I think I gotta back off on the beans

[Newfie]

It's just after 7 AM, and I've got a headache and the shakes.

Here's my regular morning routine:

• Up @ 5 AM, turn on the Espresso machine to warm up.
• Shower and shave, ~ 45 minutes.
• Get the drip coffee pot going, feed the dogs, let 'em out and back in.
• Pull a double-shot and steam enough milk for a Latte (gets rid of any stale grinds in the grinder and the amount of milk hides any sour flavours)
• Go get dressed and wake up The Bride. (That's a risky move sometimes)
• Pull a double shot and sip straight while putting together my lunch.
• Pull another double and froth enough milk for a Capp, drink that while the wife's eating breakfast.
• This morning I felt adventurous, so I made a "Shot In The Dark" (some call it a Black Eye), which is a double shot in with 12 oz of drip coffee for a traveller to work (cream & sugar in this one)

Needless to say, right now I'm

 

[Suzuki]

Dude - you need to find yourself a 12-step program.

That's some serious coffee intake - that's 8 shots plus a big mug of drip in 2.5 hours.

Hope you don't have to perform surgery any time soon

 

[ouch]

Around these parts, we call that a small decaf.

 

[Newfie]

Around these parts, we call that a small decaf.

I've been to Joisey (Morristown to be specific) and there's coffee everywhere you look.

 

[Jim]

Jim
The headache is from not enough coffee!

 

[Austin]

How do you sleep?

 

[Newfie]

Jim
The headache is from not enough coffee!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I've heard about withdrawl symptoms from coffee. You really think that's the issue?? I'm going home for lunch in an hour so I'll soon fix that!!!!

How do you sleep?

Very well thank you, as long as I have no coffee after 1:00 PM

 

[BD1970]

When I read the title of your post, I thought you might have had a serious case of the p00ts.

 

[boboakalfb]

When I read the title of your post, I thought you might have had a serious case of the p00ts.

I was going to suggest Beano...

 

[rabidpotatochip]

I was going to suggest Beano...

I was going to suggest sleeping in a different bed to spare the wife...

 

[Doc4]

Lard Tunnerin' Jaysus!

(Pardon my accent, I'm from Away.)

 

[sphughes]

Jim,

Impressive..........

-Scott

 

[TimmyBoston]

Around these parts, we call that a small decaf.

 

[letterk]

I'm surprised you can still type.

 

[The Boston Blade]

You all do know that the darker the roast of coffee the less caffeine it has?
Hence... Espresso has almost no caffeine in it.

Don't believe me... Look it up.


Sorry to burst everyones bubble.

 

[Newfie]

snip.... Espresso has almost no caffeine in it.
...snip

Not necessarily. I saw a study recently that 1 shot of Espresso has just a little less than a cup of regular drip. While it'e very true that the darker the roast the less caffeine (it's apparently one of the easiest substances to burn off during the roast), it isn't THAT much less.

A good friend isn't fussy about dark roast beans so he uses a lighhter roast, just past 1st crack (he roasts his own).

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll see if I can find that study and post a link.

 

[iron maiden]

I was going to suggest Beano...

+1 on that....

 

[Newfie]

snip...
I saw a study recently that 1 shot of Espresso has just a little less than a cup of regular drip
.....snip....
Tomorrow afternoon, I'll see if I can find that study and post a link.

I was off on my first statement, it's actually a "double" shot has a little less caffeine that a cup of drip made with a similar roast and similar bean.

Mark Prince from Vancouver BC is quite knowledgeable on anything "coffee".

Here's a quote from a post he made on CoffeeGeek.com:

Based on all the quasi math in the previous article, I'll present some typical caffeine content levels in different types of coffee and espresso beverages. Pretty much everything is calculated on this formula:

1g coffee = 12mg caffeine (Arabica), 22mg caffeine robusta.

A single shot of espresso made with 7g of coffee, brewing approximately 30mls of liquid will contain around 60 mg (actually 58.8mg) of caffeine. Illy's own financed tests (conducted by a fellow named Petracco in 1989) show an average of 60mg of caffeine in a 30ml shot, so the estimation vs. actual lab results are nearly spot on. Got it? A single shot of espresso has about 60mg of caffeine in it.

A double "ristretto" shot, going by my theory postulated above, extracts even less caffeine - I'm going to guess 50-55%. So a 30ml ristretto shot made from 14g of coffee will have about 70-80mg of caffeine.

An americano made with a single shot still has 60mg of caffeine, even if the volume is 120-150mls of beverage. Double it up and get a 240-300ml beverage and 120mg of caffeine. (remember this number)

If you're using 100% robusta for these shots (are you insane?), your numbers would be double, subtracting 10%; so single robusta espresso shot has 110mg, double ristretto robusta shot has 135mg, and a double shot americano would have 215mg.

If you follow my preferred ratio for standard drip coffee, which is 7g of ground coffee for every 120mls of water (4oz), here's how the drip coffee percolations break down.

I usually serve drip coffee in 240ml (8oz) cups, with about 210mls served - but for maths' sake, lets say 240mls / 8oz as our starting point. That uses 14g (which is 2 tablespoons) of ground coffee, but the percolation method extracts up to 97% of the stored caffeine from the ground coffee = but let's use the low end number: 92% extraction. So my 240ml serving of arabica-brewed drip coffee will have 155mg of caffeine. 350ml cups (12oz) will have around 230mg of caffeine.

For robusta, times it by two, and remove 10% again, giving you 280mg of caffeine in a robusta-laden 240ml brewed coffee, and a whopping 414mg in a 12 ounce cup. And remember, that's using the low estimate (92%) extraction yield!

Caffeine in espresso
So many people see espresso as this little tiny jolt of caffeine. That's actually true - it has a lot of concentrate caffeine in it compared to its serving size. 30mls of liquid with 60mg of caffeine has more caffeine per ml than 240mls of brewed coffee with 155mg of caffeine: 2mg/1ml in the espresso, and 0.6mg/1ml in the brewed coffee.

But, it's also misleading on several levels. First, espresso has more of, well, everything because it is in fact a concentrate. Second, the fact that espresso is "a tiny jolt of caffeine" forgets the word "tiny". If you have one or two shots of espresso in the morning, you're still ingesting less caffeine than if you drank an 8 ounce cup of brewed coffee. And if you dilute the espresso, making the americano beverage (or a cappuccino, or latte), you're having much less caffeine per ml of liquid: 240ml double shot americano with 120mg of caffeine (0.5mg/1ml) vs. a 240ml cup of brewed coffee with 155mg of caffeine (still 0.6mg/1ml). That brewed coffee has 35mg more of caffeine in it.

And americanos have sooooo much flavour potential over most filter drip coffees!

HERE's a link to that thread.

 

[ratcheer]

I can't drink espresso. One of those things (a double, I guess) makes me feel like I've been shot to the moon. If regular coffee has more caffeine, so be it. I can drink four cups (two mugs) with no noticeable effects.

I cannot drink any caffeine beverage after about 4 or 5 PM. If I do, I am awake half the night. Or all night.

Tim

 

[ouch]

Here's my only problem with coffee. I think Starbucks and the like could double their revenue by simply adopting an "express line"- no orders that take more than five seconds to pronounce or ten minutes to make.