<p>This should help you arrive at a more accurate number.</p>

<p>According to <a href="http://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/coffee-brewed" rel="nofollow noreferrer">caffeine informer</a>: </p>

<p>standard drip brew yeilds an average of <strong>145mg of caffeine per 8 fl. oz.</strong></p>

<p>french press yeilds an average of <strong>107.5mg of caffeine per 8 fl. oz.</strong></p>

<p>The difference is a <strong>58 to 43 ratio</strong>.</p>

<p>Now, assuming most of the coffee brands listed on their <a href="http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database" rel="nofollow noreferrer">caffeine database</a> are brewed using the standard drip method, you could calculate the average french press ammount of caffeine per brand of coffee by taking the 58/43 ratio of depreciation into consideration.</p>

<p>let <strong>A</strong> = the average ammount of caffeine yield from french press</p>

<p>let <strong>c</strong> = the ammount of caffeine reported using standard drip method </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/b7yJO.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/b7yJO.png" alt="formula"></a></p>

<p>Example:</p>

<p>According to <a href="http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starbucks-caffeine" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, there is  180mg of caffeine in an 8 oz. cup of Starbucks brewed coffee.</p>

<p>Based on these numbers, there should be approximately: </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ersVA.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ersVA.png" alt="example"></a></p>

<p>of caffeine in an 8 oz. cup of french press regular Starbucks coffee brewed at home.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-01T00:50:39.130Z
Thank you, that's the sort of thing I was looking for. But this method doesn't include the amount of dry coffee grounds, which can vary considerably. Also, I'm not sure Caffeine Informer is a reliable source—it differs from other sources and is overtly biased
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-01T02:17:17.033Z
@Nathan Yeah, at first I thought they were caffeine enthusiasts like myself and then I found out otherwise. They have a sources page with links to federal databases and I also understand that consumer reports has some data as well. Also, the industry standard is *supposed* to be 1 tbsp per 6 us fl. oz. but who knows what some of the different places use as McDonalds has about half the caffeine of Dunkin Donuts and they both use drip brew arabica as far as I know.
mchid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-01T02:25:33.400Z
@Nathan Remember, the larger the sample population size, the closer the statistics get to a *true* and accurate mean or something like that.
mchid
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-02T18:53:07.457Z
@Nathan Kind of a late reply but I have some new information. 1 tbsp per 6 fluid ounces of water is for [usually] cheaper robusta or robusta blends that have more caffeine and 2–2.5 tbsp per 6 fluid ounces is recommended for arabica and I believe this is supposed to compensate for the difference in caffeine between the two varieties.
mchid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-30T07:31:03.300Z
2015-11-30T08:28:33.873Z
2015-11-30T08:28:33.873Z
mchid
<p>Arne Preuss at Coffeeness in Berlin shelled out for a laboratory to analyze the caffeine content of 15 different brew methods on the same roast batch and published his results at <a href="https://www.coffeeness.de/en/how-much-caffeine-in-coffee/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.coffeeness.de/en/how-much-caffeine-in-coffee/</a></p>
<p>I did some math on his results and got
Pour over: 12.33 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds
French press: 15.56 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds</p>
<p>Some arabica beans have more caffeine than others so it's rough, but this is the only laboratory-backed info I've found so far.</p>
<p>I posted a question to Arne's blog post yesterday which has not been approved yet, so doesn't yet appear in the comments. Here is my math from my comment, by which I meant to ask him if he agrees my math is correct, or if I missed something:</p>
<p>Your pour over brew ratio is 30 g grounds / 500 ml water. The caffeine result is 74 milligrams caffeine / 100 ml brew. That's the same as 370 milligrams caffeine / 30 g coffee grounds, which is 12.33 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds If I brew with 30 g grounds, that's 370 milligrams caffeine</p>
<p>Your French press brew ratio is 18.3 g grounds / 320 ml water The caffeine result is 89 milligrams caffeine / 100 ml brew. That's the same as 284.8 milligrams caffeine / 18.3 coffee grounds, which is 15.56 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds If I brew with 30 g grounds, that's 467 milligrams caffeine.</p>
<p>If I hear back from him, I may try to nudge him to post results in the form of milligrams caffeine per 1 gram coffee beans, by brew method, on his site, either in that article or a new one for people like us. You want to nudge him too?</p>
<p>For now I am ignoring how water density changes with temperature (I've asked at what temperature Arne measured the 50ml brew sample) and that the coffee grounds absorb about 1.5x their weight in water. Brew yield ml is less than the water added to make the brew.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-05T23:11:59.680Z
Welcome to Coffee! Can you describe a bit more which results you used from that link and what mathematical operations you applied to arrive at those numbers? While the link is very informative, answers on this site are expected to be somewhat self-contained. Even with the numbers you provide it's not really clear what assumptions were made (by the study in the link and in your calculations). Adding that nuance would be really helpful for others stumbling upon your answer. :)
JJJ
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-07T23:27:14.400Z
It seems that you've created a new account to add further elaboration. Seeing that the other answer builds on this one, I've taken the liberty to edit that information into this one. You would normally be able to do this yourself, but you may need to register your account (or register a new account) and then use [the contact form](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/contact) (as [explained here](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts)) to link all this post to your new registered account.
JJJ
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-29T00:12:18.750Z
Hi Sue and @JJJ ! I'm glad my few hours of nerding out about this question almost 9 years ago are still interesting. Arne's experiments definitely seem more rigorous than my napkin math, yet the comments section is full of additional questions. Clearly some real research is needed :)
