If you’ve looked around our coffee cover, you know we take our brews pretty seriously. From pouring over to espresso machines and from roast beans to brewing strength, we have a strong opinion on this. This week, Wirecutter is all about coffee.
Some mornings, my mental gears turn particularly slowly, as if their lubricating oil had solidified into tar. It is these times when I wondered if the caffeinated Death Wish coffee could give me a much-needed go-ahead.
Death Wish is considered the “strongest coffee in the world”. And while the company doesn’t publish caffeine figures, we’ve seen third-party test results in an eye opening range of 650 to 728 milligrams of caffeine in a 12-ounce (Starbucks “large”) cup. In contrast, Starbucks dark, medium, and blonde roasts contain 193, 235 and 270 mg, respectively. (Dark beans generally contain less caffeine than lighter ones.) So drinking one cup of Death Wish is like drinking 2½ to 3 cups of Starbucks coffee.
After brewing a 12-ounce mug of Death Wish (using the company-recommended brew ratio and grind size, plus our top-pick over-pourer), I found the taste hearty and yes strong – all coffee, no subtlety. It was stronger than two Starbucks dark roasts I compared it to, but not bitter or unpleasant. It’s what I would expect in a logger’s thermos or a Bering Sea crab boat skipper.
On the other hand, I like dark roasted coffee. Most of the 16 other Wirecutter employees who did an occasional taste test gave it a vehement thumb down and called it “bitter”, “overly roasted” or “burnt”. There were four enthusiastic supporters, but even two of them were reluctant to drink it regularly.
I found the taste hearty and, yes, strong – all coffee, no subtlety.
Death Wish definitely delivers the buzz. Even from a 12-ounce mug, I felt a dizzying surge in focus and alertness, a mental rocket launch into a personally productive stratosphere. But after a while I felt a little nervous. Almost all of our testers felt more lively than normal, but less than half believed the extra caffeine helped them concentrate better. The few who found the experience uncomfortable complained of nervousness, headaches, and acid reflux.
So the inevitable question: is it safe? Most experts agree that healthy adults can safely consume around 400 mg of caffeine per day. However, this depends heavily on weight, age, gender, metabolism, caffeine sensitivity and tolerance level. According to Mary Margaret Sweeney, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science (and a recognized caffeine expert) at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, drinking more than that can lead to restlessness, nervousness, restlessness, insomnia, and other effects. “Moderate doses of caffeine, usually up to 300 mg, tend to increase human performance on cognitive tasks,” she told me, “but higher doses can actually affect performance in some people.”
Where is the death wish? According to Ted Kallmyer, sports nutrition trainer and caffeine expert at Caffeine Informer, coffees with a high caffeine content are intended for people who have built up a high level of caffeine tolerance: “Their tolerance is so high that only large doses of caffeine have a perceived effect beyond the pure feeling of being normal to feel. “For everyone else, Kallmyer said,” Avoid it. “
