with many things, there are a lot of variables to factor when you’re measuring the potential punch in your cup of joe.  If you compare a shot (or two) of espresso to a twelve ounce cup of regular coffee, the cup will have more caffeine because of the volume of the beverage.  You need to start with the understanding that caffeine can vary due to type of bean, type of roast, temperature of the water used to brew the coffee, and a number of other conditions.  The first frustrating piece of the equation is that brewed coffee  can have anywhere from 8-15 mg of caffeine per ounce (of brewed coffee), and espresso has between 30 and 50.  If you have a twelve ounce cup of coffee with an average of 11 mg. of caffeine per ounce you’d be drinking 132 mg. of caffeine, and with a double shot of even the highest possible amount of caffeine, you’d still be getting only 100 mg. of caffeine.

To further confuse you (and me) darker roasted beans have lower caffeine than lighter roasts, but that doesn’t mean that the lighter roast bean will yield a stronger cup of coffee.  Beans in addition to losing caffeine, lose weight with longer roasting, making the beans lighter in weight, though they expand in size.  This means that a lighter roast has more caffeine by volume, but less by weight.  If you make your coffee at home, and use a scoop to measure, you will get more caffeine in a cup of light roasted beans.  if you use a pre-measured bag, K-Pak or get your coffee from a decent coffee shop, they weigh the coffee for brewing, they don’t use a scoop, so the darker roast beans will have more caffeine.

Many people claim tea has much more caffeine than coffee, and this is also true, but not in any way that has to do with tea consumption. Pound for pound tea has much more caffeine than coffee, but have you ever bought a box of tea with twenty tea bags in it?  It weighs a lot less than the amount of coffee you’d use to make twenty cups.  You get about 200 cups of tea from a pound vs. 50 cups per pound of coffee, making tea (on average) one quarter the amount of caffeine per cup.

Quite a while ago I was introduced to an authentic French Mocha, and I share the recipe here with you. When I ordered it the woman who made it asked me if I had had one of these before, and that if I didn’t sweeten my coffee I was going to want to.  Hmph, I don’t sweeten my coffee…

I was handed a cup with a good amount of dark cocoa powder sitting on top, and a long spoon.  I was too proud to ask for further instructions, so I carefully stirred it, and took a sip, and realized that it did indeed need sugar!  To make one yourself (and I do now when I want a treat) get yourself some really good quality cocoa powder, like Valrhona (this is not for your kids; this stuff costs about $17.00 per pound). Brew your coffee, and no matter what you think, you will need some sweetener (I use 2 tsps of sugar, and remember I don’t usually sweeten my coffee)  lighten or not, as you like, and add a heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder.  It will take some effort to mix it in, but it will be wonderful.