Nathan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-10-20T07:06:35.643Z
Thanks Sue for the link. Arne reported his raw data which is super-useful. Some of his conclusions were odd, so I also ran the maths in a slightly different way. I get the same but as ratio of dry coffee to caffeine : French press yields about 1.56% of the weight of coffee as caffeine; Pour-over drip yields 1.23%. Stove-top espresso - 2.18%!
So @Nathan, your 0.8% figure seems a good approximation overall, but may be a bit low for French press. It seems plausible that a process that takes more time and uses a fair amount of water would extract more caffeine.
Trevedhek
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-05T22:52:18.300Z
2022-05-07T23:29:07.070Z
2022-05-07T23:29:07.070Z
Sue
<p>To be honest, with all of the variability in coffee, if you want completely accurate numbers, you'd have to prepare multiple samples of your coffee brewed the same exact way (preferable 3 or 4 samples to be sure of consistency), and send these off to an analytical chemistry lab, where they will use a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mass Spec</a> instrument (maybe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography%E2%80%93mass_spectrometry" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GC-MS</a>) to determine content. The reason you don't see more cafes displaying numbers for their caffeine content is because this testing can get expensive.</p>
<p>Your specific example of brewing with a French press will also have trouble being determined because we don't know your grind size (exposed surface area), and we don't know your dose. Caffeine yield is directly related to dose.</p>
<p>Also that Mayo Clinic study is very, very, poorly cited because it just gives names of journals and years, not specific studies, issues, or authors. I based on there being no direct trace to its source, like just listing multiple sources that are properly cited, I would say that that article is not a reliable source of information.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-02T16:24:50.367Z
Complete accuracy isn't necessary. Just wondering with all that variability, how someone would compare their caffeine from a few cups of coffee to a clinical guideline like "300 mg/day"
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-02T21:36:52.883Z
If you're not going for complete accuracy, then err on the upper end of the estimate and say that there are 200 mg per 8 oz. Which would mean that 24 oz of coffee would meet that guideline.
John Snow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2015-02-02T08:40:30.057Z
2022-11-24T16:18:35.037Z
2022-11-24T16:18:35.037Z
John Snow
<p>Estimation is all well and good, but if you <em>really</em> want to know <strong>exactly</strong> how much caffeine is in your cup, you're going to have to measure it!</p>
<h2>Basic Mode</h2>
<p>You can get caffeine testing strips that you can dip into coffee, and they'll give you an idea of how much caffeine is in the brew.</p>
<p>D+Caff is one brand I found but there may be others. They look like this:</p>
<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/SGv2d.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></p>
<p>The strips have a couple of lines on them, marked D and C. Decaffeinated beverages will only rise to the D line, caffeinated beverages will rise above it.</p>
<p>You do have a problem that you're going to have to bust out some science to calibrate this thing yourself - out of the box it will not actually measure the amount of caffeine in a drink, but if you try it on some drinks with known amounts of caffeine you should be able to work out a system of measurement.</p>
<hr>
<h1>Advanced Mode</h1>
<ol>
<li>Get yourself a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry" rel="noreferrer">Mass Spectrometer</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.academia.edu/6246212/Analytical_Methods_Measurement_of_caffeine_in_coffee_beans_with_UV_vis_spectrometer" rel="noreferrer">??????</a></li>
<li>PROFIT</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-27T01:04:08.480Z
Protip: be(friend/come) someone who works in a lab with a (GC)MS. It's expensive equipment and having someone who knows how to use it is a big plus. Obviously, the GC is an [added bonus](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17386813) to do some aroma analysis.
JJJ
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-03T20:11:37.893Z
+1 this is funny and the ???? link led me to some interesting stuff.
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-04T00:05:08.203Z
[Underpants gnomes?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_%28South_Park%29#mediaviewer/File:Gnomes_plan.png)
apaul
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-03T17:21:10.353Z
2015-02-03T17:21:10.353Z
2020-06-18T08:36:22.093Z
fredley
<p>Well I am not sure how thay did it but here is the website about the amount of caffeine there is in certain cups of coffee (types will vary): <a href="http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database" rel="noreferrer">Caffeine In Coffee</a><br>
There will be caffeine intake of other drinks as well.<br><br>
Well here is another website where it explains the amount of coffee per type (not brands). It was made by ICO, the International Coffee Organization: <a href="http://www.ico.org/caffeine.asp" rel="noreferrer">http://www.ico.org/caffeine.asp</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-18T15:30:20.360Z
@PhytonMaster, the link is broken. I tried a quick Internet search but cannot find an alternative location. Maybe you know where it is.
MTSan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-28T01:55:44.420Z
That's an interesting comparison but it won't help me figure out my French Press. It does show that different restaurants serve beverages quite varied in caffeine per fluid ounce. Tim Hortons brews at 10mg/oz and Starbucks at double that.
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-31T13:52:35.190Z
How about now ?
Anthony Pham
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-06T00:33:33.783Z
Why the downvote? I thought my second website made my answer more clearer.
Anthony Pham
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-06T01:35:08.493Z
Both of those sources give a very wide range of caffeine numbers and are hard to compare to my brewed coffee at home... but thanks for answering quickly!
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-06T01:40:05.720Z
You are welcome! I always try to answer as clear and fast as possible!
Anthony Pham
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-28T01:12:16.993Z
2015-01-28T01:59:24.847Z
2020-06-18T08:36:22.093Z
Anthony Pham
<ol>
<li><p>Determine what kind of coffee you are working with. Different kinds of coffee have different amounts of caffeine. USDA-accredited values are:</p>

