CAFFEINE IN COFFEE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32016, 17 June 1969, Page 10

CAFFEINE IN COFFEE

Instant coffee has a rather higher caffeine content than most brands of tea, says the Consumers’ Institute. In the June issue of its magazine, “Consumer” the institute says that three na-tionally-sold brands of coffee have a caffeine content ranging from 3.13 per cent to 3.48 per cent. If a cup of coffee is made with a rounded teaspoonful of instant coffee these figures yield caffeine concentrations of about 65 mg. a cup. In its recent test of teas, the institute reported that the amount of caffeine in the average cup of tea was about 50 mg., although individual brands varied from 35 mg. a cup to 70 mg. a cup. The institute notes that 100 mg. of caffeine is generally enough to have a stimulant effect on a person. Tea is a far more economical drink, however. The institute estimates that it costs less than half a cent to brew

a cup of tea—compared with about one cent and a half for a cup of instant coffee and about one cent and a half for a cup of ground coffee. The amount of coffee being drunk by New Zealanders is increasing rapidly. In 1937 the figure stood at 0.31 b of beans a person. In 1957 this had risen to 0.761 b and by 1967 the figure had reached 3.361 b of beans a person. The amount of tea drunk by New Zealanders in 1967 was 6.531 b a person. In spite of soaring coffee consumption, the institute reports that compared with tea the amount of coffee drunk is still low. “Allowing that one pound of beans produces enough instant coffee to make 80 cups and one pound of tea makes 160 cups, the 1967 consumption can be translated as about 270 cups of coffee and 1050 cups of tea a person—or about four cups of tea to every cup of coffee.”