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Field guide
Reading an Energy Drink Label: Caffeine per Can and Cost per Can
The one caffeine fact this site's energy drink score checks is whether the facts panel prints the caffeine content as a number. A figure on the front of the can, a flavour name or a word like "energy" in a blend's title does not count. This guide covers where caffeine appears on the label, what the shelf's labels state, and how the cost per can in the energy drink rankings is worked out.
The counts below are computed each time the site is built, from the label data of the 53 energy drinks this site publishes. Each count names what it is out of.
Where caffeine appears on the label
On a Supplement Facts panel, caffeine is usually its own row with an amount: "Caffeine Anhydrous 200 mg", or "Natural Caffeine (from green coffee bean)". Some panels split it across rows by source, and those rows are added together.
Other labels name caffeine without an amount: as one member of a blend whose total is the only figure printed, or in the ingredient list under the panel, which names ingredients in descending order by weight and carries no amounts. Either way, the panel does not say how much caffeine the serving holds.
The label data on this site records what the facts panel and its ingredient statement print. A front-of-pack callout is never recorded as label data, so a caffeine figure printed only there is not counted.
What the shelf's labels state
- Caffeine printed as a number: 35 of 53 labels.
- No caffeine figure: 18 of 53. Of those, 5 of 18 name caffeine inside a blend with no amount of its own, 13 of 18 name caffeine outside a blend without a caffeine amount, and 0 of 18 name no caffeine row at all.
- Caffeine per serving: the dose audit's rules (below) give a caffeine figure for 35 of 35 labels that print one. Across those 35, the median is 200 mg, and they run from 95 mg to 300 mg.
Caffeine salts and complexes
A row named for a caffeine salt or complex, such as di-caffeine malate, prints the weight of the whole compound, not the caffeine in it. Such a row counts toward caffeine only at the caffeine yield its label states. A row that states no yield is shown on the product page as caffeine not stated, and only the caffeine the label does state is counted. The same rule applies on every shelf; it is set out on how we rate.
The caffeine reference dose: shown here, not scored
| Ingredient | Reference dose | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Caffeine | 200 mg position-stand range | Guest et al., ISSN Position Stand 2021, J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2021;18:1 (PMID 33388079) — 3-6 mg/kg; the threshold is derived from the low end, 3 mg/kg, for a 67 kg adult: 3 x 67 = 201 mg, rounded to 200 mg (position stand) |
Where its source states a range, the threshold uses one end of it: Caffeine, 200 mg: the low end of 3-6 mg/kg (Guest et al., ISSN Position Stand 2021); 3 mg/kg for a 67 kg adult: 3 x 67 = 201 mg, rounded to 200 mg.
This is the threshold the site audits caffeine against on the shelves where dose integrity is part of the score. Dose integrity is not part of the energy drink score, so whether a can's caffeine reaches this figure does not move its score. The figure is one end of a range a position stand states, not a recommendation. The caffeine ingredient page compares each product's verified caffeine with it, energy drinks included, and the pre-workout label study sets out caffeine per serving across pre-workout labels.
Serving size and servings
A can's panel usually describes one can: the serving size line reads "1 can" with its volume, and servings per container is 1 or not printed. Every figure on that panel is for one can. A 12-pack therefore holds 12 servings, and its price is divided by 12.
Not every product on the shelf is a can. 12 of 53 have a panel listing more than one serving per container, such as a powder or a box of stick packs; for those, "per can" means per serving, using the servings the package holds.
A size's servings are the count its store option prints, where it prints one ("12 Pack", "12 Cans"). An option that names no count cannot be priced against a one-can panel: the price might be for a single can or a whole case, so that option gets no figure rather than the price of a case divided by one.
From label to cost per can
On this shelf, value is 40% of the score, and it is built on cost per can: the store price divided by the cans (or servings) that size holds. Where a product is sold in several sizes, the lowest price per can among the sizes on sale is used. No caffeine figure enters the price, because no dose is scored here.
The packs below are hypothetical, with round numbers chosen to show the arithmetic. They are not real products.
- 4-pack at $11.00: $11.00 ÷ 4 = $2.75 per can
- 12-pack of the same can at $30.00: $30.00 ÷ 12 = $2.50 per can
The product's cost per can is $2.50, the lower of the two. Today 41 of 53 energy drinks have a cost per can, with a median of $2.33 across those 41. See the budget energy drinks for the shelf ordered on it.
Sugar, calories and the caffeine check
The formula part of the score, 35% of it, reads three things from the panel: sugar per serving, calories per serving, and whether the panel prints a caffeine content as a number. A label with no caffeine figure loses points there. That is a measure of what the label discloses, not of how much caffeine is in the can.
- Sugar: 45 of 53 labels state 0 g, 0 of 53 state more than 0 g, and 8 of 53 have no sugar row in the label data. For those, the formula part is not computed and the remaining parts are reweighted.
- Calories: 51 of 53 print a calorie figure, with a median of 10 calories per serving across those 51.
The buyer rating shown on the brand's own product page makes up the remaining 25%.
Common label patterns
- A blend with a total and no member amounts. A row such as "Energy Blend 300 mg" followed by caffeine and other ingredients states the blend's weight, not the caffeine in it. The blend's total is never divided among its members. The proprietary blends guide covers how blends are read.
- Caffeine named twice. A label can print a caffeine row with an amount and also name caffeine in the ingredient list. The panel row is the figure; the ingredient list entry adds nothing to it.
- Vitamin rows with a % Daily Value. Some cans list B vitamins with an amount and a % Daily Value. Neither is part of this shelf's score. A row that prints only a percentage is recorded with no amount; the site does not turn a percentage back into milligrams.
- A figure only on the front. A number in large type on the front of the can is not a panel row, and only panel rows are recorded.
Every weighting and threshold the site uses is on how we rate. To compare cans on cost, start with the energy drink rankings. Every stated caffeine figure, beside the pre-workouts: caffeine per serving chart.