<ul>
<li>Normal - 40 mg</li>
<li>Decaffeinated - 1 mg </li>
<li>Espresso - 212 mg</li>
<li>Decaffeinated espresso - 1 mg</li>
<li>Instant - 3,142 mg</li>
<li>Instant chicory - 21 mg</li>
<li>Instant french - 246 mg</li>
<li>Instant mocha - 360 mg</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>

<p>Sourced from <a href="http://google.com/" rel="nofollow">Google</a> which pulls its data from this USDA link - <a href="http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/4287?qlookup=14209&amp;max=25&amp;man=&amp;lfacet=&amp;new=1" rel="nofollow">Basic Report:  14221, Beverages, OCEAN SPRAY, Diet Cranberry Juice</a>. 
Tinker around and you'll find the other types.</p>

<p>The values are for 100 grams. This is best because g can be directly derived from an SI unit.</p>

<ol start="2">
<li><p>Measure the amount of pulp. If your grounds are already wet, you have coffee pulp. Figure out how much you have by weighing it on a scale; it will help if you keep the pulp in the filter so that it does not spread and create a mess.</p></li>
<li><p>Convert the pulp into dry measurements. Do this by subtracting the amount of water you added. You can find this amount by calculating exactly how much coffee you initially put into the coffee maker, minus the amount of coffee that was produced. This amount will be very small, but it will affect the mass of the final pulp. Measure out an equivalent amount of water (which is usually measured by volume rather than weight) and weight it on your scale, being sure to subtract the weight of the container from your final measurement. Subtract the weight of the water from the weight of the pulp.</p></li>
<li><p>Multiply the dry measurement by the amount of caffeine in that type of coffee. If you made instant coffee and have 2 grams of dry instant, for instance, you will multiply this into 3,142 and divide by 100 for a final answer of 62.84 milligrams of caffeine in the coffee pulp.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Voila! Provided you are pretty skilled at handling and measuring things, you have an accurate answer. :)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-02T16:22:32.487Z
Do you have a source for that USDA data? Why weigh "pulp" instead of dry grounds? Your list doesn't include normal coffee beans, only "espresso". But your step 4 is pretty much what I'm looking for...
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-02T17:53:24.633Z
I've added the sources and also the amount of caffeine for normal coffee beans. :)
qedk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-03T20:20:56.450Z
Looking at this more, the numbers make no sense and don't square with other sources. For example, there is no real difference between ground "coffee" and ground "espresso" so why does one have 40mg and one 212 mg? If it's measuring prepared coffee, why are the instant ones so high? This answer doesn't make sense.
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-04T12:33:20.230Z
Well, I have no idea. USDA data.  The links:
http://goo.gl/lk2bPY
http://goo.gl/gqrncP
http://goo.gl/5yhLmD
qedk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-04T12:33:56.080Z
http://goo.gl/SY5ydO
http://goo.gl/UVUh2G
http://goo.gl/jk63Dd
qedk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-04T12:36:57.187Z
http://goo.gl/3kIjc3

I was unable to find the source for French instant coffee but Google magically pulled its data from the land of unicorns. I researched a lot for this answer, well I can say, I tried. What problems are you facing?
qedk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-05T14:51:37.850Z
@Nathan , my replies are above. ;)
qedk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-05T18:19:39.707Z
Yes, thank you. The sources above do mix up prepared/liquid coffee with dry coffee. The 1st and 3rd links are for "Coffee, **brewed** from grounds, prepared with tap water" which comes out around 12mg caffeine per fl oz, and "Coffee, **brewed**, espresso, restaurant-prepared" which yields 64mg caffeine per fl oz. You don't need the pulp weight to use those, but they don't really answer my question of how to tell how much caffeine is in a serving from my french press.
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-05T18:22:30.747Z
I think the method I [figured out yesterday](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/a/324/86) works is more flexible and roughly agrees with that data.
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-31T15:06:42.493Z
2016-09-24T18:24:55.973Z
2016-09-24T18:24:55.973Z
qedk
<p>It really varies by size, bean origin, roast method and other factors.</p>

<p>To get some general idea, here is full table according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VvChhl.png" alt="Caffeine Content in Select Food and Drugs"></p>

<p>And here is a full list according to Center for Science in the Public Interest:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/iP980l.png" alt="caffeine content by Center for Science in the Public Interest"></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-20T20:07:35.467Z
Thanks, but this is the sort of easily googlable info that I can't really use for my homemade coffee, which has a bunch of variables compared to everything here.
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-23T23:18:25.323Z
Isn't that similar to my answer?
Anthony Pham
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-24T01:09:37.770Z
It looks like a duplicate of answer though
Anthony Pham
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-24T10:44:21.930Z
I think the question title is ambiguous and misleading and it's not clear unless you'll read the description what's about. Somebody will buy a Starbucks Coffee and will expect that this question to answer 'how much caffeine is in his cup', so this answer explains that. If you want me to remove an answer, please change the question like 'how to calculate/measure caffeine in the coffee I make', then it'll be more appropriate for the first answer.
kenorb
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-20T13:43:07.917Z
2015-02-20T13:43:07.917Z
kenorb
<p>I read everyone's answer and did some of my own research to find an estimation method that satisfies me and might be helpful to others too. I think it should be roughly ±20% accurate.</p>

<h1>For any amount of "good strength" American-style coffee by any brew method, weigh the dry coffee in grams and multiply by 0.008, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee.</h1>

<p>Weakly extracted coffee might yield 0.6% of its weight in caffeine and very strongly extracted coffee might get close to 1% caffeine. </p>

<p>These numbers are for typical 100% Arabica or mostly Arabica blends. 100% Robusta beans (uncommon) could be about double the caffeine.</p>

