What inspired you to make a coffee company focused on caffeine?

After many years working in coffee and feeling the impacts of high doses of caffeine, Pete and Maria realised the missing piece in their relationship with caffeine was simply knowing how much they were consuming. During a period of stress, poor sleep and pregnancy, they discovered that blending regular and decaf coffee allowed them to manage their intake more precisely. That experiment grew into the full caffeine-level approach behind Caffeine Control Coffee.

What is caffeine control?

Caffeine control is the intentional regulation of caffeine intake using predictable dose, timing and tapering, instead of relying on habit or accidental over-consumption. It allows you to match caffeine to your physiology, lifestyle, sleep needs and health conditions without giving up coffee.

How much caffeine is in a typical cup of coffee?

A typical café coffee can contain anywhere from 80 mg to over 200 mg of caffeine. The exact amount depends on coffee species, brew method, barista dose and café cup size, which is why caffeine intake is so difficult to control with traditional coffee.

What makes Caffeine Control Coffee different from normal coffee?

Most coffee brands only offer regular and decaf. Caffeine Control Coffee is designed around structured caffeine levels so you can choose your stimulus. Our system includes fully caffeinated (~100–150 mg), moderately caffeinated (~60–100 mg), low-caffeine (~20–60 mg) and decaffeinated (~2–20 mg) coffees, all based on a 10 g dry-coffee serving standard for more predictable caffeine management.

Do you still get good flavour with low-caffeine and decaf coffee?

Yes. When sourced, processed and roasted with care, low-caffeine and decaf coffees can retain sweetness, acidity balance, aromatic complexity and origin character. The last decade has brought major improvements in decaffeination, and we apply the same specialty quality standards to all caffeine tiers, not just fully caffeinated coffee.

Does decaf coffee still contain caffeine?

Yes. Decaffeinated coffee is very low caffeine, not completely caffeine-free. Approximate residual caffeine per 10 g dose is around 1–5 mg for Water Process and CO2 Process coffees and around 10–30 mg for Ethyl Acetate decaf. Decaf is best understood as near-zero caffeine, not zero.

Is low-caffeine coffee the same as decaf?

No. Low-caffeine coffee still contains meaningful but reduced caffeine, whereas decaf contains only trace amounts. Low-caffeine coffee is ideal for afternoons, gentle energy and gradual reduction. Decaf is ideal for evenings, pregnancy, breastfeeding or full stimulant avoidance.

Why is gradual caffeine reduction better than quitting cold turkey?

Quitting caffeine abruptly often causes withdrawal because regular caffeine use alters adenosine receptor sensitivity in the brain. Common symptoms include headaches, fatigue, brain fog and irritability. Gradual reduction allows the nervous system to recalibrate more smoothly, making long-term change more comfortable and sustainable.

Is Caffeine Control Coffee safe during pregnancy?

Most medical guidelines recommend no more than about 200 mg of caffeine per day during pregnancy. Caffeine Control Coffee offers lower-caffeine and decaf options to make it easier to budget daily intake, reduce accidental excess, maintain your coffee ritual and adjust smoothly through pregnancy. Pregnant customers should always follow the advice of their healthcare provider.

Can caffeine affect sleep even if I drink it in the afternoon?

Yes. Caffeine has an average half-life of 4–6 hours and can last 10 hours or more in slow metabolisers. Late-day caffeine can suppress melatonin, delay sleep onset, reduce total sleep time and impair deep restorative sleep. Low-caffeine and decaf coffees allow evening coffee without sacrificing sleep quality.

Who is Caffeine Control Coffee designed for?

Caffeine Control Coffee is designed for caffeine-sensitive drinkers, slow caffeine metabolisers, pregnant and breastfeeding parents, athletes and shift workers, high-stress professionals, afternoon and evening coffee drinkers and anyone managing caffeine intentionally.

Can I still use Caffeine Control Coffee for performance and energy?

Yes. Fully caffeinated tiers are designed for a normal physiological caffeine response, while moderate tiers support balanced focus without overstimulation. Many performance users take full caffeine in the morning, move to moderate or low caffeine later and avoid late-day stimulant use to support recovery and sleep.

What is EA decaf and is it safe?

Ethyl Acetate (EA) decaf, often called sugarcane process decaf, uses ethyl acetate derived from fermented sugar cane to remove caffeine while preserving fruity, juicy character. EA is a natural byproduct of fruit fermentations and is commonly present in wine. After decaffeination the beans are thoroughly steamed to remove residual EA, and any trace amounts are rapidly metabolised by the body. Food safety authorities including FSANZ, the U.S. FDA and EFSA classify ethyl acetate as safe for food use. EA decaf is a safe, natural and effective way to enjoy decaffeinated coffee without compromising taste.

