I tried to skim to figure out how much caffeine/ml was actually in the drinks, but seems the researchers don't know themselves either? Wouldn't there be a huge difference depending on the beans, how it's made and so on? 1 espresso can be made very strong with packed coffee, or it can be made very weak, "1 cup of caffeinated coffee" basically says nothing at all, unless I'm missing the true definition elsewhere in the paper.
As an espresso drinker with a good machine and grinder, and lots of variety with mostly Italian beans, it depends, as the OP already indicated. I only buy low or at most middle caffein content beans to begin with, but you can get high caffeine beans for espresso easily. Easiest method: Increase the amount of Robusta.
Good vendors should have things like caffein content in their product description. I mostly buy from an online vendor that lists the exact roast date and also shows caffein content for each product (https://www.espresso-international.com/ - their only disadvantage is the use of some pretty light GRAY for most text, another topic, too many websites do this for reasons I cannot understand).
Many years ago, when I still lived in the Bay Area, the Cappuccino I got at a certain Berkeley coffee shop always made my heart go BOOM BOOM BOOM. Whatever concoction they brewed certainly had very high caffein (and I hated it, but the place was great). The ones I make myself now I can drink at 10 pm and be completely fine (I only drink 2-4 max espresso per day, and can easily drink zero if I'm away and have no access to good espresso, so I'm not addicted and just "used to it").
Sometimes I compromise and buy medium caffein beans when it's something good, but those I can feel just a little.
All of that just means you have to exert some control over which beans you consume, if you want to keep caffein low. On the plus side, if you stick to 80%-100% Arabica (the rest Robusta) it's not hard at all. If you like mixes with high Robusta ratio it gets much harder. Caffein free roasts exist though (examples: https://www.espresso-international.com/decaffeinated-coffee), but that choice severely limits your options.
For example, 1 cup of coffee for my wife involves a blend of coffee and espresso beans with no adders, but 1 cup to her dad means lighter roast bean with milk. Both options have different caffeine contents and nutritional values.
> If allocated to caffeinated coffee consumption, patients were encouraged to drink at least 1 cup of caffeinated coffee (or at least 1 espresso shot) and other caffeine-containing products every day as per their usual lifestyle. It was recommended that patients in the coffee consumption group not intentionally increase or decrease consumption of coffee or other caffeine-containing products.
> If allocated to the abstinence group, patients were encouraged to completely abstain from coffee, including decaffeinated coffee, and other caffeine containing products.
Suggestion: Got to the article, hit PgDn a few times, and look at the "Visual Abstract" graphic - which is both very short, and packed with important details.
> The DECAF (Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation?) trial...
Fantastic naming.
zengid•1h ago