<p>Explanation below:</p>

<h2>Maximum caffeine content</h2>

<p>Typical premium roasted Arabica coffee beans like mine contain <a href="http://www.academia.edu/6246212/Analytical_Methods_Measurement_of_caffeine_in_coffee_beans_with_UV_vis_spectrometer" rel="noreferrer">close to 1% caffeine by mass when measured by spectrophotometer (p 311)</a>
though Robusta (less common and usually blended with Arabica in cheaper coffees) has
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robusta_coffee" rel="noreferrer">roughly twice that
much</a>. </p>

<p>If you have a health concern like wanting to stay under the 300 mg guideline for pregnant women, you should be able to use this as the upper limit: <strong>each 10g of Arabica coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine.</strong></p>

<p>I use a 2 Tbsp scoop to measure beans before I grind them. One scoop of
beans weighs about <strong>12 grams</strong> (yes I tared the scoop, but I did only weigh
once and am not comparing light or dark roasts which will vary in weight
and volume).</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/NwqDW.jpg" alt="2Tbsp scoop of beans weighing 12g"></p>

<p>So if I <em>eat</em> that scoop of beans or grind them finely and drink them
with any amount of water I will be consuming the <strong>120 mg (1% of 12g) of caffeine</strong>
present in them. That should be an upper limit to this estimation
exercise. <em>The strongest <strong>or</strong> biggest/weakest cup of coffee I can brew with
that scoop of beans will have <strong>no more than</strong> 120mg caffeine</em>. </p>

<h2>How strong is my cup?</h2>

<p>Typical American-style brewing methods and water ratios result in 
<a href="http://www.mountaincity.com/brewing-1.html" rel="noreferrer">1% (weak) to 1.65% (too strong) disolved coffee solids, with 1.25%
considered optimal</a> whereas 
<a href="http://www.coffeechemistry.com/brewing/brewing-fundamentals.html" rel="noreferrer">"a typical espresso will contain on average 1.8-2.2%"
solids</a></p>

<p>So 1 fl oz of brewed coffee or espresso weighs almost the same as water
(29.57 g) and contains 1-2% coffee solids (so about 300-600mg, or 380mg solids for optimal brewed coffee and 600mg solids for espresso). That would be the upper limit if the coffee solids were pure caffeine, but they can't be. </p>

<p>On the other hand,the caffeine is probably more soluble than the other parts of the bean,so even though it's only 1% of the mass of the beans it's probably more than 1% of the dissolved solids. That's the hard part. Coffeechemistry.com says brewed coffee ends up with <a href="http://coffeechemistry.com/caffeine/caffeine-content-in-espresso-vs-drip-coffee1.html" rel="noreferrer">8-15 mg caffeine per oz and espresso 30-50 mg caffeine per oz</a>. That's a pretty huge range. It means caffeine is 2.5-4.0% of the solids (380 mg) in an ounce of "optimal" brewed coffee or 5.0-8.3% of the solids (600 mg) in an ounce of espresso.</p>

<p>So: I typically make a nice strong 10 oz cup of coffee with my 12g of
beans containing a maximum of 120mg (or 1% of the coffee mass) caffeine. So let's say this maximum 12 mg caffeine per each oz of coffee corresponds to 1.65% or 500 mg solids (1.65% of 29.57 gr = 500 mg). In this case the 12 mg caffeine is 2.4% of the solids. If I brew it "too weak" and it ends up 1% solids (or 300 mg per oz) I would guess I'd proportionally get no more than 60% of the max caffeine, 7.2 mg (again 2.4% of the solids) per oz or 72 mg for a 10oz cup. So that narrows the range to 72-120 mg of caffeine in my cup depending on the brew strength.</p>

<p>I'm guessing a good cup ends up somewhere in the middle, so I'm going to estimate my typical cup contains <strong>around 100 mg of caffeine from its 12g dry coffee,</strong> or about 80% of the maximum caffeine present in the beans. From this I would suggest a decent rule of thumb for "optimal" strength American-style brewed coffee is around <strong>0.8% (or 0.008) of the mass of the beans used, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee.</strong></p>

<h3>Bonus corollary/sanity check</h3>

<p>Using the same method, a shot of espresso made with <a href="http://www.coffeeforums.com/forum/coffee-drinks/2733-how-much-grounds-used-make-espresso.html" rel="noreferrer">7g of ground
coffee</a> maxes out around 70mg caffeine (77mg if 10% Robusta sometimes typical for Espresso blends), but the serving size and strength are more standardized than brewed coffee, so the <strong>64mg/shot</strong> reported by <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=caffeine%20in%20espresso" rel="noreferrer">the USDA and others</a> also ends up being 80-90% of the caffeine present in the beans.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-29T16:28:18.743Z
One suggested adjustment to this calculation for future readers- the paper referenced found 1% caffeine by mass for green coffee beans, not roasted, so this calculation should take into account water weight lost during roasting. If we assume [20% weight loss](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/a/3353/7837) but otherwise keep your assumptions the same, then we get 10mg caffeine per 10g dry coffee, which also happens to be an easier rule of thumb.
Joe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-10T11:18:34.203Z
If you eat that scoop of 12g Arabica beans, it would contain about 92 beans which would contain about 552 mg of caffeine, not 120 mg. I think it is obvious that the chemical reaction of ground beans with water is not able to typically extract more than about 27% of the caffeine. Source: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/coffee-beans
Matmarbon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-03T23:08:21.193Z
2016-09-06T21:55:03.650Z
2016-09-06T21:55:03.650Z
Nathan
<p>I haven't been able to find a good way to approximate the amount of caffeine in the coffee I make. Googling yields information like <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20049372">this Mayo Clinic article</a> that mixes serving sizes and brewing methods, and it reports one 8 oz coffee contains "95-200 mg" of caffeine, which is a huge range. If I have three cups of coffee in a day, is that 300 or 600 mg of caffeine?</p>

