An Adelaide café has begun serving up an iced coffee with 80 times more caffeine than a regular espresso.
Christie’s Beach café Viscous Coffee has started selling the ‘Asskicker’ iced coffee, which contains five grams of caffeine, The Advertiserreported.
The fully charged beverage has half the lethal dose of caffeine.
It is created using four shots of espresso, eight frozen cubes of ‘cold drip’ coffee – which each contain the caffeine equivalent of more than two shots of espresso – and some 10-day brewed liquid cold-drip coffee.
Viscous Café owner Steve Benington told The Advertiser he originally devised the beverage for an emergency department nurse who needed to be kept awake for an overnight shift.
“I offer custom caffeine levels tailored to personal requirements,” he said.
He advised drinking the beverage gradually over a three- to four-hour period for “sustained up-time”.
Health experts have warned the potent concoction is a “very high risk drink”.
“Caffeine is a drug, not a game or a toy, it needs to be respected not abused,” dietitian Tanya Lewis told the newspaper.
“There have been a number of documented cases of hospital admissions and also death with caffeine intakes less than half of what is contained in this beverage,” she said.
Ms Lewis said consuming too much caffeine could lead to anxiety, heart palpitations and gut symptoms.
The ‘Asskicker ‘coffee comes in three sizes, and prices range from $10 to $16.
A small serve of the drink reportedly provides a six- to nine-hour caffeine ‘buzz’.