I’ve started making my own ‘energy bars’ and I quite fancy making a batch with caffeine. Anyone done this? Where do you buy it from and how much do you use per bar.

Found one supplier online which looks good but there doesn’t seem to be any contact details on the website http://ag-nutri.com.br/index.html which makes me suspicious. I found another selling tablets but these have added ingredients.

Not sure adding your own caffiene is a good idea!

I don’t know whether they sell it, but myprotein sell lots of bulk powders and the like so they may do

If I know how much to add then I don’t see why it would be an issue. Research suggest 100mg to 200mg per bar. Why do you think it isn’t a good idea?

myprotein only sell tablets as far as I can see.

just go straight to the cocaine – much easier to get hold of

or have a look here

I think I’d just add powdered proplus tablets – the tablet packaging will have all the details about how much is in each pill so that you don’t end up making a batch that you OD on 🙂

Also, it’ll be a lot easier to measure out rather than having to try and weigh out, say 1 gramme (if you’re making 10 bars @ 100mg per bar) accurately which will be near impossible unless you have proper scales designed for very small weights.

You could try some high quality Cocoa powder like Green and Blacks 100% organic cocoa I use it to make a chocolate and banana milk shake which we drink before a ride and my partner uses it to bake energy bars for the mid ride snack.

It wont be pure caffeine but it will taste a hell of a lot nicer.

Soak the mix in Buckfast, equivalent to about 4 cans of redbull. Gives you a bit of Dutch Courage as well.

Or ground coffee beans, of course.

I’m wondering if the sale of pure caffeine could be restricted because of health implications if you *do* overdose?

From wikipedia:
An acute overdose of caffeine, usually in excess of about 300 milligrams, dependent on body weight and level of caffeine tolerance, can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication,[71] colloquially “caffeine jitters”. The symptoms of caffeine intoxication are not unlike overdoses of other stimulants. It may include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat, and psychomotor agitation.[69] In cases of much larger overdoses mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations and psychosis may occur, and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue) can be provoked.[72][73]

In cases of extreme overdose, death can result. The median lethal dose (LD50) given orally, is 192 milligrams per kilogram in rats.[2] The LD50 of caffeine in humans is dependent on weight and individual sensitivity and estimated to be about 150 to 200 milligrams per kilogram of body mass, roughly 80 to 100 cups of coffee for an average adult taken within a limited time frame that is dependent on half-life. Though achieving lethal dose with caffeine would be exceptionally difficult with regular coffee, there have been reported deaths from overdosing on caffeine pills, with serious symptoms of overdose requiring hospitalization occurring from as little as 2 grams of caffeine.[74][75][76][77] Death typically occurs due to ventricular fibrillation brought about by effects of caffeine on the cardiovascular system.

Treatment of severe caffeine intoxication is generally supportive, providing treatment of the immediate symptoms, but if the patient has very high serum levels of caffeine then peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, or hemofiltration may be required.

I’ll hav a look at the pro-plus route but it might work out pretty expensive. If I knew the website above was trustworthy then I’d buy from there as its £30 for 100grams which would do 500 bars at 200mg per bar.

Just need to make sure I mix it in properly as I don’t want to end up with a 4g lump in one batch 😉

Isn’t there a risk that, if you don’t mix it thoroughly enough, the portions could be a bit skewed?

For the proplus ( and I’m using that as the name but if I was doing it, I’d be buying generic caffiene tablets that will be very cheap), to make sure that you get even distribution, just dissolve them in hot water and then mix in.

Given that caffeine can kill you, I’d really not want to be messing around with it. If you’re desparate to have caffeine why not just carry a pack of pro plus with you?

druidh I don’t think so as I would add the caffeine powder when I’m melting the honey and butter together so it would be added into a liquid preety sure that would result in a good mix.

wouldn’t it be as easy, and a little bit more reliable (not to mention medically safer) just to get some pro-plus or ones from myprotein and just pop one of those with the non-caffiene bar? You know how much you’re getting then.

Sling some taurines and ephedrine in too for that real drum-and-bass heart feel 🙂

vdubber67 riding a bike can kill you, we still do it though.

I could do pk-ripper but where’s the fun and ingenuity in that. No wonder Britain is in the mess it’s in 😉

I could do pk-ripper but where’s the fun and ingenuity in that

Well if you’re going down that route how come you’re not extracting the caffeine from the coffee beans yourself? Or synthesizing it?

No wonder Britain’s in the mess it’s in

I’d remind you you’re getting the stuff from a dodgy company in Brazil 🙂

I know it may limit the fun in making them, but the additional question that I’d ask is why would you want it in there? Sure, I know the physiological power / stamina effects, but that’s as much based on tolerance as anything else, so if you keep your tolerance high, you won’t get the same benefit as a ‘casual’ user.

I wouldn’t say I have a high tolerance to caffeine though, I don’t drink a lot of coffee and a night on the vodka/red bull leaves me a gibbering wreck for days after.

Pro plus taste absolutely gopping, like ear wax only more bitter. I suggest you just neck them with some water and keep your bars yummy.

Re caffeinating useless decaff coffee with carefully crushed pro plus was always my Viz style ‘top tip’.

errrrrrr…………

as someone said, pure caffeen is fairly deadly stuff, do you have scales that can weigh out 200mg (you know thats nearly as much as 2 average shots of expresso or 4 instant coffee’s dont you?) , are they calibrated (expensive to do), and do you trust them? If yes then the safest way is to add 200mg to each bar individualy to ensure the distribution is even.

Theres a reason people do degrees in chemical/process engineering so that they can do stuff like that. Even then granulation (the mixing procedure for making tablets where you’ve got one very small component and lots of bulking powder/cake) is still a case or trial and error to get it right. Then you’ve stil got a big bucket full of what looks like crumble mixture, but most of the caffeen will either be in the bigger lumps, or the smaller ones, or somewhere in the middle. Do you have a riffler to make sure you get even ammounts of each size into each bar?

Stick with tablets, at least you’ll know that theyr (hopefully) consistent. And if you have a major problem your energy bars will still be edible while you wait for mountain rescue, rather than leaving you a gibbering, caffeen fueled, dehydrated muppet.

Hey what’s up Gary 🙂

I’ve purchased from http://www.AG-nutri.com.br many times before and they are completely legit and high standards.

I usually purchase 1 kilo, because then you get tracking numbers etc., but I mainly use their caffeine powder for my own energy-drinks.

When I get the caffeine powder from them, I sually already have the soft drink ready, and then I add the caffeine powder. Let the soft-drink be heated, because the caffeine powder disolves much easier in hot water.
When you are done, let it stay in the fridge overnight and the next morning you have a high-energy drink (or bar)

If I might add, I will only advise you to purchase from either:
http://www.ag-nutri.com.br
http://www.chinacaffeinepowder.com

They are both the same company, one in brazil and the other in china. This ensures a good price and also they best quality.
Like the others say, be sure you know how to makes the dosages just right! 😉
The stuff from AG-nutri is pretty strong!

Have a cup of tea with the energy bar instead?

Or perhaps sprinkle in the contents of a decongestant capsule for a longer-lasying lift courtesy of the pseudoephedrine.

That was a joke, btw.

http://purecaffeine.info/ are much cheaper than ag-nutri and they ship from the UK. I think-nutri only ship from Brazil but may be wrong. Definitely better value than Pro Plus!