Caffeine by the Numbers

Like a lot of you, I have a love affair with coffee.  By monitoring my withdrawal symptoms, I know I was a caffeine addict as early as 19.   But it took about 10 years before I figured this out.

I have done cursory studies on the caffeine amount in coffee/tea/soda over the years, but was frustrated because the presented facts were always incomplete, and often contrary.  Does espresso have more caffeine, or less?  The studies said yes.  

 The coffee/tea comparison was always muddled.  How much coffee, how much tea?  It turns out that the standard cup of coffee is 5 oz, or maybe 7oz.   I don’t know about you, but my smallest coffee mug is 14oz.  Dark roast vs light?  It turns out that dark is actually lower in caffeine.

I heard an article on the subject the other day, on a “WhatYou Should Know” podcast, that did a pretty good job of explaining things, and brought to light a few things I wasn’t aware of, and has made me think on this again.  So here is Caffeine, by the Numbers.

There are a number of factors that will affect the caffeine content of coffee.   

They are:

     Bean type, Arabica or Robusta.

     Grind, from coarse to Turkish

     Extraction, perc, drip, press Turkish or espresso.

     Roast, from dark to light.

With four vectors it is almost impossible to actually make a statement of how much caffeine is in a cup, aside from actually testing that specific cup.  So all you can do is imply, less or more.

Beans Type:  There are two types of beans, Arabica and Robusta.  Arabica beans are smaller, more flavorful, but have half the caffeine as the Robusta bean.  Arabica is more expensive, Robusta beans tends to be in the discount store brands.  Most coffee shops use exclusively Arabica beans.

The Grind:  Coarser grinds yield less caffeine for a process.  All other vectors being even, Turkish will yield double the caffeine over a coarse grind.

The Extraction Process:  French press has the least.  Drip the next, followed by percolated, espresso then Turkish.

The Roast:  Dark roasts are, slightly lighter on caffeine then lighter roasts.  The roasting process changes the caffeine per weight ratio.  The net effect is if you measure your coffee grounds by volume, there is less caffeine, but if you measure by your grounds by weight, there is more caffeine.  Mostly we measure by volume so there as small drop in the caffeine content.

Gaming Event June 2016

A Headless Body Production

Location:Continental Hotel, Lancaster Pa
Event:Social Daisy's 7th or 8th annual "The Weekend" Event.
Theme:  Space Babes
Players: Various
Game System: Various
Special Thanks to Otto Schmidt, who organizes this thing.

These are pictures I took of the games I played at this weekends "The Weekend" event, June 16-17 in sunny Lancaster. 

FYI, these pictures are "Clickable" and will expand to full size if you want.

Good thing we had a few copies of Military History to prop up the table.  What other event would that happen? 

The Second Battle of Manila Bay.  The first was alternate history.  It is 1905.  Theodore Roosevelt, after his attempts at peace making between the Japan and Russia was ignored, went off his meds and declared war on the empire and sends the White fleet, (painted grey) to assist the Russian Navy (painted white).  The main coaling station is in the Philippines and Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō decides to deny the coaling station to the combined American and Russian forces. 

The Japanese destroyers are attacking in 3 columns.

The Japanese heavy cruisers arrive.

The destroyers mix it up.

The Japanese main battle fleet, flag-shipped by the IJN Mikasa, arrives, approaches, and presents it's broadside.  Three ships of the Russian fleet are off in the distance.

I have an affinity to the Mikasa, as she is still around, and I have been on board her.

Alien Space Babes Attack!  Using advanced, but apparently randomized time and teleportation drive systems.  Some Princess, whose name I didn't catch, was collecting geniuses of history.  She apparently has Phineas Fogg on staff, and is trying now to capture Leonardo di Vinci.

Defending Leonardo is quite a formidable force of at least 13 cannon and two tanks of his design.

But against this force is a collection of di Vinci designed turtle tanks and teleporting steam powered golems.

These are great.  The Orange things are rocket propelled roller skates. They have a very high divination rate.  And were prone to misfire.  One went into the river, one hit a wall, one hit it's target.

This is a wonderful scratch built building. 

The decoy Leonardo surveying his defending bodyguards.

The Space Babe is commanding from her floating hover ball.

The last Game was in the Jurassic world.  Where carnivorous dinosaurs are being paid by aliens to herd herbivorous to a meat packing plant.

This is the meat packing plant, attended by a single alien worker.  Off board are two Spinasaurus's armed with Winchesters.

A herd of herbivorous facing off with the gauchos.

Alien tourists are watching the event.  They are armed with very big guns.