Colombian coffee caffeine: how much is in a cup

Colombian coffee is arabica, so a brewed 8 ounce cup carries about 95 mg of caffeine, the same as any other arabica coffee brewed the same way. There is no Colombian premium or discount on caffeine. What Colombia grows, how the roaster treats it and how you brew it are what move the number, and only the last two are in your hands.

The numbers

Colombian coffee, brewed	Caffeine	Source
8 fl oz drip or pour over	about 95 mg	USDA, 40 mg per 100 g of brewed coffee, 237 g cup
12 fl oz	about 142 mg	Same figure, 355 g
16 fl oz	about 189 mg	Same figure, 473 g
1 fl oz espresso shot	about 63 mg	USDA, 212 mg per 100 g of restaurant espresso

The brewed figure is USDA FoodData Central's entry for coffee, brewed, prepared with tap water; the espresso figure is the restaurant-prepared espresso entry. Both are averages across many samples, and a strong pour over from a generous dose can run well above them. For context, the FDA cites 400 mg a day as an amount not generally associated with negative effects for healthy adults. Information, not advice.

Why "Colombian" tells you the species, not the strength

The Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros, which represents the country's growers, describes Colombia as the world's largest producer of washed mild arabica. Colombian coffee sold as such is arabica; robusta is not part of the export identity. That matters because species is the biggest single caffeine variable in the bean.

A 2020 study in the journal Foods that measured 100 green coffee samples with UV spectroscopy found arabica averaging 1.8% caffeine by dry weight against 2.9% for robusta, and cites earlier work with arabica at 0.8 to 1.8% and robusta at 1.2 to 2.5%. Ranges overlap at the edges, but on average robusta carries roughly half again to nearly double the caffeine of arabica. A Colombian bag has none of that robusta lift. Neither does a bag from Ethiopia, Kenya, Guatemala or Brazil's arabica farms. Vietnamese coffee, most Italian-style espresso blends and most instant coffee do include robusta, which is why they test higher.

Within arabica, the variety on the bag matters less than people assume. The same study found arabica samples spread across a range with a few outliers, but the differences between arabica varieties are small next to the arabica-versus-robusta gap, and no Colombian variety is known for unusual caffeine.

What roast level does

Roasting drives off water and some mass, but caffeine survives roasting temperatures mostly intact, so a dark roast bean has slightly more caffeine per gram (less mass, same caffeine) and slightly less per scoop (the bean is bigger and lighter). Measured by weight, which is how most home brewers dose now, roast level is close to a wash. The "light roast has more caffeine" line and the "dark roast is stronger" line are both nearly true and both nearly irrelevant.

What brewing does

This is where the range opens up. Two things set the caffeine in your cup: how much coffee you put in and how much of its caffeine the water pulls out. The USDA average of 95 mg per 8 ounces reflects typical American drip at a modest dose. Using the study's 1.8% average, a 20 g dose of Colombian arabica holds about 360 mg of caffeine in the grounds; a single 8 ounce cup from that dose cannot contain more than that and, judging by the USDA average, typically ends up with a fraction of it. The practical version: dose more, get more; brew longer or hotter, get somewhat more; the origin on the bag changes nothing.

• Cold brew concentrate uses a lot of coffee per cup and often lands high per serving, despite the myth that cold water extracts less; see cold brew vs espresso caffeine.
• Espresso is the most concentrated per ounce (about 63 mg) but a single shot is one ounce, so a double is comparable to a mug of drip.
• French press and pour over from the same dose land close to each other; grind and time matter more than the brewer.

Decaf Colombian

Colombia is a major source of decaffeinated coffee, much of it processed in-country using the sugarcane ethyl acetate method, and "Colombian decaf" is common on shelves. Decaf is low, not zero; the residual amount depends on the process and the roaster, and the bag rarely states it. If the number matters to you, ask the roaster.

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