kistaro

I would win the espresso bean eating contest. Duh.
But I'd have a heck of a caffeine tummyache afterwards XD.

Looking just at the LD50 of caffeine, a chocolate-covered espresso bean contest would probably start becoming actively hazardous to the participants around bean #50-75, at a total spot guess.

Happen to know how much caffeine is in a typical coffee bean, rather than a typical coffee cup?

I, being the completely weird person that I am, and hella curious about everything, actually went and looked.

Depends upon the bean. This site: http://www.coffeefaq.com/caffaq.html quotes the caffeine content of many types of beans.

How much caffeine there is in X coffee?
Caffeine Content in beans and blends
(Source: Newsletter--Mountanos Bros. Coffee Co., San Francisco)


VARIETALS/STRAIGHTS
Brazil Bourbons 1.20%
Celebes Kalossi 1.22
Colombia Excelso 1.37
Colombia Supremo 1.37
Ethiopian Harrar-Moka 1.13
Guatemala Antigua 1.32
Indian Mysore 1.37
Jamaican Blue Mtn/Wallensford Estate 1.24
Java Estate Kuyumas 1.20
Kenya AA 1.36
Kona Extra Prime 1.32
Mexico Pluma Altura 1.17
Mocha Mattari (Yemen) 1.01
New Guinea 1.30
Panama Organic 1.34
Sumatra Mandheling-Lintong 1.30
Tanzania Peaberry 1.42
Zimbabwe 1.10


BLENDS & DARK ROASTS
Colombia Supremo Dark 1.37%
Espresso Roast 1.32
French Roast 1.22
Vienna Roast 1.27
Mocha-Java 1.17

DECAFS--all @ .02% with Swiss Water Process
Return to Index

Now what all that means, I haven't a clue. But there's the average amount of caffeine per coffee bean.

From my link above: "It is estimated that fatal doses for humans are between 1 and 4 grams of caffeine, depending on body weight and tolerance."

Your link says that espresso roast beans are about 1.3 percent caffeine by weight, if I read that statistic right.

So an espresso bean eating contest would be well into fatal territory, let's say, when it gave someone 3 grams of net caffeine. The weight that 3 grams is 1.3 percent of is about 230 grams, or almost exactly eight ounces.

Let's say at a generous guess that the typical chocolate-covered espresso bean has a 3:1 chocolate:bean ratio. Even ignoring the caffeine in chocolate as inconsequential, this means that a mere two pounds of CCEBs could be fatal to some large number of contestants. Two pounds in an eating contest is nothing, considering that people shove down 40+ hot dogs at a stretch.

The moral of the story is: NO EATING CONTESTS INVOLVING CAFFEINE.

Actually, what I was thinking is a finite number of espresso beans in the fastest time, to win the first part of the contest. The second part is whoever can be fastest at completing a sequence of tasks requiring dexterity and patience- after a ten minute wait for the caffiene to kick in.

"For your first task: Trace the line from A to B with the wired pen. If you go off the track, you will complete a circuit and a tone will sound; if this happens, you must go back to start."

I don't drink coffee, so the beans would probably disgust me.

But chances are, in a bean eating contest, a person wouldnt' sleep for a very long time. And probably end up with a near, if not totally, fatal dose of caffeine in their system.

Either that or completely high beyond most mortal limits. Sounds like fun, actually.

Most any college student would probably do that. particularly since chocolate AND coffee beans are involved. That would probably thrill most people.

One does have to wonder just how many beans it would take before a person threw up though.