25 Easy Instant Energy Boosters

Enjoy Your Daily Cup of Joe—or a Healthy Handful of Hershey’s Kisses

Just don’t overdo it. Experts agree that you can have roughly 300 milligrams of caffeine a day to reap its benefits fully. So if you’re a coffee or tea drinker, go for it. But not all cardboard-sleeve cups are created equal. A grande cup of Starbucks coffee has about 330 milligrams of caffeine, while a comparable medium cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee has half that. Here is a sampling of potential caffeine sources, listed from highest to lowest:

• Starbucks Blend grande coffee: 330 milligrams

• Seattle’s Best medium coffee: 180 milligrams

• Dunkin’ Donuts medium coffee: 178 milligrams

• Seattle’s Best medium latte: 150 milligrams

• Seattle’s Best medium cappuccino: 150 milligrams

• Starbucks grande latte: 150 milligrams

• Starbucks grande cappuccino: 150 milligrams

• Tim Hortons medium coffee: 140 milligrams

• Two tablets of Excedrin Extra Strength: 130 milligrams

• Starbucks grande caramel frappucino: 95 milligrams

• Tim Hortons medium cappuccino: 80 milligrams

• An 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull: 80 milligrams

• An 8-ounce scoop of Häagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream: 55 milligrams

• A 12-ounce can of Diet Coke: 47 milligrams

• A 16-ounce bottle of Snapple Lemon Tea: 42 milligrams

• A 16-ounce bottle of Arizona Green Tea: 15 milligrams

• One Shock-a-Lots Chocolate-Covered Coffee Bean: 7 to 10 milligrams

• Three Hershey’s Kisses: 3 milligrams

“But W-W-What If Caffeine Makes Me J-J-Jittery?”

Some people are more sensitive to the beloved stimulant than others. If you notice that a daily cup of coffee leads to restlessness or irritability, try smelling coffee beans. “Sniffing the beans will invigorate you through a Pavlovian response,” says Hirsch. “If you associate coffee with waking up, smelling it can induce a similar reaction.” For those not willing to give up a morning tea ritual, try this: Before you make your cup of tea, steep the bag in a small amount of water for 20 seconds, then dump that out—65 to 70 percent of the caffeine is in that first dip.