Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 September 17

= September 17 =

Maximizing caffeine content in French Press coffee
Most guidelines for brewing coffee in a French Press coffeemakers calls for using water that is several degrees below boiling and to steep the medium coffee grinds no more than 4 minutes. Suppose one has no regards for the taste of the resulting coffee, but is rather attempting to maximize the amount of caffeine extracted from the coffee grinds, would the below modifications to the traditional method work towards this goals?

1) Pouring boiling, instead of below boiling, water into the coffee grinds. Or will the high temperature denature/destroy the caffeine in the grinds or something? 2) Steeping it for longer than 4 minutes before depressing the plunger. 3) Using a fine, instead of medium, grind for the beans.

thanks. Acceptable (talk) 05:13, 17 September 2014 (UTC)


 * 1. Use lighter roasts for more caffeine.  2.  Use finer grounds (if you don't mind cowboy coffee).  3. If you don't mind the taste, consider buying robusta, rather than arabica, as it contains more caffeine. Justin15w (talk) 15:09, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Soak the ground coffee in COLD water, overnight in the fridge, see cold brew for the details. CS Miller (talk) 15:30, 17 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Just a note to help international understanding - a French Press is a cafetière, and was invented by an Italian, and popularised by British and Danish companies. I had no idea that they were known as French Presses until reading this question! DuncanHill (talk) 15:31, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Duly noted. It's such a common theme, e.g. Canada thistle not being from Canada, and even us USians call Turkeys after Turkey, even though they are from N America! SemanticMantis (talk) 20:45, 17 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Justin basically has it, but there are some subtleties on the roast. [] has the details on roasting and caffeine. But this page discusses how measuring by weight, volume, will affect the final content . This page goes through a similar discussion, but concludes that there won't be much difference in dark vs. light roast for most normal brewing methods. Personally, if I want very strong coffee that's not espresso, I use a Chemex filter. This allows for the easiest method of increasing caffeine - using more beans - without affecting taste much. E.g. if I double the amount of beans in my french press (and keep water volume constant), I find the brew unpleasant. If I double the amount of beans in my Chemex, it's still delicious :) Finally, some WP:OR, I don't think the hard boil will help you much, compared to a longer brew time with off-boil water. The cooler-than-boiling thing is to avoid pulling out some of the heavier volatiles, but caffeine is small and comes out fine, even with cool water. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:45, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * ( And if you really want more caffeine without caring about taste, I suggest that caffeine pills are much cheaper than coffee beans... ) SemanticMantis (talk) 20:48, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

How the Vietnamese boat people came to the U.S. in 1975?
I want to know about how the Vietnamese boat people came to the U.S. in 1975. And what U.S. port that the Vietnamese boat people arrived? --Kiel457 (talk) 09:23, 17 September 2014 (UTC)


 * "By boat" would be the simple answer to the first question. Can you explain more about any greater level of detail you may be after?  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  10:27, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * There is a good article on Vietnamese boat people. The boats in question only took the refugees from Vietnam to nearby countries. They were then processed by various countries willing to accept them, and then flown to their final destination (the U.S., but also Canada, Australia and various European countries). Note this took place in late 1978 and 1979, not 1975. --Xuxl (talk) 10:33, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * If you do mean those who left around the time of the Fall of Saigon, the articles Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act and Vietnamese American have some information. Rmhermen (talk) 14:35, 17 September 2014 (UTC)