<p>There are so many variables in prepared coffee, different extraction methods, beans, roasts, serving sizes, mixed with different amounts of water or milk. </p>

<p><strong>Is there a general method for calculating the caffeine in prepared coffee?</strong> Something like "most brewing methods extract <em>X</em> mg of caffeine from each <em>Y</em> grams of ground coffee"?</p>

<p>Or more specifically, what method would I use to accurately estimate how much caffeine is in an 8oz serving from my 10 oz french press, made with medium- (not course-) ground medium-roast arabica beans, brewed 4 minutes before decanting?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-28T20:13:37.433Z
FWIW the Cooking SE site had a similar thread that discusses scientific ways to measure caffeine levels yourself: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/1927/how-can-you-measure-the-caffeine-content-of-a-liquid-at-home
Justin C
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-28T22:45:43.063Z
@JustinC that is brilliant! I am looking for something easier than actually measuring it though. For example, [more than 300mg per day is dangerous for pregnant women ](http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/caffeine-oral-route-parenteral-route/before-using/drg-20069348). If 8oz brewed coffee varies from 95-200mg, how should a pregnant woman estimate how much homemade coffee would be under that?
Nathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-31T14:56:53.783Z
Firstly, Mayo Clinic is like the w3schools of programming, there's no point in trusting it. Secondly, this question is quite nice. Right to the point and difficult, the way it should be.
qedk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-02T17:11:35.930Z
This is one of the reasons I used to drink Rockstar.  Total Caffeine listed right on the back of the can.
Suspended User
<brewing-process><caffeine>
How can I figure out how much caffeine is in my cup?
Nathan
# How can I figure out how much caffeine is in my cup?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-27)

I haven't been able to find a good way to approximate the amount of caffeine in the coffee I make. Googling yields information like [this Mayo Clinic article](http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20049372) that mixes serving sizes and brewing methods, and it reports one 8 oz coffee contains "95-200 mg" of caffeine, which is a huge range. If I have three cups of coffee in a day, is that 300 or 600 mg of caffeine?

There are so many variables in prepared coffee, different extraction methods, beans, roasts, serving sizes, mixed with different amounts of water or milk.

**Is there a general method for calculating the caffeine in prepared coffee?** Something like "most brewing methods extract *X* mg of caffeine from each *Y* grams of ground coffee"?

Or more specifically, what method would I use to accurately estimate how much caffeine is in an 8oz serving from my 10 oz french press, made with medium- (not course-) ground medium-roast arabica beans, brewed 4 minutes before decanting?

**Tags:** brewing-process, caffeine

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: FWIW the Cooking SE site had a similar thread that discusses scientific ways to measure caffeine levels yourself: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/1927/how-can-you-measure-the-caffeine-content-of-a-liquid-at-home  
> **username_0**: @JustinC that is brilliant! I am looking for something easier than actually measuring it though. For example, [more than 300mg per day is dangerous for pregnant women ](http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/caffeine-oral-route-parenteral-route/before-using/drg-20069348). If 8oz brewed coffee varies from 95-200mg, how should a pregnant woman estimate how much homemade coffee would be under that?  
> **username_2**: Firstly, Mayo Clinic is like the w3schools of programming, there's no point in trusting it. Secondly, this question is quite nice. Right to the point and difficult, the way it should be.  
> **username_3**: This is one of the reasons I used to drink Rockstar.  Total Caffeine listed right on the back of the can.  

---

## 8 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2015-02-03. Score: 49 | Accepted answer

I read everyone's answer and did some of my own research to find an estimation method that satisfies me and might be helpful to others too. I think it should be roughly ±20% accurate.

# For any amount of "good strength" American-style coffee by any brew method, weigh the dry coffee in grams and multiply by 0.008, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee.

Weakly extracted coffee might yield 0.6% of its weight in caffeine and very strongly extracted coffee might get close to 1% caffeine.

These numbers are for typical 100% Arabica or mostly Arabica blends. 100% Robusta beans (uncommon) could be about double the caffeine.

Explanation below:

## Maximum caffeine content

Typical premium roasted Arabica coffee beans like mine contain [close to 1% caffeine by mass when measured by spectrophotometer (p 311)](http://www.academia.edu/6246212/Analytical_Methods_Measurement_of_caffeine_in_coffee_beans_with_UV_vis_spectrometer)
though Robusta (less common and usually blended with Arabica in cheaper coffees) has
[roughly twice that
much](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robusta_coffee).

If you have a health concern like wanting to stay under the 300 mg guideline for pregnant women, you should be able to use this as the upper limit: **each 10g of Arabica coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine.**

I use a 2 Tbsp scoop to measure beans before I grind them. One scoop of
beans weighs about **12 grams** (yes I tared the scoop, but I did only weigh
once and am not comparing light or dark roasts which will vary in weight
and volume).

![2Tbsp scoop of beans weighing 12g](https://i.sstatic.net/NwqDW.jpg)

So if I *eat* that scoop of beans or grind them finely and drink them
with any amount of water I will be consuming the **120 mg (1% of 12g) of caffeine**
present in them. That should be an upper limit to this estimation
exercise. *The strongest **or** biggest/weakest cup of coffee I can brew with
that scoop of beans will have **no more than** 120mg caffeine*.

