1. Dark roasts are actually lighter on caffeine.
That dark French or Italian roast may taste stronger, but that doesn’t mean it’s packing a stronger caffeine punch. In fact, light roasts contain the most caffeine—because the process of roasting beans burns off caffeine.
2. Not all brands are created equal.
There’s a huge of milligrams of caffeine per ounce in some of your favorite chains to grab a cup of coffee. A cup of coffee from Starbucks, for example, has more than twice the caffeine per ounce as a cup from McDonald’s—20.6 mg compared to 9.1 mg.
3. The grind matters.
Want a bigger jolt? Use a “burr” instead of “blade” grinder—it’ll create a rougher grind, which means more tiny surfaces on each grain of coffee and more caffeine coming out of each bean into your cup.
4. Everyone metabolizes it differently.
Caffeine is flushed out of everyone’s body at different rates. Women usually process it faster than men, smokers process it twice as fast as non-smokers, and women who take birth control pills metabolize it at about a third that rate that women not on birth control pills do.
5. It doesn’t dehydrate you.
You’ve probably heard that you should be drinking extra water to counteract the dehydrating effects of caffeine, right? Turns out coffee hydrates you just as well as water, especially when you’re a regular coffee drinker, according to a University of Birmingham study. Lead researcher Sophie Killer explains that regular caffeine intake makes you more tolerant to the potential diuretic effects. “Your body becomes more able to regulate the fluid intake and is less susceptible to any increases in urine output that somebody who’s caffeine-naïve might experience,” she says.
6. You’re better off with regular coffee than an energy drink.
Need a midday boost? Stick with coffee instead of Red Bull if you’re looking for the most caffeine bang for your buck—coffee tends to have more caffeine per serving than energy drink (about 80mg of caffeine in a 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull, compared to 95 to 200mg in a cup of coffee), minus the sugar and artificial ingredients.
