How Much Caffeine?

I saw a former co-worker last week for the first time in a few months and he brought this cool Mello Yello NHRA can to me.

I'd never seen it before.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but both sides of the logo have cool flaming tailpipes on it.  I've always liked the color-scheme of Mello Yello cans.

While checking out the can, I happened to notice the caffeine content:  69mg/16oz.  I've never paid attention to caffeine content before, so that made me wonder how Mello Yello compares to other major brands.  After looking at some other recent cans in my collection, this is what I found:

Coca-Cola = 34mg/12oz
Diet Coke = 46mg/12oz

Pepsi = 38mg/12oz
Diet Pepsi = 35mg/12oz

Dr Pepper = 41mg/12oz
Diet Dr Pepper = 41mg/12oz

Mtn Dew = 54mg/12oz
Diet Mtn Dew = 54mg/12oz
Mtn Dew Game Fuel = 73mg/12oz

Converting the 16oz Mello Yello to 12oz = 51.75mg/12oz

The data surprised me in a few ways.  I always thought Coca-Cola was the soda to drink to get the biggest caffeine buzz but it ranks lowest in the five major brands I checked out.  Diet Coke even has more caffeine than regular Coca-Cola.  And the Mtn Dew Game Fuel I recently bought has twice the caffeine of Coca-Cola.

By the way, the original flavor of Monster energy drink weighs in at a whopping 120mg/12oz.  But I think energy drinks are a whole other study and I'd probably be surprised by some of the numbers of those brands.

After all this research, I think it's time for a nap...