Hold the coffee: scientist puts caffeine in doughnuts

Last Updated: Friday, January 26, 2007 | 11:11 AM ET

CBC News

An American inventor has created something to keep the Homer Simpsons of the world awake on the job: a caffeinated doughnut.

Robert Bohannon, a molecular scientist living in Durham, N.C., has developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods such as doughnuts and bagels.

Bohannon told the Durham Herald Sun that the process of adding caffeine to the pastries was difficult because the drug is bitter and insoluble.

"It was so bitter it made me pucker up bad. I thought, 'No wonder they don't make it,'" he told the Herald Sun.

His new method involved taking pure caffeine, breaking it down into micron-sized particles and encapsulating these particles in a coating.

Each doughnut has approximately 50 mg of caffeine, or the amount in a cup of coffee.

Bohannon calls his inventions "Buzz Donuts" and "Buzzed Bagels," and said he has filed patents for the process and already approached U.S. chains Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts about the invention.

It's not the first time someone has tried to put the widely-ingested stimulant in the food and drink we consume.

Two years ago breweries Molson and Labatt introduced caffeinated beers in Canada called Kick and Shok, respectively. Both beers are now discontinued.