Does white coffee have more caffeine than other drinks?

A new Chagee winter drink called Qingshan Qigu has drawn complaints from customers who say they could not sleep after drinking it. The brand lists about 24.9mg of caffeine per 100ml, which works out to roughly 144.4mg in a large 580ml cup. Reactions split between taste disputes and insomnia reports, with sleep complaints outnumbering flavor reviews.

The drink mixes Wanxi yellow large-leaf tea with brown rice, buckwheat, and milk, giving a roasted-rice aroma. Caffeine level alone does not explain the response, since sensitivity varies by person. Similar questions come up around other drinks, such as whether Colombian coffee carries more caffeine. The practical point is that tea-base milk drinks can carry a meaningful dose.

Chagee recently launched a winter new product "Qingshan Qigu" across its nationwide stores, featuring Wanxi yellow large-leaf tea paired with brown rice, buckwheat, and milk as its selling point. The official description says it has a rich scorched-rice aroma and roasted-rice fragrance. However, after this new product launched, consumer feedback has been polarized—aside from disputes over the flavor, a large number of netizens have complained on social media about being unable to sleep all night after drinking it, with the number of insomnia posts far exceeding taste reviews. According to the brand's published nutritional information, the product's caffeine content is approximately 24.9mg/100ml. Calculated by a large 580ml cup, that's about 144.4mg of caffeine. Is it the caffeine at work or differences in constitution? This article takes you to find out.

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"Too intense, I'd call it the most hardcore caffeine new product!"

There's an interesting phenomenon in the tea beverage industry: when other brands release new products, the first thing everyone asks is whether it tastes good, how sweet it is, or which IP it's collaborating with and what merchandise there is. But for Chagee, the invisible caffeine heavyweight of the milk tea world, every time it launches something new, the first thing consumers blurt out is: "Will I be able to sleep after drinking this?"

Recently, Chagee rolled out its winter new product "Qingshan Qigu" in stores nationwide, and another batch of sleepless netizens flooded social media in the early morning, accusing the "culprit" of keeping them awake.

According to the official description, this "Qingshan Qigu" combines Wanxi yellow large-leaf tea, brown rice, buckwheat, and milk, giving it a rich "scorched-rice aroma" and a distinctive "roasted-rice fragrance."

Screenshot from: Chagee

However, after consumers tasted it themselves, the flavor reviews took a big turn—the scorched-rice aroma and tea fragrance became, in their mouths, "burnt taste," "tartary buckwheat tea," "over-roasted coffee beans," and a mixed mouthfeel of "barley tea plus roasted corn," with all kinds of bizarre taste descriptions emerging one after another.

As the saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. Whether it's coffee or tea beverages, it's normal for tastes to differ, and every time a brand launches a new flavor, there are always people who like it, people who dislike it, and people who feel indifferent. But with Chagee's new product "Qingshan Qigu" this time, complaints about insomnia not only unexpectedly took over the mainstream, but even far exceeded discussion of its taste, and almost every insomnia post struck a chord with many others.

As usual, netizens first find their "fellow insomnia sufferers" group, then line up in the comments section to report their bedtime, listing one by one all kinds of "symptoms" after drinking this cup of milk tea. Besides staring wide-eyed until dawn all night, the high-frequency occurrences also include heart palpitations, shaky hands, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and so on (signs of caffeine intolerance), and in the end, naturally, they continue to wander on the path of insomnia.

"I'm so wired right now I could goose-step all the way to Lhasa." "After drinking Qingshan Qigu, I feel like I can just go straight to work, and it's now 02:49." "Still can't sleep at three o'clock, already breaking down." "Even Wanli Mulan is no match for it; right now I'm so awake I could climb Mount Tai again." ... In fact, everyone easily can't sleep after drinking it every time, yet the moment they see a new product they still can't resist ordering. It seems Chagee is specially designed to torment every late-night warrior who never learns their lesson.

According to the brand's published nutritional data, the caffeine content of "Qingshan Qigu" is about 24.9mg/100ml. Based on Chagee's large hot-drink paper cup of 580ml, the total caffeine is about 144.4mg; if made in a medium hot-drink cup of 470ml, the caffeine would theoretically be about 117.03mg.

But milk tea's ingredients are far more complex than coffee's. Exactly how much tea leaf is used and what the formula ratio is are uncertain, so insomnia after drinking it isn't necessarily all caffeine's fault.

What's more, every person's constitution varies greatly, and drinking coffee or milk tea is like opening a blind box. Some people are naturally caffeine-tolerant and can drink several cups at night and still sleep soundly; others clearly take only a few sips yet are still staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m.—this is obviously an exceptional sensitivity to stimulating components like tea polyphenols and caffeine.

Image from: internet screenshot

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.