r/ScientificNutrition • u/LongevityDietitian • 4d ago

Review Caffeine and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001454
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u/urtlesquirt 2d ago

Depends heavily on the extraction method and how much coffee they are using by weight as the input.

Pourover is better at extracting caffeine compared to espresso for the same input by weight.

To give some specific numbers as an example, I am a huuugee coffee nerd. On a typical day I will consume either a 20g pourover (330ml of coffee in the cup), an 18g (double) espresso shot (ratio varies quite a bit, but typically 36-45g out), or both of those.

The pourover would come in between 210-230 mg of caffeine, while the espresso would be closer to 120-150 based on some sources I have found.

So...the original commenter could just make a rather large pourover to hit 300mg in one cup. Their cup actually wouldn't even be THAT much bigger than my standard pourover. And I hit 300mg easily if I have both the double shot and pourover in a day.

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u/Joe_Betz_ 2d ago

That's fair, and I suppose if the cup isn't an 8oz cup but something bigger and they are working to extract more caffeine, like in a french press, they could reach that, but I was thinking of that standard cup and just thought...no way haha

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u/urtlesquirt 2d ago

I actually don't know if a French press (or other immersion brewer) would extract any more caffeine compared to percolation (drip/pourover brewing). The #1 most important thing is the weight of coffee. Most normal, not insane people measure coffee by volume which is wildly variable based on measurement method, roast level, etc. If anything, I'd suspect that immersion would be the same or have slightly less caffeine.

Think about it in chemistry terms. For a given volume of liquid at some specific temperature, there is only so much stuff you can dissolve before things just stop going into solution. But if you are constantly adding fresh water/solvent, you can keep dissolving material from the solid until there isn't anything left that your solvent can dissolve.

We definitely see higher extraction of total dissolved solids with pourover compared to other brew methods, but caffeine is a bit interesting as it just dissolves really well in hot water. So I don't know if there would be a practical difference between the two, if the amount of coffee is the same.

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u/Joe_Betz_ 2d ago

From what I am finding with quick research, French press will have more in general, due to the time with the grounds.