Brewing Trader Joe's controversy: Customers allege they were misled about coffee's low caffeine

U.S. newsBrewing Trader Joe's controversy: Customers allege they were misled about coffee's low caffeineSome customers have sued over the store-branded French Roast Low Acid whole bean coffee, saying it has significantly less caffeine than customers are led to believe.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00A Trader Joe's grocery store in Washington, D.C. Al Drago / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 24, 2026, 10:59 AM EDTBy Gary GrumbachIs your cup of Joe, just a cup for show?Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Several coffee drinkers from around the country have filed a lawsuit on Thursday against grocery giant Trader Joe’s, alleging their store-branded French Roast Low Acid whole bean coffee has significantly less caffeine than customers are led to believe.Tests on the coffee, plaintiffs say in the lawsuit, shows the product “contains half of the caffeine as a regular coffee blend.” They cite testing from competitors of Trade Joe’s that shows that the “Low Acid” coffee only has 51% of the caffeine of Trader Joe’s Dark French Roast coffee and 45% of the caffeine of Trader Joe’s House Blend coffee.But because there is nothing on the label that indicates the lower caffeine levels, the suit says, “consumers purchase the Product believing that it is fully caffeinated when it is not.”“It is an industry standard that a coffee’s caffeine levels are not highlighted on the product’s label unless some process is used to reduce the amount of caffeine contained therein,” attorney Trenton Kashima, an attorney representing plaintiffs from California, New York and Illinois, writes in the suit. “For example, full caffeinated coffee does not have any special labeling denoting that it is fully caffeinated, but 'decaf' and 'half-caff' coffees are labelled as such," the suit says. "Here, the Product does not disclose that it is 'decaf' and 'half-caff' coffee.”They suit says every...