How Much Caffeine Is In A McDonald's Frappé?

McDonald's foray into the world of coffee has been a successful one, and you can order McCafé coffee all day at most stores which serve it. McDonald's has since expanded into a number of fancier coffee drinks, including their frappé, an iced coffee with whipped cream and caramel or chocolate drizzle. How strong are these frappés? In the United States, McDonald's website states very plainly that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires the company to publish certain nutritional values, but these requirements don't include caffeine levels, and so the company does not list this information on its FAQ pages or its nutrition fact sheets.

If you're looking for hard numbers, this isn't especially helpful. On the other hand, contacting McDonald's customer service directly seems to give some consistent numbers: 75 milligrams (mg) of caffeine in a small frappé, 85mg in a medium, and 130mg in a large. The mocha frappés contain slightly more, perhaps because chocolate itself contains some caffeine. These drinks range from 100mg to 180mg depending on size. However, these all appear to be estimates based on the amount of coffee extract in the drink and may not come from direct caffeine testing.

Even though McDonald's food is prepared differently in different countries, sometimes more direct data is provided here. If you take a look at McDonald's website for its United Kingdom stores, more information is provided. These iced frappé drinks contain about 47 to 189 grams of caffeine per drink, depending on size or flavor. The company which makes McDonald's coffee in the U.S. is called Gaviña Gourmet Coffee based in Southern California, while the U.K. supplier is United Coffee based in Kent, so the caffeine levels in both may not match up equally.

Is this a lot of caffeine in general? The average cup of coffee has to contain about 95mg in an eight-ounce cup. Every size of the McCafé frappé is larger than eight ounces, which means they do have less caffeine per ounce, if not in total. Some frequent frappé drinkers report that they don't feel a big caffeine boost from drinking them, which could be true if you drink it slowly due to its lower concentration. In any case, the drinks do contain at least some caffeine. Every frappé includes a "coffee base" made with coffee extract, which is made from ground coffee beans. The frappé is still much closer to coffee than Coca-Cola in terms of its caffeine levels.