Starting in Fall 2007 I extended the traditional "caffeine from tea" experiment another week in order to extract caffeine from caffeinated beverages.

Student Handout 2008: Caffeine from Beverages

Summary of Procedure:

In Fall 2007, I asked the students to extract caffeine from a source of their choice the week after they performed the classic "tea-riffic" experiment.

That generated a nice buzz. I discovered that orange soda has caffeine in it!

Positive aspects of this experiment:   

+ Many students are interested and concerned about caffeine so this experiment makes a nice connection with them.

+ The experiment has a strong discovery component and at the same time uses a procedure that they are familiar with.

Neutral (may be positive or negative) aspects of this experiment: 

± Energy drinks are rather easy to extract and produce a somewhat large quantity of caffeine. Some beverages such as coffee and cocoa may produce problematic emulsions.

Negative aspects of this experiment:

- The yield of caffeine is quite small.

- The experiment consumes a large quantity of dichloromethane.

Inquiry & Extension Ideas:

● Many different types of teas and caffeinated beverages can be explored.

● What are the impurities?

● Compare the HPLC chromatogram of the original beverages to the extracted compounds

● Is it possible to track the caffeine in this extraction? How much caffeine stays in the aqueous layer?

Data Links: 

HPLC_caffeine from beverages_2008

Student Comments:

Student_Comments 2008:_Caffeine from Beverages

Student_Comments_2007:_Caffeine from Beverages

Photo Gallery:

Caffeine_from Beverages 2007.pdf