If you’re craving a caffeinated treat but find a hot, mid-afternoon cup of coffee a bit too heavy, consider the delightful option of chocolate-covered espresso beans. Whether you enjoy your coffee beans encased in milk or dark chocolate, this small yet powerful snack offers just the boost you need.
When you munch on a chocolate-covered coffee bean, you’re consuming the fruit of the coffee plant without its tough outer shell, as El Dorado Coffee Roasters explains. Initially green and chewy, these beans are dried, softened, and roasted to achieve their familiar brown hue before hitting store shelves. Coffee beans offer the same nutritional benefits as a regular cup of coffee, thanks to their antioxidants. Adding chocolate to espresso beans enhances their flavor, similar to adding milk or sugar to your morning coffee. But how many chocolate-covered espresso beans equal a cup of coffee? The answer varies significantly.
Caffeine content can vary by type of chocolate
Consider a 3.5-ounce bag of Taza Perfectly Unrefined Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans made with 55% dark chocolate. In a 28-gram serving, approximately 36 beans, you’ll find 135 milligrams of caffeine (via Taza), which equates to 3.75 milligrams of caffeine per bean. An 8-ounce cup of coffee contains between 80 and 100 milligrams of caffeine, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Using 100 milligrams as a reference point, one would need to consume about 26.5 chocolate-covered espresso beans to match the caffeine content of a cup of coffee.
That’s quite a number of beans, but Taza chocolate-covered espresso beans are on the lower end of the caffeine spectrum. Caffeine Informer indicates that milk chocolate-covered espresso beans may contain 5 to 10 milligrams of caffeine each, while dark chocolate-covered beans range from 6 to 11 milligrams. El Dorado Coffee Roasters suggests dark chocolate-covered beans can contain up to 12 milligrams of caffeine per bean.
Don’t exceed this many chocolate-covered espresso beans in a day
Breaking it down further, if each chocolate-covered espresso bean contains 5 milligrams of caffeine, one would need to eat 20 beans to equal the 100 milligrams of caffeine in a cup of coffee. For beans with 10 milligrams of caffeine each, only ten beans are needed. At the higher end, consuming chocolate-covered espresso beans with 12 milligrams of caffeine each means you need just over eight beans to match a cup of coffee’s caffeine content. That’s fewer than you might expect. Higher caffeine levels tend to be found in espresso beans coated with dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate.
The FDA advises that most healthy adults can safely consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine daily without adverse side effects. Excessive coffee intake can lead to headaches, nausea, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, insomnia, and more, particularly in caffeine-sensitive individuals. El Dorado Coffee Roasters notes that consuming around 30 chocolate-covered espresso beans, each with 12 milligrams of caffeine, keeps intake below 400 milligrams. Eating 34 beans would surpass this limit. Although 34 beans may seem like a lot, it’s easy to lose track of how many we’ve eaten when they’re so delicious. Therefore, chocolate-covered espresso beans are best enjoyed in mindful moderation.
