Food & Beverage Caffeine Contents

A Comparison of Coffees, Teas, Sodas, Chocolates and Medicines

Mar 4, 2008

Have you ever wondered how much caffeine is in your favorite foods, beverages, treats and medications? Some of the answers may surprise you.

If you are trying to limit your caffeine intake, it is important to know how much you get through food and drink over the course of a day. Below is a comparison of the caffeine contents of popular foods, beverages, treats and medicines.

Coffee

There is a large difference between drip-brewed coffee and instant coffee; brewed coffee has nearly 50% more caffeine.

330 mg – 16 oz Starbucks Coffee Grande
150 mg – 16 oz Starbucks Caffe Latte
135 mg – 8 oz (approximately 1 cup) regular brewed coffee
95 mg – 8 oz instant coffee
62-64 mg – 1 oz Espresso
2-5 mg – 8 oz regular decaffeinated coffee (brewed or instant)

Tea

Those trying to cut back on caffeine should steep black tea for less time or switch to green tea, which tends to have far less caffeine.

75 mg – Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea Latte
40-70 mg – 8 oz regular black tea (the longer it is steeped, the higher the caffeine content)
25-40 mg – 8 oz green tea
18 mg – 16 oz Snapple Iced Tea
17 mg – 12 oz Nestea (sweetened or unsweetened)
14 mg – 8 oz Sobe Green Tea
10 mg – 12 oz Lipton Brisk Iced Tea (lemon flavoured)
2 mg – 8 oz decaffeinated black tea

Sodas

Many people are not aware of the large difference in caffeine between Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Classic, or that drinks such as Sunkist Orange contain caffeine. The comparison below is for standard-sized cans (12 ounces) of soft drinks.

56 mg –Mountain Dew
47 mg – Tab
47 mg – Diet Coke
42 mg – Sunkist Orange
41 mg – Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper
38 mg – Regular Pepsi and Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi
35 mg – Coca-Cola Classic
31 mg – Diet Pepsi
29 mg – A&W Cream Soda
23 mg – Barq’s Root Beer
0 – 7UP
0 – Diet Barq’s Root Beer
0 – Fanta
0 – Sprite and Sprite Zero

Energy Drinks

Energy drinks derive their boosting effect through caffeine; most have a similar amount of caffeine to a Starbucks Caffe Latte.

160 mg – 16 oz Monster Energy
160 mg – 16 oz Rockstar
174 mg – 16 oz SoBe No Fear
152 mg – 16 oz SoBe Adrenaline Rush
144 mg – 16 oz Full Throttle
144 mg – 16 oz Fury
143 mg – 16 oz AMP Tall Boy Energy Drink
100 mg – 12 oz Enviga
80 mg – 8.5 oz Red Bull
47 mg – 8 oz Vault

Chocolate and Other Treats

The amount of caffeine is higher in dark chocolate than milk chocolate, which contains less cocoa.

30 mg – ½ cup (125 ml) of Haagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream or Starbucks Coffee Ice Cream
18 mg – 1.45 oz Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bar
9 mg – 1.55 oz Hershey’s chocolate bar
5 mg – 3 teaspoons of powdered cocoa mix

Medicine

Medicines often contain large amounts of caffeine. While this is to be expected in NoDoz, for example, many people are not aware that products such as Midol also contain caffeine: