Which sodas have no caffeine? Sprite, root beer, ginger ale

Does Sprite have caffeine?

No. Coca-Cola’s own Sprite page prints “no caffeine” on Sprite and “zero caffeine” on Sprite Zero Sugar, and gives no figure because there is nothing to count. In the dataset that is 0 mg, recorded as the maker’s words, not as a lab result. The Sprite page says the same in words for Sprite + Tea and Sprite Cherry; a few Sprites, such as Lymonade and Chill, carry no caffeine line of their own, though the page’s introduction calls the whole lineup caffeine-free.

Sprite + Tea is the one worth a second look, because the word tea usually means caffeine. Not this time, by Coca-Cola’s label. The other lemon-lime sodas follow suit:

So clear is not a guarantee. The yellow-green citrus sodas are the caffeinated branch of the family, and Mountain Dew is the loud one. Coca-Cola also says Fresca is caffeine free:

The Coca-Cola Company says caffeine is one of the ingredients that helps give Coca-Cola its taste. It sells caffeine-free versions of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and says Sprite and Fresca are caffeine free as well. 129130

Does root beer have caffeine?

Usually not, and the exception is famous. Barq’s Root Beer states 22 mg in 12 fl oz, and its ingredient list names caffeine. Barq’s Zero Sugar Root Beer is described as caffeine free. Every other root beer we found a maker page for says it has none.

Root beer is a lottery, and Barq’s is the ticket that keeps you up

Why would a root beer have caffeine at all? Not because of sassafras, the root most people connect with the name: US rules treat food with added sassafras oil or safrole as adulterated.

US regulation 21 CFR 189.180 says safrole is a natural constituent of the sassafras plant and that oil of sassafras is about 80 percent safrole. Food with added safrole or oil of sassafras is deemed adulterated, based on an order published in the Federal Register on December 3, 1960. 239

Nothing in that rule is about caffeine, and we found no maker saying where root beer’s flavor comes from today. What the labels do show is plain enough: Barq’s lists caffeine among its ingredients, and the others say they have none. A root beer with caffeine has it because the recipe calls for it, and the ingredient list is where, as the last section shows, the law says it has to admit it.

Does ginger ale have caffeine?

Ginger ale is about as safe as soda gets. Every plain ginger ale we checked is caffeine free by its maker. The one exception is the one with tea in its name: Canada Dry Green Tea Flavored Ginger Ale, at about 9 mg a can, which Keurig Dr Pepper calls naturally occurring.

The green tea one is a neat demonstration of how labels work. Its caffeine comes with the tea, not as an added ingredient, so caffeine does not appear in its ingredient list. The ingredient list shows green tea, and the only reason you know how much is that the maker chose to print the number. For tea itself, green tea has its own article.

Which sodas have caffeine you would not expect?

Often the flavor, not the brand, is the answer. Keurig Dr Pepper’s figures are approximate; Coca-Cola’s are not. Where the same brand has a flavor its maker calls caffeine free, it is in the last column.

Every Sunkist is innocent except orange. Orange knows what it did

A 12 fl oz can of Mr. Pibb, at 54 mg, has 20 mg more caffeine than a 12 fl oz can of Coca-Cola at 34 mg. This is our arithmetic on Coca-Cola’s two figures. 2142

Mr. Pibb is the one that surprises people most: 54 mg a can, by Coca-Cola, the same as a regular Mountain Dew at 54 mg. It is also stronger than the drink it is usually compared with: Keurig Dr Pepper states about 41 mg for Dr Pepper, and the Dr Pepper article has the rest of that family.

Mr. Pibb has the caffeine of a Mountain Dew and the reputation of a librarian

Fanta is the odd one out on paper. Coca-Cola calls Fanta Grape, Fanta Zero Sugar Orange and Fanta Piña Colada caffeine free. Its page for plain Fanta Orange says nothing about caffeine either way. Silence is not a zero, so we do not print one.

What sodas have no caffeine?

Here is everything this page holds a maker’s word for. Every zero below is the maker saying, in words or as a printed figure, that the drink has no caffeine. Nobody here measured it, and a statement is not a lab result, but it is the best thing on offer and it is the company’s name on the can.

• Lemon-lime and citrus: Sprite, Sprite Zero Sugar, 7UP, Squirt (the grapefruit one), Fresca.
• Ginger ale: Canada Dry and Canada Dry Zero Sugar, Schweppes, Seagram’s, Vernors.
• Root beer and cream soda: A&W and A&W Zero Sugar, A&W Cream Soda, Barq’s Zero Sugar, Mug and Mug Zero Sugar, IBC, Hires, Stewart’s.
• Fruit sodas: Crush Orange, Sunkist Grape and every Sunkist except Sunkist Orange (regular, Zero Sugar and Made with Real Sugar), Fanta Grape, Fanta Zero Sugar Orange.
• Colas with the caffeine taken out: Coca-Cola Caffeine Free, Caffeine Free Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Caffeine Free.

Do Poppi and Olipop have caffeine?

Some flavors do, mostly the colas. PepsiCo’s caffeine table lists poppi Classic Cola, Cherry Cola and Doc Pop at 40 mg each in a 12 fl oz can, and poppi Alpine Blast at 55 mg. Regular Pepsi is 38 mg. No other poppi flavor appears in PepsiCo’s table of products with caffeine.

OLIPOP says four of its flavors contain caffeine from green tea extract: Vintage Cola, Doctor Goodwin and Cherry Cola at 50 mg a can, and Citrus Rush at 60 mg a can. It says the rest of its flavors are caffeine-free. The FAQ gives no can size. 238

So a poppi can be stronger than a Mountain Dew. The colas and a few others are where the caffeine lives, which makes sense once you know why it is there at all:

PepsiCo says caffeine, either naturally occurring or man-made, is added to some beverages for a slightly bitter taste that enhances some flavors and balances the sweetness of others. 237

poppi Classic Cola is a touch more caffeinated than a Pepsi. Nobody checks the cute can

How can you tell if a soda has caffeine?

Read the ingredient list, not the front of the can. In the US the rule is short:

FDA says all packaged foods must list caffeine in the list of ingredients when it is added as a stand-alone ingredient, and that many packaged foods voluntarily state how much caffeine they contain. When a food contains an ingredient that inherently contains caffeine instead, caffeine will not appear in the list of ingredients, but the caffeine-containing ingredient will be listed. 5

• Caffeine in the ingredients: it has caffeine. Barq’s, Sunkist Orange, Squirt Ruby Red, Mr. Pibb and Mello Yello all list it.
• No caffeine in the ingredients, nothing else said: most likely none, but a tea or coffee ingredient can bring its own, as Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale shows.
• A number printed: the maker volunteered it. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper print one on many of their caffeinated sodas, not all.
• “Caffeine free” or “no caffeine” on the can: the maker’s statement, and the cleanest answer you will get.

If you are cutting caffeine in the afternoon, the soda is rarely the big number on its own. A 200 ml filter coffee is about 80 mg; a Barq’s is 22 mg. But caffeine’s half-life in healthy adults averages 4 hours and runs as long as 8 hours, so the can you thought was caffeine free is still there at bedtime. The full list of drinks and the method show how the instrument works it out.