The cup with the least caffeine had 260 milligrams. Each time, he ordered the Breakfast Blend, a mixture of Latin American coffees. He bought a 16-ounce cup of coffee from one Florida Starbucks on six consecutive days. Goldberger's strangest result came from Starbucks. Espresso shots appeared to be more consistent in his study, at about 75 milligrams of caffeine per single (1.3-ounce) shot. In his sample, a 16-ounce cup of coffee from Dunkin' Donuts had just 143 milligrams of caffeine, while a typical cup from Starbucks had twice as much caffeine. Goldberger found caffeine differences between coffee brands. A five-ounce coffee cup is rare, indeed, these days, and a "small" coffee is generally at least 10 ounces. But Goldberger pointed out that while the caffeine content is lower, serving sizes are generally larger. This equates to 60 milligrams per five-ounce cup of coffee, which is 40 percent lower than the standard established by a pair of Coca-Cola researchers in an oft-cited paper published in 1996 (they suggested that 85 milligrams per five-ounce cup of roasted-and-ground coffee should be the standard). Goldberger found that the average caffeine concentration in specialty coffees was 12 milligrams per ounce. The caffeine concentrations varied wildly. He bought a variety of coffee drinks and analyzed their caffeine contents, publishing the results in 2003. Bruce Goldberger, a forensic pathologist, got striking findings when he studied coffee. What we don't talk about when we talk about coffee is the caffeine. The object of our affection - the drug that makes us energetic, sociable, and happy - is obscured by the stories we tell about coffee. Because, really, they are window dressing. It seems weird that we lavish so much attention on the other aspects of the coffee experience: the Juan Valdez country-of-origin stories, for example. (Anyone looking for a good caffeine kick might choose a light-roasted Folgers blend.) Most of us would guess the exact opposite. Picture a matrix with light roast/dark roast on one axis and gourmet coffee/diner coffee on the other the least caffeinated of the four is the dark gourmet coffee. The mid-elevation zone has just the right blend of moderate precipitation and strong tropical sunshine for the beans to grow abundantly on smallish, glossy-leafed trees. Each pale yellow bean was the size of a small peanut. Here are the coffees we tried, ranked.Standing on a hillside path above a rutted dirt road in northern Colombia, farmer David Castilla showed me a handful of beans cupped in his callused palm. Considering that the bar is pretty low for instant coffee, we were surprised to find how much of a difference there was between each brand-some smelled and tasted pretty close to freshly brewed coffee, with subtle notes of chocolate or fruit, but others reeked of burnt rubber and tasted bitter, sour, or flat. In an effort to find the best instant coffee, I organized a remote taste test of 10 popular brands with editors Marguerite Preston and Marilyn Ong, two of my colleagues from the Wirecutter test kitchen. And now that more and more specialty coffee roasters are selling instant coffee, we’ve found it’s not always as bad as it used to be. Although it’s probably not the ideal choice for your morning cup of joe, instant coffee can be a saving grace when access to fresh-brewed coffee isn’t an option. There’s a reason instant coffee gets such a bad rap: It usually tastes terrible. Sign up for Wirecutter's Top Picks newsletter to get independent reviews, expert advice, and the very best deals sent straight to your inbox.
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