Starbucks denies high caffeine in its coffee

The China Post staff

Executives of the Starbucks coffee shop chain in Taiwan yesterday denied that the company's coffee contains exceptionally high caffeine as reported in Hong Kong media. They clarified that the coffee beans used by the company actually have lower caffeine than those employed by other coffee retailing outlets.

The press reports in Hong Kong have caught attention from Taiwan consumers. Quoting a report in The Wall Street Journal, the media in the former British colony said a cup of Starbucks coffee has an average of 320 milligrams of caffeine and could make customers addicted to the company's product.

Executives of President Coffee Corp., a joint venture of the Uni-President Group and the Seattle-based Starbucks, were surprised by the reports. They said they had no idea where the data come from.

They said the level of caffeine varies according to the quality of the coffee beans and the cooking methods.

But the Arabica coffee beans used by Starbucks contain caffeine several times lower than that in the three-in-one readymade coffee with cream and sugar available in Taiwan, they stressed.

They also explained that the Chinese term for "decaffeinated" coffee offered by Starbucks could mislead consumers to think that the product still contains "certain level of caffeine since the word of "decaffeinated" is translated into "low caffeine" in Chinese.

The "decaffeinated" coffee sold at Starbucks contains almost no caffeine at all, they added.

Although a late comer to the Taiwan market, the Starbucks coffee shop chain has registered the highest growth rate in recent years. It also played a key role in popularizing quality coffee among local consumers.

The China Post