Do you use water-processed decaf?

Yes. We currently offer several Swiss Water Process decaf single origins, including Ethiopia Suke Quto Swiss Water Decaf, with Colombia Penas Blancas Washed Pink Bourbon and Brazil Fazenda Um Natural Swiss Water Decaf launching soon. We do not currently use water-processed decaf in our blends, but may do so if the right coffees become available.

How do you source your coffees?

We source coffee with a focus on long-term relationships, trust and shared prosperity. One of our core values is taking care of our people, which includes our team, our farmers and producers, our customers and our business partners. We prioritise working with producers who can thrive long-term rather than chasing the cheapest price, and aim to pay in a way that supports sustainable living and business viability even as global coffee prices fluctuate.

Is Caffeine Control Coffee only for people who want to quit caffeine?

No. Caffeine Control Coffee is for anyone who wants intentional caffeine use, whether that means high performance, gentle daily energy, long-term low intake, pregnancy-safe routines or full decaf living. The goal is control, not elimination.

Why is invisible caffeine a problem?

Invisible caffeine is the caffeine you consume without realising how much is in your drinks or foods. It can lead to accidental over-consumption, poor sleep, heightened anxiety, energy crashes, increased dependence and difficult withdrawal. Caffeine Control Coffee exists to make caffeine visible, measurable and adjustable.

Can I mix different caffeine levels in one day?

Yes. Mixing different caffeine levels through the day is one of the core design goals of our system. Common patterns include full caffeine in the morning and low caffeine in the afternoon, moderate caffeine on workdays with decaf on rest days, or low caffeine during pregnancy with occasional moderate days. There is no single correct pattern, only intentional use.

Is Caffeine Control Coffee a decaf brand?

No. We are not just a decaf brand. We are a caffeine-management brand built on specialty coffee quality across the full spectrum of caffeine levels. While we offer excellent decaf, we also provide fully caffeinated, moderate and low-caffeine options.

Where should I start if I’m new?

Most new customers start with a blend sampler pack or the 4-Week Caffeine Reduction Plan. Both options let you try different caffeine levels and discover what works best for your body, energy and lifestyle.

The Truth About Your Caffeine Tolerance, And A Free Caffeine Tolerance Quiz

January 9, 2026 Peter Licata

There is much more to Caffeine than you may expect!

If you are like many of our customers, you may have noticed the many ways that caffeine affects you. In recent years there has been an increased focus on decaf coffee and a vocal group who have said "I love coffee, but the caffeine is really hurting me". This post is designed to give you insight into how your body reacts and clears caffeine, ways they are tested, and a caffeine tolerance quiz that may help without sacrificing your enjoyment of coffee.

This post is educational and not medical advice. If you’re pregnant, have a heart rhythm condition, panic disorder, uncontrolled hypertension, or take medications that interact with caffeine, talk to a clinician before doing caffeine “challenge” tests or using caffeine containing products.

(If you want to skip straight to the quiz, just click the button below)

Take the Quiz

Most caffeine problems are not caused by coffee itself, but by a mismatch between dose, timing, and individual biology

Have you ever had that friend who can drink an espresso after dinner and still sleep like a baby? (or maybe it's you!). If so, it should come as no surprise that two people can drink the same coffee and have completely different reactions to it.

One may be calm and the other shaking with anxiety.

One may get good sleep while the other is up staring at the ceiling all night.

This has nothing to do with "toughness" but rather two independent variables:

Caffeine Sensitivity
Caffeine Metabolism

There is large inter-individual variability in caffeine response documented in pharmacokinetic and sleep literature, and my goal with this post is to help you:

Understand the difference between sensitivity and metabolism
test both using realistic proxy methods
apply the results to real-world coffee habits, without quitting coffee

What is 'Caffeine Tolerance'?

Caffeine tolerance is a term encompassing how intensely, and for how long, your body reacts to caffeine. To put it in the most basic terms:

Caffeine Sensitivity = How strongly you react to a given dose of caffeine

Caffeine Metabolism = How quickly your body breaks down and clears caffeine

These traits are related but not interdependent.

I believe this is important, and that a lot of caffeine advice fails because it assumes:

Everyone reacts the same way
Everyone clears caffeine at the same rate

Before I go further, when it comes to doing studies it is quite common to have to choose your variables, or to accept that you cannot track all versions of all data. So my belief that caffeine advice fails is based in the fact that the data which is collected may account for different focal points for a specific study, NOT that the researchers were incompetent. My goal is to put things together so we can benefit from it.

