The caffeine in coffee

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct54% picked this

   Does extending the roasting time of coffee beans increase the amount of caffeine present in

   Why this is right

   This points to a potential difference between darker and lighter. Since we were told already that darker is roasted longer, if roasting time increases the amount of caffeine, then darker might be have more caffeine. We were told that caffeine is what stimulates the irritating acids. So even if darker has more NMP (which suppress the acids), it might also have more caffeine, creating more acid in the first place. This gives us our potential weakener. We can argue that even if darker roasts have more acid-quelling NMP, lighter roasts are actually easier on the stomach because they have less acid-producing caffeine to begin with. (p.s. as a coffee lover, I happen to know that lighter roasts are more caffeinated, so if anyone else had that outside knowledge, this objection can feel counterintuitive, since we know the actual answer is No. But since a Yes answer would weaken, it's an important question to be resolved)

   Skill tested: Evaluate · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   54%
2. B

   Unclear Impact24% picked this

   Does a reduction in acid production in the stomach have an adverse effect

   If the answer to this question is YES, then darker roasts, which have more NMP, which suppresses acid production, might have some adverse effect on stomach function. Could that be our way to argue that lighter roasts will irritate the stomach less? Not quite. An adverse effect on stomach function is too broad to be reliably about stomach irritation. It might mean that when acids are reduced, the speed of digestion and metabolism is slowed down. But all we care about is the truth value of the conclusion, which is exclusively about stomach irritiation. If the conclusion were, "thus, darker roasts are better for your stomach", then the discussion would be broad enough that adverse stomach function would be relevant. But since we only care about irritation, it's not clear whether this question would be addressing that.

   24%
3. C

   Out of Scope3% picked this

   Would coffee drinkers who drink caffeinated coffee increase their coffee consumption if the coffee they

   We're comparing caffeinated dark roasts to caffeinated light roasts. This answer wants to compare the quantity of higher-caffeinated coffee consumed to the quantity of lower-caffeinated coffee consumed. We have no idea if or how darker and lighter roasts differ in terms of caffeine, so a question about more caffeine vs. less caffeine isn't clearly going to tell us anything about the potential difference between caffeinated dark and caffeinated light.

   3%
4. D

   Too Weak / Irrelevant12% picked this

   Do some coffee drinkers who switch from lighter to darker roasts of coffee increase their

   First of all, the lead-in "if you drink caffeinated coffee, darker > lighter" implicitly means for a given quantity of coffee, darker > lighter. It's not saying "dark coffee drinkers have less stomach irritation than light coffee drinkers", where we might find it relevant how much each type of coffee drinker is consuming. So whether someone switching from lighter to darker would increase their coffee consumption is not our concern. We're only attempting to judge "when it comes to caffeinated coffee, which would irritate your stomach more: x mL of darker roast or x mL of lighter roast?" Finally, even if we were trying to use the YES answer as an objection, it's only got the strength of "some". If the answer is YES, then at least one person who switched from lighter to darker increased their coffee consumption by at least 1%. Big whoop.

   12%
5. E

   Out of Scope: health benefits7% picked this

   Do lighter roasts of coffee have any important health benefits that darker roasts

   The conclusion wasn't a global evaluation of "which is better for you: darker or lighter?" It is narrowly about "which causes more stomach irritation: darker or lighter?" Even if we knew that lighter roasts had important health benefits that darker roasts lack, that wouldn't help us to argue that lighter roasts actually cause less irritation (we'd have to also know that these important health benefits include reducing acid irritation in your stomach).

   7%