Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages around the world. It offers numerous benefits, it tastes great, and it’s affordable. However, while we’re all happy with the blend of sweetness, acidity, and chocolaty flavor, we can’t help but feel the need to control one element; the caffeine content.
The roasting process burns off some of the caffeine in coffee. As a result, dark roasted beans may pack more flavor but are lower in caffeine. If you’re curious about your coffee’s caffeine level, DCaf strips will allow you to measure your drink’s caffeine content.
It’s worth noting that tweaking your methods of preparing coffee, from roasting and grinding to brewing, may change the caffeine content but will not make a significantly appreciable difference.
Which Roast Has the Highest Caffeine Content?

When comparing caffeine content, it’s important to start with the same type of coffee beans since the type of coffee bean largely influences its caffeine content. The most commonly used beans, for instance, are Robusta and Arabica.
Aside from being primarily grown in different parts of the world, they’re also differentiated by their caffeine content. For example, robusta beans pack nearly twice as much caffeine as Arabica beans (from Amazon).
The degree of roast is another important factor since the roast often determines the caffeine content in the beans. Here’s how different roast levels differ in terms of caffeine content:
Light Roast
A common misconception is that lightly roasted coffee beans are less caffeinated. It stems from the fact that people often associate caffeine with a dark color. The truth is, the roasting process burns off the caffeine. Resultantly, lightly roasted beans pack about 40% more caffeine.
Dark Roast
Dark roast coffee tastes nutty and chocolatey but at the same time less acidic because of the significantly lower levels of caffeine.
Medium Roast
Medium roast coffee falls somewhere in the middle. It provides the best of both worlds in terms of caffeine and flavor.
How to Measure Coffee for Different Caffeine Amounts
Given the adverse effects caffeine can have on individuals, knowing how much caffeine you’re putting in your body is a starting point for monitoring your coffee intake. Testing caffeine content is also helpful if you’re just curious about the caffeine content of your regular morning Joe.
While large companies use complex methods such as ultraviolet rays to test for caffeine, a more straightforward process allows you to do the same. With an easy-to-use DCaf test strip, you can perform a quick caffeine test. The DCaf strips are easy to use:
- First, place a strip in your coffee and let it soak for 30 seconds.
- Then, remove the strip and put it on a flat surface while you wait for the results to show.
- You’ll notice two markings on the strip, one labeled “D” and the other “C.” If your coffee contains more than 20mg of caffeine, the C line will appear bolder. Conversely, the D line will be bolder if your coffee has less than 20mg of caffeine.
Which Type of Brew Has the Most Caffeine?

It’s a well-known fact the roast type affects caffeine levels, but the brewing method also impacts the extraction of caffeine. Because heat helps extract caffeine from coffee beans, most would argue that cold brew packs less caffeine than your regular coffee.
That’s partially true, except cold brew is generally prepared as a concentrate, using a higher coffee-to-water ratio than average. Therefore, the resulting concentrate contains more caffeine, even when diluted with water, milk, or creamer.
Conclusion
Various factors go into the caffeine level of a coffee bean, and the roast level is one of the most influential. The roasting process is believed to burn off several elements of the coffee bean, including caffeine, hence why most people believe darker roasts are lacking in caffeine.
To clarify, darker roasts contain less caffeine per volume and weight than their lighter counterparts, but the difference isn’t as prominent as most people would like to believe.
To make an appreciable impact on the caffeine content of your coffee, you’ll need to factor in other aspects like the beans’ origin, the method of brewing, as well as the grinding type.