[wcunning]

James Hoffman did some interesting videos on that -- espresso is a more efficient extraction method than Aeropress, but less complete than a very high water to coffee ratio pour over for the same weight of ground coffee. Extraction of caffeine is very directly tied to contact time and temperature, so two double shots of espresso (40g coffee) can actually be less caffeine extracted than a single large pour over (25g coffee) when the pour over is upwards of 22% extraction (typical of 20:1 water to coffee ratios and modern zero-bypass brewers). Similarly, there are large differences in beans, so 22% extraction on weak caffeine beans might be way less than 18% extraction on much higher caffeine beans. This is most obvious in the fact that Robusta has much higher caffeine on average than Arabica. Also, 22% extraction has a lot more unpleasant bitter compounds, not just more caffeine, so it's not my preference for taste in general.

[sroussey]

Coffee makes me jittery but espresso (or lattes) do not. Is this why?

[jorvi]

Yes, but it might also be that you're drinking "coffee" (I assume you mean drip / pour-over) in the morning when you are just out of bed and have almost nothing in your stomach. Whereas the espresso you're drinking at a shop later in the day, probably already with breakfast in your stomach and maybe you're ordering a snack with it.

[hastamelo]

why would it matter what's in your stomach? caffeine goes pretty quickly to the blood stream, right?

[ororroro]

> A high carbohydrate meal consumed prior to caffeine ingestion significantly reduced serum caffeine concentrations and delayed time to peak concentration

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S14402...

[smallerize]

Caffeine is a stimulant, acting on the sympatheitc nervous system. If you're also activating the parasympathetic nervous system, like by eating a meal, the effect won't be as strong.

Another effect of caffeine is as an adenosine re-uptake antagonist. Adenosine levels are usually low in the morning, so the effect is small. Later in the day, it can have a bigger effect on how alert you feel.

[Insanity]

I heard that the anxiety from caffeine is worse when you haven’t eaten. No time to check resources for that at the moment

[serf]

having a full stomach has a moderating effect on most drug uptake.

[nosianu]

Maybe?

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.

[xorbax]

> (and I hated it, but the place was great)

That's a mystifying statement. Why go if you found the coffee so unpleasant?

Decor?

[nosianu]

No the cappuccino tasted fine, good even. I hated the effect on my heart that came later.

Also, the food was very very good, I still dream of it occasionally. Just some sandwiches, but perfection. Some cooked root whose name I forgot as the main ingredient, the overall composition was what distinguished it though, like a cook is able to get much more than the sum of the parts out of the ingredients by choosing compatible ones and doing appropriate processing.

Also, top location. College Ave. somewhere, not University Ave, maybe corner Ashby, and ca. twenty to twenty-five years ago.

[wcunning]

The biggest thing is what kind of "coffee" you mean by coffee -- cold brew in particular tends to be a much higher extraction % since the bitter notes you get on higher extractions are less noticeable at colder temperatures. The rest is what the sibling responses mention -- time of day and speed of absorption in the digestive system can have big impacts.

[dilyevsky]

Espresso beans typically have different (darker) roast profile from filter so some of it maybe due to that

[dddw]

That or there is no robusta in your espresso.