Coffee Overdose: 14 Shots of Espresso
From the UK comes the slightly hysterical story of a girl who ended up in hospital after overdosing on coffee.
After a night with only 5 hours sleep she decided to down a double espresso. Then it was no-holds-barred as she foolishly downed a further 6 double shots.
Apparently the girl thought she was drinking single shots. Astonishing because she actually works in the cafe – and was making the coffee for herself.
“My nerves were all over the place.
“I was drenched. I was burning up and hyperventilating.
“I was having palpitations, my heart was beating so fast and I thought I was going into shock.
“I did not realise this could happen to you and I only hope other people learn from my mistake.”
Coffee is, of course, variable in caffeine content due to blend, roasting time, and extraction time. For the caffeine database, we used an average from six different extractions (published in a toxicology journal). We came up with a value of 77mg caffeine per 1.5 ounce shot.
So Miss Wells downed around 1078mg of caffeine – presumably in a short period of time. If she had not eaten much this would account for the side effects she experienced.
Espresso coffee is a very concentrated form of caffeine – and consumed very rapidly compared to a (say) 16oz energy drink can (containing typically 160+ mg).
Enough rambling. The moral of the story: Know your own tolerance to caffeine, and if you are a not a regular drinker – don’t suddenly hit your system with a toxic-dose.
Espresso is one of the finest drinks around (yes I’m biased), and someone who doesn’t know the difference between a straight espresso or a double has no right to operate a machine (okay so I’m sounding like snob).
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Seriously…enough about stupidity….support your local small coffee sPOTS. The coffee is much better and usually the prices are more reasonable.
We would always try and top each other in espresso consumption at the coffee shop I worked at. About 20 shots fit in a large cup, and we drank that a few times. DELICIOUS! I wouldn’t suggest someone who doesn’t normally consume large amounts of caffeine try it though.
So I was on vacation in Colorado. I decided to have ten shots of espresso. Didn’t go down well… I had trouble breathing and I’m from Dallas so the elevation change had already affected that, and my heart was beating insanely fast. I drank the ten shots in
One sitting around 8pm and didn’t
Sleep until about 11 am the next day. Well like I said
I got pretty sick from all that espresso so I decided to wash it put
With water. Well 9 water bottles and I ended up with water poising. I wad passing out vomiting and peeing all night. That just shows you how you CAN have too much of anything. I am fine now but to this day I get an uneasy stomach when I think
Of that night…