Caffeine FAQ
We’ve been deluged with emails from all the curious visitors to this site. Questions ranging from “How much caffeine is in X?” to “Where do you live?” We don’t have time to reply to all of them, so we’ll answer the most frequently asked ones here:
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How much caffeine is in X?
Check the Caffeine Drink Database and the Caffeine Food Database. If it’s not in there then we haven’t got around to adding it yet, or have not been able to determine the caffeine amounts in the product (e.g. “proprietary blends”). - What has the highest concentration of caffeine?
Go to the caffeine database, and click on the mg/oz column heading. Just like magic all the items are sorted! Clicking again will change the sort order. From here you can easily determine the most/least concentrated form of caffeine. Generally espresso coffee is the most concentrated – however there have recently been a number of products appearing that are stronger than espresso. - What is the time frame of the Death Calculators?
It has to do with the level of caffeine in your system at once – which maybe depend on many things. See the full explanation here. - Does product X contain caffeine?
Have a look on the nutrition label. Then have a look at which ingredients contain caffeine. -
Where can I buy X?
Usually at your local 7-11 or grocery store. For more specialized (or discounted for volume) check the Caffeine Database – many entries have a small “Buy” link on them that will take you directly to an on-line vendor. - Where do you get the caffeine levels from?
We try our best to get it right. No we don’t just make it up. See the caffeine source reference. -
Can you add X to the database?
If you have serving size/mg caffeine (backed up with a reliable source) we can generally add it. -
Can I have the source code for the Death by Caffeine calculator?
Nope. It’s not a hard thing to build yourself, and we don’t want to spend all day explaining how to use it, how to modify the code to suit a particular purpose, or debugging other people’s additions. You can link to us all you want, though
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What does X taste like?
There are some good review sites around including Screaming Energy, and Dan Mayers site here.
34 Comments
then it’s a good thing nobody’s holding a knife at your throat and forcing you to read it.
When you give the quantities of a drink or a chocolate product, is that the quantity that would kill you in a day or in a lifetime? Just curious . . .
Hello,
My name is Yossi and I write a blog named “The princess of Science” that focuses on Statistics, Mathematics, Health and Economics. (Unfortunately for you, it is written in Hebrew, but you can take a look at http://www.notes.co.il/joseph ).
I will recommend your blog, Mandatory Rest Period, on BlogDay, August 31, unless you ask me not to do so.
Read more on BlogDay at http://blogday.wikispaces.org/
Regards,
Yossi
What coffee shop sells the Voltaire? Sounds good and I also live in seattle, so I’d be curious to hear where you get it.
I have drank a lot of coffee in my lifetime. Usually about 20 cups a day, as well as tea. I have had hives for the last 5 years. Nobody knows where they are coming from. Could this be caffeine poisoning? I started decaf coffee. They went away for a week. I started drinking reg. tea. Does tea have caffeine? I am broke out again. I am really getting frustrated!! Kathy
Kathy: I can’t tell if you’re just spouting BS or not, but… caffeine, like almost anything, can cause allergic reactions. Yes, tea does contain caffeine (see “The Caffeine Database on this site, it says so right there). If you think you might have an allergy to it, you should bring that up with your allergist. It may be causing other problems that aren’t visible, and it should be checked out.
Hives are something that generally aren’t caused by caffeine, but if you have an existing condition, the caffeine can make them show up a lot more frequently. They can come from anything (like fish or eggs or milk or nuts or wheat gluten), so I’d hesitate to say it’s totally caffeine’s fault, but if lowering your intake works, go with that for a while, and be sure to let your doctor know the results.
great site! I was born and raised just south of Seattle, now living in Sacramento and I still say Starbucks sucks. But as far as the article claiming caffeine is not addicting, now thats a load of bull. Guess the Vivarin folks have never tried kicking it!
I’m a fan of caffeine as well, but this site doesn’t offend me one bit! I think it’s great, and someday I’d like to test it out by o.d.ing on mt. dew.
I love caffeine myself, and my drink of choice is most definitely Bawls. My question is, on their website they claim:
“Guarana’s naturally occurring caffeine is 2.5 times stronger that the type of caffeine usually found in coffee, tea and soft drinks, making BAWLS the most highly caffeinated soft drink in the market since its birth in 1997.” and I was curious if this was true, or just a marketing tool. thanks.
I must point out that your data is not necessarily valid for places outside the United States. In Canada, for example, carbonated beverages other than cola are not caffeinated. This means that 7-up, Root Beer, Mountain Dew, etc. are caffeine-free in Canada.
Are the quantities for a day or a lifetime? It does not say how much time it would take for the quantity listed to harm you.
what is the exposure duration used on this lethal dose of caffiene? I am assuming something like a 24hr period, because if the amount of diet coke for my 175lbs is lifetime then the I am so living on borrowed time…
Hi,
I am an undergraduate psychology student, currently involved in various caffeine studies. My lab partner and I are attempting to revise a current caffeine consumption questionnaire that is avaliable with more reliable data. Your site appears to have an abundance of information that is helpful to our study. The only problem is you don’t list any source material. Is it possible for you to either post or send me your source data? How do you calculate the caffeine levels? Any help you could provide in citing reliable source data would be extremely helpful!
Thanks So Much
Rose
Actually, to anyone it concerns, I believe that they found out tea has more caffiene than coffee.
What is the time frame of death? 5 hours?
I was wondering if it could be possible to do a comprehensive testing where you just enter in your weight and it will tell you how many so and so’s it takes to kill you in a list of all the items
Well I’m sure its a rough estimate and not an end all-be all. 12 years olds that weigh 170 will obviously have a different tolerance for caffiene then 23 year olds that weigh 170 would. I thought the same thing, “just by telling your weight he can figure it out?” You have to take everything you find on the internet with a grain of salt.
I don’t know how much I weigh in lbs and kg so therefore don’t know how much caffeine it would take to kill me. Any one know how to convert weight in stone to kgs?
Well, I’m a big gamer so a manditory 20 bottles of bawls at every lan party is normal for me. I was checking out your calculator which I must say is VERY interesting and I had a question. What is the time period for this. Is it saying X amount of beverages will kill you if you drink that many in your lifetime? or is it day or hour or something? I’ve been quite close to overdosing, which i don’t want to do, but gaming is important to me. Please email me back information. Thanks!
i love caffiene and i think this is a very offensive site.