Here's a fun competitive niche: An upstate New York roaster has created what it calls "the world's strongest coffee," an eco-friendly gourmet brew with 200% more caffeine than the average dark roast. Death Wish Coffee bills itself as "the responsible coffee company with an irresponsible product." This Jolt Cola of java, available for $19.99 per pound online, is the result of a personal quest by the brand founders "to find a coffee that is not only dark, rich, bold and flavorful but also has high caffeine content." As most coffee nerds know, dark-roasted premium coffees from Starbucks and other gourmet coffeehouses typically have less caffeine than lighter and cheaper swill served up at late-night diners. That's because the best-tasting Arabica beans are lower in caffeine than the cheaper and comparatively foul option, Robusta beans. Then Arabica beans are roasted until dark, cooking out quite a bit of caffeine in the process. But Death Wish Coffee claims to have solved the problem with a dark Arabica roast that's organic, fairly traded and shade grown. How did they do it? They're not saying. But reviews from buzz-hunting coffee connoisseurs seem highly positive, and there's a "110% money back guarantee," so if you can't afford daily adrenaline shots through your sternum, you might as well try brewing up a batch of this stuff.
