Caffeine has been blamed for everything from hospitalizing people to the untimely death of a flock of seagulls. (Not the band.) It was even used as a defense for murder. But in caffeine's latest blitzkrieg against the health of those who consume it, the ritualized everyman's drug has a new claim to fame: apparently it's fatal to humans when consumed in high doses. It's also the primary reason the FDA recently cracked down on that otherwise innocuous (if highly alcoholic) malt beverage known as Four Loko, causing every other new hybrid drink invention, from limited-distribution caffeinated beer to alcoholic whipped cream, to come under scrutiny. Because we believe in safe drinking as much as the next guy, we decided to figure out just how much caffeine you'd have to consume — that is, how many Four Lokos, how many sodas, how many lattes — in order to perish by way of an overdose. What we discovered is that, short of downing pure powdered caffeine, death by this comparatively benign stimulant is sort of like death by unicorn: somewhat unlikely.
A report in Forensic Science International said caffeine is typically fatal in humans in excess of five grams. That's:
• 24 cans (23.5 oz. each) of Four Loko
• 108 cans of Coke Zero
• 36 shots of 5 Hour Energy (2 oz. each)
• 71 eight-ounce cups of Ben and Jerry's Fair Trade Coffee Ice Cream
• 33 packets of Perky Jerky (beef jerky infused with guarana)
• 28 Starbucks Grande Cafe Mochas
• 91 pieces of Blitz Energy Gum
• 25 Dexatrim pills
• 50 No-Doz Pills
• 227 cans of Diet A&W Cream Soda
• 138 six-ounce tubs of Dannon Coffee Yogurt
• 5,000 Hershey's Kisses
• 833 full-size Kit Kat bars (42 g)
• 50 Uber Cubes (caffeine-infused chocolate chew)
• 333 Zingos mints (caffeinated breath mints)
• 65 gallons of chocolate milk.
PLUS: THE CHEF WHO WON'T STOP DRINKING FOUR LOKO >>
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