Kahlua and Caffeine
2007 January 22
As I was enjoying a “Brown Cow” (basically Kahlua and milk) one evening, I remembered that Kahlua is coffee liqueur, and I am very sensitive to caffeine before bed. After perusing the Kahlua website, I couldn’t find anything about caffeine content, and an extensive Google search turned up nothing. So I emailed them, and got this response:
Kahlua actually has very low levels of caffeine, (approximately 4.85 mg in each 1.5 oz drink).
One cup of coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine, so if we’re looking at 100ml of Kahlua there should be about 10 mg of caffeine. (1/10 of a cup of coffee).
So it looks like I can relax – a little Kahlua won’t keep me up after all.
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thanks! i was wondering the same thing.
Me too. I wish Kahlua would answer that right on their web site. But thanks for getting us the answer.
Thanks for the info! I am allergic to caffeine and had a drink today with about half to one shot of Kahlua…about 30 minutes later I began having an allergic reaction. I couldn’t figure out what had caused it, then I remembered the Kahlua and figured that had to be it. Thank you for confirming…no more Kahlua for me.
Thanks so much!! I had the same question and was unable to find the answer anywhere.
As the others, Thanks for the blog. a good read and a quick answer to my curiosity.
Thanks, looking for this as well!
This is interesting, however, I wonder how accurate your assumption is. The processing of Kahlua would make all the difference. It might give you more information if you research the general process for creating coffee liquers. If the processes condense the coffee the end result could be higher caffeine content than a direct correlation ounce to ounce of coffee vs. Kahlua. You may fall asleep with no problem after having a Brown Cow at night, which is understandable. But the caffeine itself may prevent you from getting a fully restful night’s sleep. One way to assess the effect is to take note of if you wake up feeling tired and sluggish even after a full night’s sleep following a drink. If you are waking up feeling tired, there is probably notable levels of caffeine in the drink. If not – enjoy your Brown Cows.
Alice: you’re certainly right, the processing does make a difference. But the caffeine levels are not significant – from the email I received from the Kahlua people, it has 90+% less caffeine than coffee.
You might be interested in looking at caffieineawareness.org. Go to the caffeine calculator on the home page. Like you, I came across this when doing a search for how much caffeine, which I must limit, I was having in the Kahlua that was making the tree decorating even more festive.
This info is helpful. I ordered a decaf and Brandy from the local pub the other night and the bartender said how about adding kaluha for taste. I said okay but I thought it had caffeine in it which is why I asked for decaf. After a conference of two bartenders and their manager, plus thoroughly looking over the bottle, they all said kaluha did not have caffeine in it! While your comments stated low amounts of caffeine, I will pass this along to the pub I frequent as they could use the correct knowledge in case someone who has an allergy to caffeine (like Claudia) might inquire in the future! Thanks again!
Thanks for researching this, I was doing the same thing, I just googled “Caffine in Kaluha?” and came across this posting, which answered exactly what I was looking for! I get heart palpatations (sp?) from caffine…I only recently found an older bottle of Kaluha which I hadn’t unpacked from several years earlier…I love the taste of this but was worried about my heart….thanks for posting this!
Thanks for the info! I looked it up on Google too and came across your site. Thanks
Homemade Kahlua however may be entirely different animal. There no telling how much the caffiene levels can vary between the processes.
Thanks. That’s great to find out so quick…I agree, they really should post that on their website.
Cheers!
thanks! im also very sensitive to caffeine….the liquor store didnt know the answer when i bought it and i also checked the website when i got home. bummer, at least i had one last enjoyable drink of it though!
(i drank a glass BEFORE i checked the internet, just in case it was indeed bad news!)
brown cow? how helpful and informative you are.
Thanks for the info,I am very sensitive to this stuff. Many a sleepless night due to Kahlua over vanilla ice cream. It’s a curse.
Thanks!
I was just enjoying a mudslide (before bed time of course) and was trying to figure out what the caffeine content was.
thanx for sharing. i love drinking what you call a brown cow! preferably 1% milk. my caffeine addiction was causing migraines so, i had to give up the caffeine. this info is useful to me.
peace.