World's strongest coffee

I bet your doctor reflexively tells you about caffeine and high blood pressure. So don't do this. Where is your doctors' coffee protocol? I've only written 125 posts on coffee, most of them on the benefits. Has your doctor told you if you process caffeine easily?

How you react to coffee might hold major clues to your metabolism

If you don't process coffee normally for all its benefits what is your doctors' protocol  to get those benefits instead? I don't know is not a valid response.

World's strongest coffee 

The "world's strongest coffee" is now available in the US, but just one cup could spill you over the daily caffeine limit.

"If you want to stand out, you need to be the 'est' -- the biggest, smartest, strongest, or cheapest," said Black Insomnia founder Sean Kristafor. "So when we wanted to compete in coffee, as a caffeine product, we had to be the strongest, but obviously, we don't exceed the world guidelines."

Black Insomnia

As a coffee aficionado, Kristafor created the company after retiring from a corporate job. He found a top coffee roaster online and created Black Insomnia last June, first selling locally to cafes in Cape Town, South Africa.

Retailing at $19 a pound, the company's online business sold three tons more than the other local shops in August, he said. By October, they had customers in 22 countries. And by March, they were listed on Amazon in the US. Now, the company says it sells five to six tons of coffee a month.

Health effects of coffee: Where do we stand?

With a sweet nutty taste, Black Insomnia's strength comes from the type of bean, robusta, and the way they are roasted. To prove their "world's strongest" title, Kristafor had his beans tested chemically against competitors.

At 58.5 mg per fl. oz., Black Insomnia is more than twice as strong as Starbucks' dark roast, at around 21.25 mg per fl. oz. This all depends on how you brew the coffee, of course.

Kristafor said this level is well within limits for a shot, but one cup (12 oz.) could add up to 702 mg of caffeine. The FDA and the International Food Information Council recommend 400 mg of caffeine for daily consumption.

Twice the kick

"For the same amount of coffee, you will get double the amount of caffeine," said Mary Sweeney, who researches the effects of caffeine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

"This makes it easier to consume more caffeine than you intend to and effects can range from mild to severe, for example, jitteriness, nervousness, restlessness and trouble sleeping. The most serious effect would be cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat)."