A typical Australian café coffee contains somewhere between about 60mg and 160mg of caffeine. A single espresso shot sits around 60–100mg. A flat white or long black made on a double shot, which is standard in most Australian cafés, lands around 120–160mg. A 250ml cup of batch brew is usually in the 80–120mg range.
Those are typical ranges from widely published figures, not lab results, and the spread is real. The same drink from two cafés can differ by a third or more depending on the dose, the coffee and how it was brewed. Anyone who tells you a flat white has exactly 154mg is guessing with a straight face.
The short version
- Espresso shot: about 60–100mg. Double shot: roughly double.
- Flat white, latte, cappuccino or long black on a double shot: about 120–160mg.
- Batch brew or filter, 250ml: about 80–120mg. Cold brew: anywhere from 100mg to 200mg or more per glass.
- Decaf: a few milligrams. Low, not zero.
| Drink | Typical caffeine |
|---|---|
| Piccolo (single shot) | 60–100mg |
| Flat white (double shot) | 120–160mg |
| Long black (double shot) | 120–160mg |
| Strong flat white (triple shot) | 180–240mg |
| Batch brew, 250ml | 80–120mg |
| Cold brew, 250ml diluted | 100–200mg+ |
| Decaf, any serve | roughly 2–15mg |
Count the shots first. Milk and hot water do not add caffeine. A long black and a flat white built on the same double shot sit in the same band. For how those drinks differ in the cup, see flat white vs latte. For which beans to put under the milk, see what coffee beans work best in a flat white.
How much caffeine is in an espresso shot?
A single shot of espresso is commonly quoted at around 60–100mg of caffeine. The reason for the wide range is simple: there is no standard shot. One café pulls 30ml from 9g of coffee; the next pulls 40ml from 11g. More coffee in the basket means more caffeine in the cup, more or less in proportion.
In Australia, most café drinks are built on a double shot. Order a "coffee" and you are very likely getting around 18–22g of ground coffee, which puts the drink in the 120–160mg neighbourhood before any milk goes near it. A "strong" flat white is usually three shots, which pushes it past 200mg.
The milk changes nothing about the caffeine. It only changes how it feels going down.
How much caffeine is in a flat white or a long black?
The same, give or take. Both start with a double shot in the typical Australian café. A flat white then gets textured milk; a long black gets hot water. Neither the milk nor the water adds caffeine, so both drinks sit in the same 120–160mg band.
The practical difference is speed. A long black is often drunk faster and on an emptier stomach, so the caffeine can feel sharper. That is perception, not chemistry.
A latte, cappuccino, piccolo or magic all follow the same rule: count the shots, ignore the milk. A piccolo on a single shot is about half the caffeine of a flat white on a double.
How much caffeine is in batch brew or filter coffee?
A 250ml cup of batch brew or home filter coffee is usually quoted at around 80–120mg. Per millilitre it is far weaker than espresso, but there is a lot more of it. A 350ml mug from a filter machine can easily match or beat a double-shot flat white.
This is the one that catches people out. "I only had a filter coffee" is not the low-caffeine choice it sounds like. It is the slow-caffeine choice.
How much caffeine is in cold brew?
Cold brew is the wildcard. Because it is usually made as a concentrate and then diluted at the drinker's discretion, a glass can be anywhere from about 100mg to well over 200mg. The long steep pulls out plenty of caffeine; the cold water just does it more slowly than hot.
If you are watching your intake, cold brew is the drink to ask about. A café may dilute it one to one with water or milk. Someone at home might not dilute it at all, which is where the surprisingly wired afternoons come from.
How much caffeine is in decaf?
Decaf is not caffeine-free. Decaffeination removes most of the caffeine, and a typical cup of decaf is commonly quoted at a few milligrams, sometimes up to around 10–15mg depending on the coffee and the serve. That is a small fraction of a regular cup, but it is not nothing, which is worth knowing if you are sensitive or drinking several in a row.
Our Colombia Decaf is decaffeinated using the sugarcane (ethyl acetate) method, roasted to a medium level, and tastes of caramel, brown sugar and toffee with a red apple finish. It is on the range because plenty of people want the ritual of a proper coffee at 4pm without the 4am ceiling-staring. That is an option, not medical advice.
What actually changes the caffeine in a coffee?
Four things move the number. Three of them matter; one is a myth.
Dose
How much ground coffee went into the drink. This is the big one. Double the coffee and you roughly double the caffeine. Every other factor is a rounding error next to dose, which is why "how many shots?" is a far better question than "what kind of coffee?".
Brew method
Different methods extract caffeine at different rates, but caffeine dissolves easily in water, so most methods pull out most of it. The bigger effect of method is on volume and dilution. Espresso is concentrated and small. Filter is diluted and large. Cold brew is a concentrate that people water down by feel. Same beans, very different glasses.
Arabica versus robusta
Robusta beans naturally contain roughly twice the caffeine of arabica, by weight. Most specialty coffee is arabica. Some traditional Italian-style espresso blends include robusta for crema and punch, which is one reason a small, harsh-looking espresso in the wrong café can hit harder than expected.
Roast level (the myth)
Dark roast is not stronger in caffeine. Caffeine is stable through roasting, so a bean loses very little of it whether it is roasted light or dark. What does change is weight and density: a dark-roasted bean is lighter and slightly larger than a light-roasted one. Measured by weight, the caffeine is close to identical. Measured by the scoop, a light roast has slightly more, because more beans fit in the scoop.
The "dark roast is strong" idea comes from flavour. Roasty, bitter and heavy read as strong on the tongue. Strong taste and high caffeine are different things. All of our coffees are roasted to a medium level, with Traditional Espresso at medium to dark, and the caffeine in a cup of any of them is set by how much you put in the basket, not by the roast.
How much caffeine is safe in a day?
Australian and international health bodies commonly cite around 400mg a day as a level generally considered safe for healthy adults. That is roughly three double-shot café coffees, or four cups of filter. Lower figures are commonly cited during pregnancy, and individual tolerance varies a lot with body weight, sleep, medication and habit.
We sell coffee. We are not the people to ask about your heart rate. If caffeine is a health question for you, talk to a doctor or pharmacist, and treat every number in this article as a typical range rather than a measurement of the cup in your hand.
A rough day, counted
For anyone who likes to see the maths:
A flat white at 6am, a long black at 10am and a batch brew at 2pm comes to around 320–400mg. That is a fairly normal Australian working day, and about the point where the commonly cited ceiling starts to matter.
Try it with FARCOFF
If you want to know what your own coffee is doing, buy whole beans and weigh the dose. Our bags come in 250g and 1kg, whole or in six grinds, freshly roasted in St Peters, Sydney, with a roasted-on date and batch number on every bag. Have You Bean Told Today? puts Traditional Espresso, Brazil and Smooth Coffee side by side, so you can find out which one gets you through a double shift without the shakes. Coffee first. Maths second. Decaf when the day calls for it.
Freshly roasted. Roast date on every bag.