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Comment by BugsJustFindMe

10 hours ago

I make it strong. No sweeteners. An ounce or two of heavy cream. The amount of caffeine is probably quite high.

Anyway, any concept of a "standard" coffee is substantially smaller and weaker than what any variant in the US actually is in practice, where espresso-based drinks nearly universally use 2-3 shots and drip coffees are poured in sizes ranging from voluminous to biblical flood. An 8 ounce cup of coffee is just unrealistically small here.

My point is just that 16 ounces of drip is not a "huge" amount of coffee in the US. It's pretty normal. Especially if you account for people going back for a second cup. I make no arguments about whether it's a good or bad thing.

> An ounce or two of heavy cream.

That’s 6-12% of a 16 ounce serving and even more of your “nearly” 16oz beverage.

McDonald’s is known for having strong coffee and a double espresso from them is under 150mg.

  • > That’s 6-12%

    "Oh no!"

    > McDonald’s is known for having strong coffee

    Lol.

    > a double espresso from them is under 150mg

    McDonalds famously does not publish caffeine numbers because they aren't forced to by the government. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/faq/how-much-caffeine-is-...

    But this person did his own measurements and says you're wrong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imc7Aime_cI

    Anyway, here are published numbers we can find for reasonable comparison:

      Monster Energy 16oz cans
      Original Green Monster: 160 mg
      Monster Ultra / Zero Sugar: 150 mg
      Monster Lo-Carb: 140 mg
    
      Starbucks Brewed coffee
      Pike Place Roast: Short 155 mg, Tall 235 mg, Grande 310  mg, Venti 410 mg.
      Blonde Roast: Short 180 mg, Tall 270 mg, Grande 360 mg, Venti 475 mg.
      Dark Roast: Short 130 mg, Tall 195 mg, Grande 260 mg, Venti 340 mg.
      Decaf Pike Place: Short 15 mg, Tall 20 mg, Grande 25 mg, Venti 30 mg.
    
      Starbucks espresso is 150 mg per standard double shot, so e.g. a grande caramel macchiato is 150 mg for 16oz of liquid, just like the monster energy drink can.
    
      (In case you don't know, Grande, aka 16oz, is the most popular drink size at Starbucks, and short isn't even shown visibly on the menu.)

    • > "Oh no!"

      No reason to flip out just because you demonstrated your assumption was incorrect. Don’t worry we won’t test if you actually drink strong coffee.

      > this person

      You can find random YouTube videos supporting anything. The YouTube algorithm specifically promotes wildly inaccurate results as they are more interesting.

      Meanwhile offer sources disagree.

      https://baristalife.co/blogs/blog/mcdonalds-caffeine-content > compiled them from McDonald's customer service

      They don’t publish numbers for liability reasons as they can’t guarantee consistency across all stores, but finding the average isn’t difficult for them. Similarly people who are willing to sample across large geographic areas can find meaningful averages.

      > most popular size

      Most popular and representative are very different. You’re skipping a lot of their offerings. People can go from around 40mg of caffeine at Starbucks all well past 300, but 1-3 monster energy drinks per day starts high and skyrockets from there. Some days you want just a little more kick, and more granular options is a significant benefit.

      https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starb...

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