Reuters reports that many coffee shops in Taiwan are now including caffeine warning labels on their coffee beverages:

Coffee chains are putting red marks next to coffee drinks with more than 200 mg of caffeine, yellow marks beside caffeine levels of 100-200 mg and green marks next to drinks with less than 100 mg.

The labels are voluntary so far, but I do wonder if they're truly necessary. They are not a response to potential long-term health effects, but to short-term ones like anxiety and upset stomach. Can't consumers figure that out for themselves?

On the other hand, I have noticed a surprising degree of ignorance among coffee drinkers about how much caffeine is in their drinks. There's a common misperception that a cup of coffee provides a mild pick-me-up while a shot of espresso sends one into the stratosphere. Thus I sometimes get customers ordering a 16 oz. coffee instead of their usual one or two shot espresso drink because they "need to go easy on the caffeine." They're usually surprised to find out that while espresso has more caffeine per ounce than a cup of coffee, one or two shots will usually be less than a full cup. Perhaps these coded labels will set people straight about this.

Then again, it seems that the effects of caffeine are largely dependent on what a person believes them to be. Epsresso sends them into the stratosphere because that's what they expect the beverage to do. Will customers seeking out the red label drinks -- now scientifically confirmed as being super charged -- reach whole new hieghts of caffeination? It's possible that the existence of warning labels could exacerbate the very jitters they were meant to defend against.

[Via Slashfood.]