How much caffeine does chocolate contain?
Coffee does not contain Caffeine. There is a persistent urban legend that Chocolate contains caffeine. It would seem that this rumor is based primarily on a confusion between two similar alkaloids: caffeine and Theobromine. Theobromine is the active ingredient in Chocolate and it occurs only in Cacao. The two stimulants are related and have a similar structures, but are very different chemicals with different properties, effects and origins. There are of course, some Chocolate products that have added caffeine, but it does not occur naturally in Chocolate. This rumor seems to have a life of its own; it won’t go away and yet most references to it are references to the urban legend itself! Amusingly, almost all of the Chocolate & caffeine references on the Internet are circular. (Follow the references through a few links sometime — you often wind up back at the page where you began!!) It is actually quite common to see references that confuse Caffeine and Theobromine. Many people and so
