Tampa, Florida is 2008 caffeine capital of U.S.

William Atkins
Friday, 16 January 2009 19:22

Science - Health

The January 13, 2009 Affinion Group press release entitled “Caffeine Survey Reveals Most, Least Caffeinated Cities” announced the second annual HealthSaver Caffeinated Cities Survey. Tampa, Florida caffeinates a first-place win and Seattle, Washington brews its way to the top, too.


The press release "Caffeine Survey Reveals Most, Least Caffeinated Cities" (pdf file), by the Affinion Group, states that the survey found Tampa, Florida is the “most caffeinated city in the country,” followed by Seattle, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; New York City, New York, and Los Angeles, California.

Todd Smith, a spokesperson for HealthSaver, a national discount health-care service company, stated, "Despite Tampa being the most caffeinated, respondents in Tampa rank number one in saying they're least likely to be addicted to caffeine.” [MSNBC: “Tampa, Fla., most caffeinated U.S. city”]

Smith added, "They are number one in pain reliever consumption and they are also third most likely to do energy drink consumption.” [MSNBC]

The tally, which surveyed 2,005 people (through questions asked over the telephone) across the United States living in twenty major metropolitan areas, considered such caffeinated drinks as coffee, sodas, tea, energy drinks, pain relievers (yes, they sometimes contain caffeine), caffeine pills, and chocolate.

When coffee was solely considered the winner was Seattle, Washington. It also won this category the first year the survey was conducted.

The least caffeinated cities was found to be Riverside/San Bernardino, California, with Atlanta, Georga in second place and followed by San Diego, California; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; and Dallas, Texas.

Page two discusses which caffeinated drinks were most popular with the surveyed people. Can you guess which one came in first? (Guess the obvious one.)