Can coffee supercharge mezcal?
Irish coffees, espresso martinis, carajillos, vodka and Red Bull … there are so many examples of drinks that combine caffeine with alcohol, with the theory that this will be the pick-me-up that helps you extend your best-night-ever. But do they work? We ask our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock, otherwise known as the Cocktail MD … otherwise known as the guy who punctures holes in all of our best fantasies. We’re wide-awake drunks on this week’s episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. It’s hosted by Lou Bank and Chava Periban.
Episode Notes
“How to Keep the Night Going,” which would be better titled, “How Ross McCammon misled Esquire readers,” by Ross McCammon, Esquire, November 5, 2010
“Energy Drinks Mixed with Alcohol: What are the Risks?,” by Cecile A. Marczinski and Mark T. Fillmore, Nutr Rev. 2014 Oct; 72(0 1): 98–107
“Attentional and working memory performance following alcohol and energy drink: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, factorial design laboratory study,” by Sarah Benson, Brian Tiplady, and Andrew Scholey, PLoS One. 2019; 14(1): e0209239
“Effects of caffeinated alcoholic beverages with low alcohol and high caffeine content on cognitive and motor functions,” by Wan-Ju Cheng, Chun-Cheng Lin, Yawen Cheng, Ming-Chyi Huang, Hum Psychopharmacol, 2017 Nov;32(6). doi: 10.1002/hup.2634. Epub 2017 Oct 6.
Hot note! Road-tripper Fabio (who will be featured in an upcoming episode about converting agave into bio-fuel!!!) checked in to say this after hearing this episode: “I think I know the answer to Chava's ‘fancy vs. cheap’ coffee and caffeine question. Some of my colleagues work with coffee. Usually, cheap coffee is a blend of two species: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (also known as robusta or conilon). C. arabica usually gives all the flavors that we associate with coffee, and conilon is much more robust in the field, it is more productive and has more caffeine. So, commercial blends usually have a high robusta/arabica ratio. Therefore, they have more caffeine. On the other hand, gourmet coffee is 100% arabica. So, it is tastier and less caffeinated.”
Hot note 2! Our friend Mike Schallau of is/was Brewing checked in to add, “I was listening to the most recent episode about caffeine in alcohol and think I can clear a couple things up. Caffeine itself is not a pre-approved ingredient for the TTB [the regulatory arm of the US Treasury Department that manages alcohol]. Each individual case of a caffeinated alcoholic drink had to be pre-approved by the TTB in order to be sold (at least sold interstate). Early on the TTB approved recipes with caffeine but eventually the FDA [Food & Drug Administration … but you. new that] intervened and told the TTB they could no longer approve caffeine as an ingredient and that caffeine was now considered an ‘adulterant’ to alcoholic beverages.
“They then told the 15 or so companies that were making alcoholic caffeinated packaged beverages that they no longer had recipe approval from the TTB and would have to take it out of any formulas going forward. Coffee beans, however, were and still are a pre-approved ingredient according to the TTB, so you can add as much coffee as you want to any alcoholic beverage. To read what the TTB and FDA have actually said about caffeine, click here. And to read the TTB’s pre-approved ingredient list — which hasn’t changed since 2015 — click here.
“As far as I know there is still no regulation about quantity or concentration of caffeine in alcoholic beverages, just an enforcement of not being allowed to add pure caffeine as an ingredient to alcoholic beverages. I looked into this a lot when I was making a bunch of coffee beers with Dark Matter.
“As always, love the show and hope you are well.“ [Yeah, that last part I included just to prove that someone loves the show. And hopes I am well.]