![]() ![]() While you might have a certain sensitivity level to caffeine, keep in mind that that’s not the only thing at play here. For many, it’s the combination of caffeine and theobromine that causes sleeplessness after eating chocolate. ![]() Some folks can’t eat chocolate late in the day if they want to sleep well, while others can enjoy a late night cup of hot chocolate or slice of cake without any negative consequences. People have different levels of sensitivity to theobromine. Importantly, it also has health benefits such as lowering your blood pressure and increasing blood flow to the brain. It can also raise your heartrate, and it lasts longer in the body than caffeine does. It can make you feel more awake, but in a milder, smoother way than caffeine might. Cacao contains theobromine, a stimulant that is somewhat similar to caffeine. People who regularly drink coffee or tea probably won’t be too affected by the caffeine in chocolate, but there’s another culprit for your post-chocolate alertness or insomnia. White chocolate has no cacao solids, and therefore no caffeine. One ounce of milk chocolate has about 9 mg of caffeine, compared to dark chocolate’s twelve. For example, dark chocolate has more caffeine than milk chocolate, because dark chocolate has more cacao solids, which is where caffeine is found. The caffeine content of your chocolate also depends on what type of chocolate you’re eating. For comparison, a cup of coffee has 138 milligrams of caffeine, and one ounce of dark chocolate (the amount of chocolate in our Act of Kindness box) has only 12 milligrams of caffeine. Chocolate does have some caffeine, but not nearly as much as your morning cup of coffee or tea. To start, it’s important to know that when people talk about caffeine in chocolate, many times they are actually referring to a different stimulant called theobromine. And a shot of espresso has 64 milligrams of caffeine.It’s time to set the record straight once and for all––does chocolate actually have caffeine? Should you not drink hot chocolate before bed? Can a chocolate bar replace your morning cup of joe? The answers to these questions are a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. A typical 8-ounce cup of coffee has 95 milligrams of caffeine. How much exactly? A single coffee bean contains 6 milligrams of caffeine. And if you make espresso instead of brewed coffee, you’ll find more caffeine per ounce. If you make strong coffee using more coffee beans, you’ll end up with a higher caffeine level. The most important of these are your coffee-to-water ratio and your brewing method. How much caffeine is in coffee?Īnd what about coffee? There are a lot of factors that can affect how much caffeine is in your cup. And a 3.5-ounce bar of milk chocolate has just 20 milligrams of caffeine. A 3.5-ounce dark chocolate (50-69% cacao) has about 70 milligrams. A larger bar (3.5 ounces) of very dark chocolate (70-85% cacao) has about 80 milligrams. So how much caffeine can you expect in these different types of chocolate? There are about 23 milligrams of caffeine in a 1-ounce square of unsweetened baking chocolate. A good rule of thumb? The higher the cacao percentage, the higher the caffeine because the caffeine comes from the cacao bean. Strong dark chocolate is typically 70 to 85% cacao, regular dark chocolate is 50 to 69%, and milk chocolate is only 10 to 20% cacao. The amount of caffeine in chocolate depends on how much cocoa powder is in it. These two processes merge when you eat chocolate-covered espresso beans - but that’s a story for another article. That means that when you eat a chocolate bar, you’re eating the cacao bean itself, so you’re getting all of the caffeine. Then the outer shell is removed, leaving cacao nibs that can be ground into cocoa powder. When they’re raw, chocolate beans have a very bitter taste, so they have to be fermented and then roasted. ![]() When you make coffee, you grind up the roasted beans and pour water through them, extracting flavors, oils, and - you guessed it - caffeine! Because you’re extracting caffeine, not just eating the whole bean, you’ll end up with a little less caffeine in your cup. Both coffee beans and cacao beans naturally contain caffeine.
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