## How strong is my cup?

Typical American-style brewing methods and water ratios result in
[1% (weak) to 1.65% (too strong) disolved coffee solids, with 1.25%
considered optimal](http://www.mountaincity.com/brewing-1.html) whereas
["a typical espresso will contain on average 1.8-2.2%"
solids](http://www.coffeechemistry.com/brewing/brewing-fundamentals.html)

So 1 fl oz of brewed coffee or espresso weighs almost the same as water
(29.57 g) and contains 1-2% coffee solids (so about 300-600mg, or 380mg solids for optimal brewed coffee and 600mg solids for espresso). That would be the upper limit if the coffee solids were pure caffeine, but they can't be.

On the other hand,the caffeine is probably more soluble than the other parts of the bean,so even though it's only 1% of the mass of the beans it's probably more than 1% of the dissolved solids. That's the hard part. Coffeechemistry.com says brewed coffee ends up with [8-15 mg caffeine per oz and espresso 30-50 mg caffeine per oz](http://coffeechemistry.com/caffeine/caffeine-content-in-espresso-vs-drip-coffee1.html). That's a pretty huge range. It means caffeine is 2.5-4.0% of the solids (380 mg) in an ounce of "optimal" brewed coffee or 5.0-8.3% of the solids (600 mg) in an ounce of espresso.

So: I typically make a nice strong 10 oz cup of coffee with my 12g of
beans containing a maximum of 120mg (or 1% of the coffee mass) caffeine. So let's say this maximum 12 mg caffeine per each oz of coffee corresponds to 1.65% or 500 mg solids (1.65% of 29.57 gr = 500 mg). In this case the 12 mg caffeine is 2.4% of the solids. If I brew it "too weak" and it ends up 1% solids (or 300 mg per oz) I would guess I'd proportionally get no more than 60% of the max caffeine, 7.2 mg (again 2.4% of the solids) per oz or 72 mg for a 10oz cup. So that narrows the range to 72-120 mg of caffeine in my cup depending on the brew strength.

I'm guessing a good cup ends up somewhere in the middle, so I'm going to estimate my typical cup contains **around 100 mg of caffeine from its 12g dry coffee,** or about 80% of the maximum caffeine present in the beans. From this I would suggest a decent rule of thumb for "optimal" strength American-style brewed coffee is around **0.8% (or 0.008) of the mass of the beans used, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee.**

### Bonus corollary/sanity check

Using the same method, a shot of espresso made with [7g of ground
coffee](http://www.coffeeforums.com/forum/coffee-drinks/2733-how-much-grounds-used-make-espresso.html) maxes out around 70mg caffeine (77mg if 10% Robusta sometimes typical for Espresso blends), but the serving size and strength are more standardized than brewed coffee, so the **64mg/shot** reported by [the USDA and others](https://www.google.com/#q=caffeine%20in%20espresso) also ends up being 80-90% of the caffeine present in the beans.

> **Comments:**
> **username_14**: One suggested adjustment to this calculation for future readers- the paper referenced found 1% caffeine by mass for green coffee beans, not roasted, so this calculation should take into account water weight lost during roasting. If we assume [20% weight loss](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/a/3353/7837) but otherwise keep your assumptions the same, then we get 10mg caffeine per 10g dry coffee, which also happens to be an easier rule of thumb.  
> **username_15**: If you eat that scoop of 12g Arabica beans, it would contain about 92 beans which would contain about 552 mg of caffeine, not 120 mg. I think it is obvious that the chemical reaction of ground beans with water is not able to typically extract more than about 27% of the caffeine. Source: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/coffee-beans  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2015-02-03. Score: 19

Estimation is all well and good, but if you *really* want to know **exactly** how much caffeine is in your cup, you're going to have to measure it!

## Basic Mode

You can get caffeine testing strips that you can dip into coffee, and they'll give you an idea of how much caffeine is in the brew.

D+Caff is one brand I found but there may be others. They look like this:

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/SGv2d.jpg)

The strips have a couple of lines on them, marked D and C. Decaffeinated beverages will only rise to the D line, caffeinated beverages will rise above it.

You do have a problem that you're going to have to bust out some science to calibrate this thing yourself - out of the box it will not actually measure the amount of caffeine in a drink, but if you try it on some drinks with known amounts of caffeine you should be able to work out a system of measurement.

---

# Advanced Mode

1. Get yourself a [Mass Spectrometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry).
2. [??????](http://www.academia.edu/6246212/Analytical_Methods_Measurement_of_caffeine_in_coffee_beans_with_UV_vis_spectrometer)
3. PROFIT

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: +1 this is funny and the ???? link led me to some interesting stuff.  
> **username_10**: [Underpants gnomes?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_%28South_Park%29#mediaviewer/File:Gnomes_plan.png)  
> **username_6**: Protip: be(friend/come) someone who works in a lab with a (GC)MS. It's expensive equipment and having someone who knows how to use it is a big plus. Obviously, the GC is an [added bonus](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17386813) to do some aroma analysis.  

---

### Answer by username_11 on 2015-01-28. Score: 14

Well I am not sure how thay did it but here is the website about the amount of caffeine there is in certain cups of coffee (types will vary): [Caffeine In Coffee](http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database)  
There will be caffeine intake of other drinks as well.  
  
