• What’s in raktajino, anyway? It’s not caffeine; there are plenty of high-caffeine drinks - hell, I can make an awful-tasting, but high-caffeine espresso with what I have set up at home. And you can pretty easily consume enough caffeine to kill you; it is toxic, we just don’t consume it at high enough concentrations.

    I have the same question about Romulan Ale. Everclear is 190 proof - 95% ABV. You can go to a liquor store today and buy almost pure alcohol. It’s nasty, but you can’t get any more than 100% alcohol, and Everclear is pretty close. So what is the stimulant in Romulan Ale, b/c it probably isn’t alcohol.

    • Richard@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Why can it not be caffeine? I don’t understand the reasoning behind that. Raktajino might be just another high-caffeine drink with a special taste.

      • Because it’s always presented as being super-coffee, chemically. Good coffee is good coffee, but there’s no universally great brewing method that always produces superior coffee. You can make bad pour-over, bad espresso, bad American, bad cold brew. But all Raktajino is apparently incredible and strong. I can make 8 shots of espresso, put it in a cup, and it’ll taste strong and maybe give you heart palpitations by the time you finish it. But it won’t be necessarily good. And it might not even taste as good as espresso made by James Hoffman.

        The more I think about it, the more I think the key molecule in Raktajino isn’t caffeine. It’s probably something like amphetamines.

    • brawnybunkbedbuddy@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      I imagine - for the thrill, that raktajino comes from similar grain to kopi luvak irl. Digested and pooped by targs and harvested for ahot cups of klingon coffee 🫠