This Might Be the Most Potent Cup of Coffee You Can Buy

'Asskicker' delivers 80 times the punch of a typical espresso
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 10, 2016 1:49 PM CDT
This Might Be the Most Potent Cup of Coffee You Can Buy
   (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

One cafe owner in Adelaide, Australia, is playing around with the world's most popular drug, and experts aren't feeling terribly perky about it. Steve Benington, owner of Viscous Coffee, has created the Asskicker, a drink consisting of four shots of espresso, four 48-hour brewer cold drip ice cubes (each containing a bit more caffeine than is found in two shots of espresso), 120ml of 10-day brewed cold drip, and another four of those cold drip ice cubes to finish it off, reports Adelaide Now. All told, it has 5 grams of caffeine, about 80 times as a typical espresso, and it provides 18 hours of "sustained up time," as Benington puts it. "Some people love it and some are broken by it, but it’s all in the name of fun," he says.

Benington developed the drink after an emergency room nurse asked for something that would get her through a long shift. It comes with a warning for people with heart or blood pressure issues, and he has "quite a detailed talk" with anyone who orders it because "if I can talk them out of it, they're not ready," he tells CNN. One area dietitian is not amused. "Caffeine is a drug, not a game or a toy," she says. The author of a book espousing the benefits of caffeine also chimes in that this drink goes too far. "I would be very wary of consuming it." Mashable notes that Benington does suggest people sip the drink over three to four hours to "lift you up and keep you there." It also notes that a fatal dose of caffeine is generally considered to be 18 grams over one or two hours. (There is such a thing as fatal caffeine intoxication.)

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