Moving on, there are articles showing that there are distinct roles of adenosine receptor sensitivity vs hepatic metabolism:

So you can have a fast caffeine metabolism and low sensitivity (meaning you may not even get an effect from caffeine at all), or a slow metabolism and high sensitivity (meaning even a small amount of caffeine in morning might keep you up at night). There is of course quite a range within these extremes, so let's get more into it.

What is Caffeine Sensitivity?

When it comes to caffeine, 'sensitivity' describes the magnitude of your physiological and psychological response to caffeine.

It is important to remember that sensitivity covers both the type of response, as well as the intensity of it. Obviously the dose of caffeine has something to do with this too, but we will get to that a bit later. For now it is good to remember that negative responses are signs of heightened sensitivity to caffeine. These can include:

anxiety or shakiness
palpitations
gastrointestinal upset
overstimulation
sleep disruption without feeling "wired"

Many have experienced the positive effects of caffeine at some point, in particular when we were younger or starting to consume caffeine after a long break. Those who experience this effect most likely have an average sensitivity to caffeine; not so sensitive that it causes immediate palpitations, but also not so insensitive that there is no effect. This "energetic" stimulation is somewhat euphoric, and we continually chase that same effect over and over again.

We then have the (seemingly uncommon) cases of low sensitivity for caffeine. The people who have lowered impact report little energetic effects, little to no effect on sleep even when consumed in the evening, and very high consumption to attain typical caffeine performance increases.

The primary genetic marker associated with an individual's level of caffeine sensitivity is the adenosine A2A receptor, or ADORA2A. There are different polymorphisms with this receptor that may be able to indicate a person's sensitivity (or lack thereof). You can read more about this and many other interaction with caffeine in the body here:

What is Caffeine Metabolism?

Now when we look at 'metabolism' for caffeine, what we really mean is how long caffeine remains active in the body. This is usually expressed as a half-life, meaning that half of the caffeine will be effectively metabolised in the given time.

The typical adult processes half of the caffeine in their system in around 4-6 hours, though there are reported ranges from around 2 to over 10 hours in different people.

Our metabolism of caffeine is primarily traced to the liver enzyme CYP1A2. This particular enzyme is helpful in breaking down methylated xanthines such as caffeine and its metabolites, as well and a number of detoxifying work with drugs. You can read more about CYP1A2 at Science Direct.

There are many factors that influence the amount of this liver enzyme in our bodies, including:

pregnancy
oral contraceptives
smoking status
liver health
chronic stress and sleep deprivation

This final factor, along with the ideas about sensitivity changing, brings up a fascinating idea:

If you are getting stressed and losing sleep, partially because of the caffeine you are drinking, then you are automatically reducing your tolerance to caffeine by continuing to consume it!

Half-life measures mean that the drug is less efficiently metabolised as time goes on. So while it takes 4-6 hours for the average person to metabolise half of the caffeine that they ingested, it takes another 4-6 hours to cut the remaining amount in half again, and so on. So you could realistically be building up quite a lot of caffeine in your system on a daily basis, especially if your metabolism circumstances trend on the slower side.

Now that you've got an idea about how caffeine tolerance breaks down, let's talk testing. As with most drug testing, there is a big departure between lab confirmed tests and what we can generally do at home. First we will look at the scientific community and what has been researched:

Genetic testing

Before they begin, researchers need to choose parameters including a standard dose (or doses), a sampling/testing process (usually blood or saliva based), testing subjects demographics, and a framework for testing (essentially what they are trying learn from the research). This is far from a comprehensive list, but I'm sure you get the idea. Studies need to be locked into fairly tight protocols so that they can get meaningful and reliable data. There are a few publications which have approached both CYP1A2 and ADORA2A along with the genetic variations that can indicate high or low sensitivity and metabolism.

Genetic testing is likely the simplest way to get clear guidance on your caffeine tolerance and there are a few testing companies which provide these services out there.

For the CYP1A2 gene, different alleles are associated with natural metabolism speed. Individuals with the A/A allele tend to have higher CYP1A2 activity, which means they process caffeine more quickly, compared to those with the A/C and C/C alleles. This would indicate that A/C and C/C alleles have slower caffeine metabolism genetically, and one could speculate A/C being moderate and C/C being the slowest.

For the ADORA2A gene there is a bit of conflicting evidence. The C/C allele is associated with self reporting of caffeine "sensitivity" (and lower consumption), while those with the T/T allele self report "insensitivity". At the same time, T/T genotype individuals show increased anxiety after consumption, but C/T and C/C did not have this effect.

So while all types seem to have some effect from caffeine, when is comes to ADORA2A genes, at the rs5751876 SNP, the basic idea is:

the C allele is associated with caffeine-induced sleep disturbance
The T allele is associated with anxiety (in Caucasian subjects in these studies)

So if you are interested in genetic testing, or have had a test done in the past with this info, you may be able to use it to determine more about your caffeine metabolism.

