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Whether the coffee machine’s broken or you’re more of a snacker than a beverage person, it might be music to your ears to hear that sipping a cappuccino isn’t the only way to get a quick caffeine boost. Dark chocolate-covered espresso beans, such as Nuts.com dark chocolate-covered espresso beans, are a beautiful combination of crunchy and creamy while also packing a small punch on the caffeine scale. To avoid the risk of giving yourself coffee bean-induced insomnia, keep it reasonable: It’s not all that hard to exceed the caffeine content of the average coffee drinker with a couple handfuls of addicting beans.
The exact number of chocolate-covered espresso beans that’s equivalent to the caffeine in a cup of coffee depends on the kind of beans and the roast level — and reports don’t exactly agree on the amount of caffeine in a bean. Some estimate it’s less than 2 milligrams on average, others place it between 6 and 12 milligrams, and one USDA nutrient database listed it at 12 milligrams exactly. Assuming it’s somewhere in the middle, say 6 to 8 milligrams each, a handful of beans, say 12 to 17, could be roughly equivalent to one 8-ounce cup of drip coffee. If you’re wondering whether the chocolate contributes to the caffeine content, the answer is yes, but very minimally. For reference, each coffee bean weighs about ⅕ gram, which means 3 grams of coffee (15 beans) has about 90 milligrams of caffeine. The same amount of dark chocolate has approximately 2.4 milligrams of caffeine.
Taking the math a little further
The FDA-recommended amount of caffeine per day is no more than 400 milligrams, with slight variations based on your weight and age. If chocolate-covered beans were the only way you were consuming caffeine each day, this would mean you could eat somewhere between 50 and 67 beans a day and stay within the limit.
And that’s if espresso beans are the only way you’re consuming caffeine. More likely, you’re also going to down a cup or two of drip coffee or even an espresso, which has a higher caffeine content per ounce. Assuming that takes up half your caffeine allowance, you want to munch a lot fewer beans unless you’re looking for a sleepless night. If you are struggling with insomnia, try drinking the Sleepy Girl mocktail before bed. By the way, make sure you drink some water while you snack: Caffeine can cause dehydration.
