Re: figuring caffeine levels

On 2007-09-11, Dan Bollinger <danNObollinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Using the data from that article I mentioned, and if my math is correct, I get
that for each gram of Arabica coffee used, it will yield this much caffeine.
[...]

Your math is probably correct (I didn't check it), but your reasoning
is wrong. The study is not useful because they put way too much water
through the espresso grounds, leading to a very, very, very thorough
extraction. Way too thorough. We would usually call it
over-extracted, but in fact I think super-hyper-ultra-mega-extracted
would be a better description. Pretty much everything other than the
insoluble cellulose fiber was extracted from those grounds after they
put that much water through it at high temperature and pressure. If
you put that much water through the grounds, you will change the
nature of the extraction. You can't just "scale back" the numbers
derived from that experiment to arrive at something applicable to
normal espresso extractions. A normal espresso extraction will leave
a lot of stuff (caffeine and a lot else) in the grounds, because less
water goes through them.

When you put less water through the grounds, you extract less caffeine
from them. This is why brewing espresso with the same water:grounds
ratio as drip doesn't give you any useful information about how much
caffeine will be in espresso extracted according to normal espresso
ratios. In a ristretto (which is what started this thread), even less
water goes through the grounds, and (presumably) even less of the
caffeine will be extracted.

--
Randall
"How to lie with math"
.

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