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I love a bag of chocolate coated coffee beans, but I do tend to eat them much like any other sweets (read: in large quantities with little to no restraint). Whole bags within arms' reach will vanish. Am I ingesting a dangerous amount of caffeine? How much caffeine is there in a (~150g) bag of chocolate coffee beans compared to a pull of espresso?

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fredley
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  • Never heard of this kind of product, could you add a link or a picture? – Ludwik Feb 02 '15 at 08:13
  • @Ludwik Maybe it's just a British thing. They are amazing. – fredley Feb 02 '15 at 11:20
  • Looks delicious, now I kinda wonder about this myself. – Ludwik Feb 02 '15 at 14:39
  • Just Dark Chocolate? The nurses I work with get a variety that has dark, milk, white and swirled chocolate (here in the US). Pretty sure it's not just a British thing. – Suspended User Feb 02 '15 at 19:28
  • @chris Oh we have all the chocolates too! – fredley Feb 02 '15 at 19:31
  • Does it say what kind of beans they are? Arabica would be half that of Robusta, kinda matters. –  Feb 03 '15 at 13:06
  • @TimPost Not usually in my experience – fredley Feb 03 '15 at 13:14
  • They are delicious indeed, bought them on a stop-over at El Dorado Airport in Colombia, i guess the amount of caffeine will be directly proportional to the weight of the beans + the caffeine and theobromine (alkaloid similar to Caffeine) contained in the chocolate itself – Elfarto Jun 18 '21 at 03:38

2 Answers2

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This seems to suggest that there is approximately 7mg of caffeine per coated bean. I've no idea how much those weight per piece, or how many are in a bag, but the math should be fairly easy if you have access to such things.

I found another manufacturer of a similar product which claims 40g for 28 pieces. Extrapolating that for your 150g bags gives roughly 700mg of caffeine, which sounds like way too much. This could very greatly of course between manufacturers depending on chocolate thickness/weight.

Suspended User
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  • Since this amount of caffeine seems straight-up dangerous, maybe the product in question is somehow decaffed, or the body is not able to take it all in from the beans? – Ludwik Feb 05 '15 at 11:51
  • And hey, don't forget to count the chocolate coating! – Ludwik Feb 05 '15 at 11:57
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Weight per bean ca 130mg from here One needs approx. 15g coffee per 250ml water, corresponding to 115beans per cup. A 237ml serving of coffee contains 95mg caffeine (USDA), which would be 830ug / bean (I've read other sources saying about 1mg/bean). Note that this is extracted values, whole beans can contain as much as 7mg see here In your 145g bag, let's say 2/3 of the weight, e.g. 100g, is coffee beans, which corresponds to 770 beans, which would be 640mg to 5.2g(!) of caffeine. However it's not clear how much extraction occurs the human digestion system at body temperature, especially as you will not chew the beans as finely as a coffee grinder.

I think you're just going to have to rely on seeing how you feel after a certain number of beans, as caffeine tolerance varies so much per individual.

Ex coffee addict
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