There is some fascinating information in the publications I have referenced below, so if you are interested, check the links out:

Home Caffeine Tolerance Testing, and how it can work in real life

While the genetic testing detail above is great, you don’t need lab precision to improve sleep, focus, and energy from caffeine. However, many of of have not had a genetic test (and not all services give the specifics needed) so a test to determine our individual relationship to caffeine is still useful. That's exactly what we've designed using a few simple, controlled tests at home that can fill in the gaps for your personal caffeine needs.

Home testing can capture:

subjective response strength (sensitivity)
duration of effect (metabolism)
sleep impact, or real-world outcomes

You will need to take a methodical approach, with a consistent caffeine source (one of our blends is a great start, but you can use any coffee or caffeine supplement. Always check with your doctor if you have any medical conditions, are taking medications, or are increasing your typical caffeine intake.

Sensitivity Test - (Standard dosing)

Purpose: To assess how strongly your body responds to a fixed, known dose of caffeine. This test helps identify overall caffeine sensitivity independent of timing or sleep effects.

Metrics to observe: Shakiness, anxiety, heart rate, GI symptoms, mental focus, nervous energy

Method: Consume a single, standardized dose of caffeine (e.g., a consistent cup of coffee or a measured caffeine amount) under controlled conditions. 100 or 200mg is an effective dose to start with. Avoid other stimulants, intense exercise, or unusual stressors on the test day, and try your best to eat similar meals on days you are testing. Observe and record subjective and physical responses over the next 1–3 hours.

Results: Stronger or faster-onset symptoms indicate higher caffeine sensitivity, while minimal symptoms suggest lower sensitivity. This mirrors dose-response relationships used in controlled psychopharmacology studies and provides a practical baseline for personal tolerance. You may want to do subsequent tests with more or less caffeine to determine your individual thresholds, or essentially how much is just enough. With this knowledge, you can manage the amount of caffeine you are drinking better.

Sleep Sensitivity Test - (Caffeine cutoff)

Purpose: To determine how vulnerable your sleep is to caffeine consumed later in the day, regardless of total daily intake.

Metrics to observe: Time taken to fall asleep (sleep latency); Number of nighttime awakenings; Subjective sleep quality and restfulness. A sleep tracker device can be useful for this test.

Method: On different days (try to space a day between your testing days), consume caffeine with varying cutoff times (for example, last caffeine at 12 pm vs 2 pm vs 4 pm), while keeping total caffeine intake consistent. Maintain normal bedtime routines and sleep environments. Track sleep outcomes for each cutoff time.

Results: Earlier cutoffs that improve sleep quality suggest higher sleep sensitivity to caffeine timing, and potentially slower metabolism. Later cutoffs with minimal sleep disruption indicate greater tolerance. This approach aligns with laboratory studies examining caffeine timing and sleep architecture. With the knowledge from this test you can determine what your ideal caffeine cutoff time is, particularly in relation to the amount of caffeine you are drinking.

Metabolism Proxy - (Duration & residual effects)

Purpose: To estimate how quickly your body clears caffeine by observing how long its effects persist beyond initial stimulation.

Metrics to observe: Lingering stimulation or alertness; Evening restlessness or difficulty winding down; Next-day fatigue, headache, or withdrawal-like symptoms

Method: Consume caffeine at a consistent time and dose earlier in the day (8-10am is ideal). Pay attention to how long stimulant effects last into the afternoon and evening, and note how you feel the following morning. Repeat across multiple days to identify patterns.

Results: Prolonged stimulation, evening restlessness, or next-day fatigue suggest slower caffeine clearance, while a clean return to baseline indicates faster metabolism. These observations reflect known relationships between caffeine half-life, accumulation, and downstream sleep and energy effects. The repeated testing in particular can give you insights into just how much caffeine works for you, and when you may want to have it.

After performing these tests, and taking the learnings from them, you may find it useful to combine tests (such as increasing or decreasing the caffeine amount in test 2).

Our Caffeine Tolerance Quiz - (Self diagnosis)

We have created an easy to use quiz to determine indicators of your caffeine sensitivity and metabolism based on your own interpretations. It will then guide you through your best options and products to manage your caffeine effectively.

Give it a try!

Take the Quiz

Summary

Caffeine isn't the enemy for most people, the lack of structure is. Understanding your sensitivity and metabolism holistically gives you the ability to attain:

Better sleep
Steadier energy
Long term sustainable use

Using the tools available, you can get a very strong indication as to how and when your caffeine consumption should take place. There are very few reasons you should have to completely remove coffee from your life, and we are here to provide all the help we can. We've gained freedom to enjoy our coffee and still sleep at night, and we hope you do to!