Primary Analysis Caffeinated Drinks

Computers fuel our economy and our way of life. Geeks fuel computers. Caffeine fuels geeks. Thus, in a very real way, caffeine is what keeps our nation's (or our world's) economy stable and secure, and ensures the way of life of countless people. Without this vital substance, the computer world would cease to exist as we know it, thus the world would cease to exist, as we know it.

Clearly it is evident that caffeine is a valuable resource, which must be as closely guarded as our nation's oil supply, as it is uncompromisingly vital to the survival of mankind in any complex form.

Found commonly in such substances as chocolate, coffee, soda drinks, caffeine is believed to be the second most widely traded commodity in the world, second only to petroleum (cite). I firmly believe that if petroleum were not used to power things, caffeine would be more important to our world than any form of money as we know it.

Anyways, let's get to the point of this article-a study of caffeine. I am going to start out by giving you some numbers. Bear in mind the only ones I could find were a few years old, but this is at least a reference. If you have any new numbers, let me know.

Drink Caffeine (mg) Size

Coffee (drip) 115-175 7oz

Jolt 100 12oz

Brewed Tea 80-135 7oz

Iced Tea 80-135 12oz

Mountain Dew 54 12oz

Coke 45.6 12oz

Diet Coke 45.6 12oz

Dr. Pepper 39.6 12oz

Pepsi 38.4 12oz

Diet Pepsi 36 12oz

To break that down a little more, let's look at it in terms of mg of caffeine per fluid ounce.

Drink Caffeine (mg/oz)

Coffee (drip) 20

Jolt 8.3

Brewed Tea 14.3

Iced Tea 8.3

Mountain Dew 4.5

Coke 3.875

Diet Coke 3.875

Dr. Pepper 3.3

Pepsi 3.2

Diet Pepsi 3

As you can derive from this, coffee and brewed tea seem to offer the most caffeine for the bang, at least in terms of commonly available drinks. The big disappointment here is Pepsi, with an extremely poor showing, not acceptable at all. Mountain Dew is also commonly considered a drink with a lot of caffeine, but a measly 4.5mg/oz isn't going to keep you going at 4am when it comes down to sleep or wrapping up that awesome VC++ Algorithm. In comparison, not much offers any extreme amount of caffeine aside from Coffee, Tea, or Jolt, which might be better included as a caffeine drink as I am going to go into later down the article. I chose to include it here because of its availability, which has been pretty good.

Now that we have examined the commonplace contenders, let's bring in some of the 'caffeine drinks' to see how they stack up.

Added to these commoners, we are going to add BAWLS, Pacific Chai, and SkyRocket additive. Here they are assimilated into the original graph.

Drink Caffeine (mg) Size

BAWLS 80 10oz

Pacific Chai 100 12oz

SkyRocket 100 1oz

Coffee (drip) 115-175 7oz

Jolt 100 12oz

Brewed Tea 80-135 7oz

Iced Tea 80-135 12oz

Mountain Dew 54 12oz

Coke 45.6 12oz

Diet Coke 45.6 12oz

Dr. Pepper 39.6 12oz

Pepsi 38.4 12oz

Diet Pepsi 36 12oz

Now to the mg of caffeine per ounce graph.

Drink Caffeine (mg/oz)

BAWLS 8

Pacific Chai 8.3

SkyRocket 100

Coffee (drip) 20

Jolt 8.3

Brewed Tea 14.3

Iced Tea 8.3

Mountain Dew 4.5

Coke 3.875

Diet Coke 3.875

Dr. Pepper 3.3

Pepsi 3.2

Diet Pepsi 3

No, you didn't read that wrong-the SkyRocket really has 100mg caffeine per 1 ounce. Of course, it is iffy as to its eligibility to be on this list, as it is an additive not a drink. I am actually going to do a brief rundown on each of the three caffeine drinks.

BAWLS is a wonderful drink. I was first exposed to it at the Frag 3 in Dallas. It comes in 10oz blue bottles and is packed with caffeine and a special herb called Guarana. The Guarana gives it a very good kick in addition to the caffeine. The drink itself is tasty and reminds me much of a light sprite, except without the bad taste ;). I've heard it compared to Zima or a Shirley Temple, though I don't have any basis for comparison. It is, of course, non-alcoholic as well.

The Chai is a very acquired taste. It is strikingly strong in taste, but it a very good alternative for the popular carbonated form. It's tasty and pretty easy to make. It can be made in jus the amount of time needed to let that huge proggie compile, or rest your eyes for a few.

SkyRocket comes in several flavors, all of which are incredibly strong. They are this way because they are meant to be added to a drink, not taken as a drink. I would not advise trying to drink from the bottle, as you will hurt yourself. It is packed with caffeine and thereby a good resource, but not as original or typically as effective as a really good highly caffeinated drink.

All of these are good choices, and depend much on opinion.

So what is my opinion? I think the BAWLS are great, and you can have countless hours of fun making up lame and tasteless jokes about the name. Those who have attended any CPL event know what I mean.

Until next time, keep your eyes open and awake, and if you know of any good caffeine products not mentioned here, by all means let me know!

'Many Thanks Award' goes to Mark Captur, source 3AG http://www.3ag.net/item_display.php/cafd/1/