Well here is another website where it explains the amount of coffee per type (not brands). It was made by ICO, the International Coffee Organization: <http://www.ico.org/caffeine.asp>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: That's an interesting comparison but it won't help me figure out my French Press. It does show that different restaurants serve beverages quite varied in caffeine per fluid ounce. Tim Hortons brews at 10mg/oz and Starbucks at double that.  
> **username_11**: How about now ?  
> **username_11**: Why the downvote? I thought my second website made my answer more clearer.  
> **username_0**: Both of those sources give a very wide range of caffeine numbers and are hard to compare to my brewed coffee at home... but thanks for answering quickly!  
> **username_11**: You are welcome! I always try to answer as clear and fast as possible!  
> **username_12**: @PhytonMaster, the link is broken. I tried a quick Internet search but cannot find an alternative location. Maybe you know where it is.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-01-31. Score: 12

1. Determine what kind of coffee you are working with. Different kinds of coffee have different amounts of caffeine. USDA-accredited values are:

   * Normal - 40 mg
   * Decaffeinated - 1 mg
   * Espresso - 212 mg
   * Decaffeinated espresso - 1 mg
   * Instant - 3,142 mg
   * Instant chicory - 21 mg
   * Instant french - 246 mg
   * Instant mocha - 360 mg

Sourced from [Google](http://google.com/) which pulls its data from this USDA link - [Basic Report: 14221, Beverages, OCEAN SPRAY, Diet Cranberry Juice](http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/4287?qlookup=14209&max=25&man=&lfacet=&new=1).
Tinker around and you'll find the other types.

The values are for 100 grams. This is best because g can be directly derived from an SI unit.

2. Measure the amount of pulp. If your grounds are already wet, you have coffee pulp. Figure out how much you have by weighing it on a scale; it will help if you keep the pulp in the filter so that it does not spread and create a mess.
3. Convert the pulp into dry measurements. Do this by subtracting the amount of water you added. You can find this amount by calculating exactly how much coffee you initially put into the coffee maker, minus the amount of coffee that was produced. This amount will be very small, but it will affect the mass of the final pulp. Measure out an equivalent amount of water (which is usually measured by volume rather than weight) and weight it on your scale, being sure to subtract the weight of the container from your final measurement. Subtract the weight of the water from the weight of the pulp.
4. Multiply the dry measurement by the amount of caffeine in that type of coffee. If you made instant coffee and have 2 grams of dry instant, for instance, you will multiply this into 3,142 and divide by 100 for a final answer of 62.84 milligrams of caffeine in the coffee pulp.

Voila! Provided you are pretty skilled at handling and measuring things, you have an accurate answer. :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Do you have a source for that USDA data? Why weigh "pulp" instead of dry grounds? Your list doesn't include normal coffee beans, only "espresso". But your step 4 is pretty much what I'm looking for...  
> **username_2**: I've added the sources and also the amount of caffeine for normal coffee beans. :)  
> **username_0**: Looking at this more, the numbers make no sense and don't square with other sources. For example, there is no real difference between ground "coffee" and ground "espresso" so why does one have 40mg and one 212 mg? If it's measuring prepared coffee, why are the instant ones so high? This answer doesn't make sense.  
> **username_2**: Well, I have no idea. USDA data.  The links: http://goo.gl/lk2bPY http://goo.gl/gqrncP http://goo.gl/5yhLmD  
> **username_2**: http://goo.gl/SY5ydO http://goo.gl/UVUh2G http://goo.gl/jk63Dd  
> **username_2**: http://goo.gl/3kIjc3  I was unable to find the source for French instant coffee but Google magically pulled its data from the land of unicorns. I researched a lot for this answer, well I can say, I tried. What problems are you facing?  
> **username_2**: @username_0 , my replies are above. ;)  
> **username_0**: Yes, thank you. The sources above do mix up prepared/liquid coffee with dry coffee. The 1st and 3rd links are for "Coffee, **brewed** from grounds, prepared with tap water" which comes out around 12mg caffeine per fl oz, and "Coffee, **brewed**, espresso, restaurant-prepared" which yields 64mg caffeine per fl oz. You don't need the pulp weight to use those, but they don't really answer my question of how to tell how much caffeine is in a serving from my french press.  
> **username_0**: I think the method I [figured out yesterday](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/a/324/86) works is more flexible and roughly agrees with that data.  

---

### Answer by username_13 on 2015-02-20. Score: 8

It really varies by size, bean origin, roast method and other factors.

To get some general idea, here is full table according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine):

![Caffeine Content in Select Food and Drugs](https://i.sstatic.net/VvChhl.png)

And here is a full list according to Center for Science in the Public Interest:

![caffeine content by Center for Science in the Public Interest](https://i.sstatic.net/iP980l.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks, but this is the sort of easily googlable info that I can't really use for my homemade coffee, which has a bunch of variables compared to everything here.  
> **username_11**: Isn't that similar to my answer?  
> **username_11**: It looks like a duplicate of answer though  
> **username_13**: I think the question title is ambiguous and misleading and it's not clear unless you'll read the description what's about. Somebody will buy a Starbucks Coffee and will expect that this question to answer 'how much caffeine is in his cup', so this answer explains that. If you want me to remove an answer, please change the question like 'how to calculate/measure caffeine in the coffee I make', then it'll be more appropriate for the first answer.  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2015-02-02. Score: 5

To be honest, with all of the variability in coffee, if you want completely accurate numbers, you'd have to prepare multiple samples of your coffee brewed the same exact way (preferable 3 or 4 samples to be sure of consistency), and send these off to an analytical chemistry lab, where they will use a [Mass Spec](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry) instrument (maybe [GC-MS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography%E2%80%93mass_spectrometry)) to determine content. The reason you don't see more cafes displaying numbers for their caffeine content is because this testing can get expensive.

Your specific example of brewing with a French press will also have trouble being determined because we don't know your grind size (exposed surface area), and we don't know your dose. Caffeine yield is directly related to dose.

