I don’t have many vices, but caffeine dominates my list without contest. I typically fall into the “less is more” camp when it comes to America’s favorite stimulant, yet there are mornings when a double dose feels justified. Enter Death Wish Coffee, the well-known brand famed for piling caffeine into a seemingly regular cup, just what you crave on mornings when motivation is hard to summon.
The brooding coffee brand recently rolled out a variant that squeezes even more caffeine into an already potent drink, and honestly, that’s something many of us could use these days. Power Surge—a fair-trade, organic blend of Arabica and Robusta beans—packs a staggering 210 milligrams into a mere 6-ounce cup. For comparison, an ordinary 6-ounce cup of coffee contains about 70 milligrams of caffeine, so Power Surge means business. I sampled the new powerhouse and here’s my straightforward take.
Our Verdict
I’m going to judge this coffee primarily on its flavor rather than its caffeine load since this is a food site and I’m a food writer, not a pharmacology scribe (are there such roles?). That said, Power Surge did deliver a true jolt—one of power, indeed. This is a brew meant for people who grew up on thick, motor-oil-dark coffee and came of age in the Four Loko era before the stimulant removal. Enough said.
Given the prodigious caffeine amount, I expected a medicinal, chemical-like flavor. That expectation never materialized. This is a dark, dark coffee with a heavy body and a bold, smoky profile. It isn’t overly acidic and it carries faint notes of chocolate and roasted nuts—the kinds of aromas you’d expect from a mass-market brew, in my view. I prepared mine in a French press, which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. This drink shines best when prepared the traditional American way: in an automatic drip machine with a relatively weak coffee-to-water ratio and left to sit on a burner for a bit too long.
When stacked up against the average grocery-store coffee, Power Surge doesn’t quite stack up in flavor. This is clearly a beverage for those who prioritize performance over refinement, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It leans more toward robusta than arabica, and while that isn’t inherently bad, it isn’t ideal either. Robusta is a cheaper, stronger variety of coffee than the much more common and pricier arabica, the latter known for its fruitier taste and lighter body. In plain terms, arabica is to robusta what a Lamborghini is to a monster truck (Power Surge is, in fact, a fitting name for a monster truck—feel free to borrow that one). That said, it’s also the bean of choice for Vietnamese iced coffee and the iconic café au laits of New Orleans. So if you’re in the mood to experiment in the morning, Power Surge could be your best bet for a creamy, worldly brew that’s sure to perk you up.
