A Caffeine Bakery

Snacks with a kick.

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For other specialty products that provide a kick, check out

Hint Mint’s Oral Fixation Night Light Mints:
11.5 milligrams of caffeine per mint. hintmint.com

Turbo Truffles:
150 milligrams of caffeine per truffle. turbotruffle.com

Sumseeds, roasted caffeinated sunflower seeds:
120 milligrams of caffeine. sumseeds.com

Perky Jerky:
150 milligrams of caffeine per ounce from guarana. perkyjerky.com

Jelly Belly Extreme Sports Beans, cherry-flavored jelly beans:
50 milligrams of caffeine per 1-ounce bag. jellybelly.com

Caffeinated Maple Bacon Lollipop:
80 milligrams of caffeine per lollipop. lollyphile.com

Visit energyfiend.com to explore a world of caffeine-infused goods.

Caffeine became a main ingredient with the opening of the nation’s first caffeine bakery, A Snack in the Face, in Ames, Iowa. Ideally situated across the street from Iowa State University, where overly tired students no doubt find a much-needed pick-me-up during exams, every item sold at the 400-square-foot bakery has 200 milligrams of pharmaceutical-grade caffeine in its brownies, truffles and cookies. The year-old bakery already has plans to expand to a larger manufacturing facility and supply convenience stores in Iowa and nationwide. “We feel that our products would be cozy in convenience stores, truck stops and the like, so that's what we're working toward,” says Wes Nelson, co-owner with his wife Allison.

"Our current shop is a small pilot store that we opened just to see if there was interest in our business concept. The response has been beyond our expectations, so we've been working on slow, controlled expansion for the last few months," he continues. The expansion was spurred, explains Wes, because, "everyone wants to get their hands on our delicious, caffeinated goodies, but not everyone lives in Ames, Iowa."

Allison and Wes were not fans of coffee, but they always loved the kick of caffeine. "We got thinking about other ways to get caffeine, and looking at what products are available. There are hundreds of caffeinated products out there, but almost all are beverages," says Wes. The pair set out to create delicious caffeinated baked goods. After much experimentation using diluted caffeine powder directly in the baked goods' batter, they figured out that 200 milligrams is the greatest amount that allows the treats to still taste pure and delicious, and the company was born.

As for the most popular caffeine kick? "Everyone loves the brownies and the chocolate chip cookies, but we try different things all the time, and if people like 'em we keep making 'em," Wes says. —Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.