Also that Mayo Clinic study is very, very, poorly cited because it just gives names of journals and years, not specific studies, issues, or authors. I based on there being no direct trace to its source, like just listing multiple sources that are properly cited, I would say that that article is not a reliable source of information.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Complete accuracy isn't necessary. Just wondering with all that variability, how someone would compare their caffeine from a few cups of coffee to a clinical guideline like "300 mg/day"  
> **username_8**: If you're not going for complete accuracy, then err on the upper end of the estimate and say that there are 200 mg per 8 oz. Which would mean that 24 oz of coffee would meet that guideline.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2015-11-30. Score: 2

This should help you arrive at a more accurate number.

According to [caffeine informer](http://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/coffee-brewed):

standard drip brew yeilds an average of **145mg of caffeine per 8 fl. oz.**

french press yeilds an average of **107.5mg of caffeine per 8 fl. oz.**

The difference is a **58 to 43 ratio**.

Now, assuming most of the coffee brands listed on their [caffeine database](http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database) are brewed using the standard drip method, you could calculate the average french press ammount of caffeine per brand of coffee by taking the 58/43 ratio of depreciation into consideration.

let **A** = the average ammount of caffeine yield from french press

let **c** = the ammount of caffeine reported using standard drip method

[![formula](https://i.sstatic.net/b7yJO.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/b7yJO.png)

Example:

According to [here](http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starbucks-caffeine), there is 180mg of caffeine in an 8 oz. cup of Starbucks brewed coffee.

Based on these numbers, there should be approximately:

[![example](https://i.sstatic.net/ersVA.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ersVA.png)

of caffeine in an 8 oz. cup of french press regular Starbucks coffee brewed at home.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you, that's the sort of thing I was looking for. But this method doesn't include the amount of dry coffee grounds, which can vary considerably. Also, I'm not sure Caffeine Informer is a reliable source—it differs from other sources and is overtly biased  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Yeah, at first I thought they were caffeine enthusiasts like myself and then I found out otherwise. They have a sources page with links to federal databases and I also understand that consumer reports has some data as well. Also, the industry standard is *supposed* to be 1 tbsp per 6 us fl. oz. but who knows what some of the different places use as McDonalds has about half the caffeine of Dunkin Donuts and they both use drip brew arabica as far as I know.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Remember, the larger the sample population size, the closer the statistics get to a *true* and accurate mean or something like that.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Kind of a late reply but I have some new information. 1 tbsp per 6 fluid ounces of water is for [usually] cheaper robusta or robusta blends that have more caffeine and 2–2.5 tbsp per 6 fluid ounces is recommended for arabica and I believe this is supposed to compensate for the difference in caffeine between the two varieties.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2022-05-05. Score: 1

Arne Preuss at Coffeeness in Berlin shelled out for a laboratory to analyze the caffeine content of 15 different brew methods on the same roast batch and published his results at <https://www.coffeeness.de/en/how-much-caffeine-in-coffee/>

I did some math on his results and got
Pour over: 12.33 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds
French press: 15.56 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds

Some arabica beans have more caffeine than others so it's rough, but this is the only laboratory-backed info I've found so far.

I posted a question to Arne's blog post yesterday which has not been approved yet, so doesn't yet appear in the comments. Here is my math from my comment, by which I meant to ask him if he agrees my math is correct, or if I missed something:

Your pour over brew ratio is 30 g grounds / 500 ml water. The caffeine result is 74 milligrams caffeine / 100 ml brew. That's the same as 370 milligrams caffeine / 30 g coffee grounds, which is 12.33 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds If I brew with 30 g grounds, that's 370 milligrams caffeine

Your French press brew ratio is 18.3 g grounds / 320 ml water The caffeine result is 89 milligrams caffeine / 100 ml brew. That's the same as 284.8 milligrams caffeine / 18.3 coffee grounds, which is 15.56 milligrams caffeine / 1 g coffee grounds If I brew with 30 g grounds, that's 467 milligrams caffeine.

If I hear back from him, I may try to nudge him to post results in the form of milligrams caffeine per 1 gram coffee beans, by brew method, on his site, either in that article or a new one for people like us. You want to nudge him too?

For now I am ignoring how water density changes with temperature (I've asked at what temperature Arne measured the 50ml brew sample) and that the coffee grounds absorb about 1.5x their weight in water. Brew yield ml is less than the water added to make the brew.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: Welcome to Coffee! Can you describe a bit more which results you used from that link and what mathematical operations you applied to arrive at those numbers? While the link is very informative, answers on this site are expected to be somewhat self-contained. Even with the numbers you provide it's not really clear what assumptions were made (by the study in the link and in your calculations). Adding that nuance would be really helpful for others stumbling upon your answer. :)  
> **username_6**: It seems that you've created a new account to add further elaboration. Seeing that the other answer builds on this one, I've taken the liberty to edit that information into this one. You would normally be able to do this yourself, but you may need to register your account (or register a new account) and then use [the contact form](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/contact) (as [explained here](https://coffee.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts)) to link all this post to your new registered account.  
> **username_0**: Hi username_5 and @username_6 ! I'm glad my few hours of nerding out about this question almost 9 years ago are still interesting. Arne's experiments definitely seem more rigorous than my napkin math, yet the comments section is full of additional questions. Clearly some real research is needed :)  
> **username_7**: Thanks username_5 for the link. Arne reported his raw data which is super-useful. Some of his conclusions were odd, so I also ran the maths in a slightly different way. I get the same but as ratio of dry coffee to caffeine : French press yields about 1.56% of the weight of coffee as caffeine; Pour-over drip yields 1.23%. Stove-top espresso - 2.18%! So @username_0, your 0.8% figure seems a good approximation overall, but may be a bit low for French press. It seems plausible that a process that takes more time and uses a fair amount of water would extract more caffeine.  

---

