(CNN) How many cups of coffee does it take to get you going in the morning? 
 
 If the answer is many, the invention of a turbo-powered superbrew that is so strong it comes with a health warning might put your habit into perspective. 
 
 A cafe in Adelaide, Australia, is serving the "Asskicker," a concoction of four espresso shots, two different strengths of cold drip and milk that its inventor says contains 80 times the amount of caffeine of a standard shot. 
 
 The drink, designed to be sipped slowly over three to four hours, promises to keep coffee lovers buzzing for up to 18 hours. 
 
 Turbo coffee 
 
 Steve Benington, owner of Viscous Coffee , developed the drink for a local emergency room nurse who needed something to keep her going during unexpected night shifts. 
 
 "We had to tone it down a bit because it kept her up for a total of three days," said Benington, adding that the nurse sipped it over two days. 
 
 Friday fuel to get us to the weekend // Buzzing // #cupofjoe #coffee #siphonthat A photo posted by Alpha Box & Dice (@alphaboxdice) on Mar 26, 2015 at 2:38pm PDT 
 
 The barista, who opened his cafe a year and a half ago after a career in the Australian Navy, said the turbo coffee has become very popular in recent weeks. 
 
 However, he actively discourages customers interested only in a gimmick, and advertises it with a warning for those with high blood pressure or heart conditions. 
 
 "I have a quite detailed talk with people before they actually purchase one. If I can talk someone out of it, they're not ready for the drink," said Benington. 
 
 Warning signs of coffee overdose include shakes and sweats, dilated pupils, stammering over your words, vertigo and nausea. 
 
 "If you keep going, those symptoms will get worse," said the coffee-loving business owner. "If you stay within the guidelines, you're fine." 
 
 The Asskicker experience will set you back around $12 ($16 AUD) for a 16 ounce cup. 
 
 World's favorite drug 
 
 Occurring naturally in coffee beans, tea leaves and cacao, caffeine is the most commonly used drug in the world. 
 
 The average amount of caffeine consumed by adults is 300 milligrams per day, according to a 2012 FDA report (PDF). Caffeine is a bitter white alkaloid that stimulates the central nervous system -- the brain, spinal cord and nerves -- to make us feel more awake. 
 
 While studies have not proven (PDF) that caffeine produces significant life-threatening health risks such as cancer or heart disease, excess consumption can lead to increased blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems and raised cholesterol. 
 
 Though rare, there have been some deaths linked to caffeine. A 14-year-old with a heart condition died after drinking two energy drinks in 24 hours. A 19-year-old overdosed on a dozen caffeine pills, and in another case, a high school wrestler from Ohio died after consuming powdered caffeine -- a highly concentrated form that the FDA has issued strong warnings about 
 
 Withdrawal symptoms 
 
 People with pre-existing heart conditions, as well as children and pregnant women, are advised to drink less caffeine -- but how much is too much varies significantly from person to person, according to Maggie Sweeney, a Johns Hopkins University researcher who studies caffeine. 
 
 "That's certainly an awful lot of caffeine," Sweeney said of the brew's 5 grams. "With much lower doses of caffeine you see the effects of caffeine intoxication. Depending on an individual's sensitivity and tolerance, you would expect they might experience some negative side effects upwards of 250 milligrams." 
 
 While differing levels of tolerance make it difficult to name a lethal dose, Sweeney said she believes "about 10 grams" could kill someone, twice the caffeine content of the Asskicker. 
 
 Sweeney's program works with people whose caffeine dependencies are interfering with their day to day life, most of whom consume "less than 1,000 milligrams a day." Symptoms can range from restlessness and insomnia to irregular heartbeat in severe cases. 
 
 "We've seen people who have missed work because of the severity of their caffeine withdrawal, people who have gotten into arguments with friends and family about their caffeine use," she said. 
 
 The researcher said she believes genetics play a role in the rate at which our bodies process the stimulant, a factor still being investigated. 
 
 "Caffeine isn't necessarily a bad thing; there's some evidence it can have health benefits, such as protection from Parkinson's disease," said Sweeney. "But for a subset of individuals -- and we're trying to determine exactly how many -- their dependence on caffeine has a negative impact." 
 
 A couple of cups a day 
 
 Other experts on the drug are convinced of its health benefits. Harvard Medical School's Dr. Sanjiv Chopra's book, " The Big 5 ," lists drinking coffee as one of five things you can do to live a longer and healthier life. 
 
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 "People who drink coffee have a lower risk of five cancers: liver, prostate, colon, endometrial and skin cancer. It protects against cirrhosis (liver disease), Parkinson's, cognitive decline, Type II diabetes," said Chopra. 
 
 A 2012 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that men and women who drank more than three cups of coffee a day had a 10% lower risk of death from heart disease, respiratory illness, stroke, injuries or accidents, diabetes and infections. 
 
 But even the coffee evangelist believes the Asskicker is a dose too far. 
 
 "I would be very wary of consuming it," said Chopra. "That's a huge caffeine load." 
 
 "What I recommend is two to four cups [a day]. If you can drink them regularly it's better for the liver." ||||| A cafe is serving up the coffee to rival all others and it looks almost fatal. 
 
 The suitably-named Ass Kicker is being served at Viscous Cafe in Adelaide, Australia and it contains the caffeine equivalent of 80 standard cups-o-joe. 
 
 Legend has it, the first incarnation of the beverage was made for an emergency department nurse who needed to stay awake. The drink was consumed over a period of two days and kept the nurse up for three days in total. 
 
 Since then, Viscous Cafe owner Steve Benington has "toned it down a little" for general sale but the drink it still comes with a warning that it is not for the faint of heart. 
 
 The drink apparently tastes more like toffee than coffee and is designed to be consumed over a long period of time, with Benington telling Mashable his creation aims to "lift you up and keep you there instead of peaking through the roof and dumping you hard later." 
 
 For those chasing an instant hit, be warned; not all the caffeine in the drink is released immediately. "Combining the minimum drinking time and the slow release of cold drip-imparted caffeine is how we achieve the sustained uptime" Benington said. 
 
 Some pointed out that while the beverage packs a serious punch, some say it could also pose a serious risk to health, if consumed too quickly or by those with high blood pressure. 
 
 A fatal dose of caffeine for a healthy adult is considered to be roughly 18 grams of caffeine consumed over a one to two hour period. A large Ass Kicker has five grams of caffeine and is recommended to to be consumed over a three to four hour period. 
 
 As Bebington said "some people love it and some are broken by it, but it’s all in the name of fun." ||||| What did you accomplish this weekend? Maybe you opened your pool, planted a garden, or took care of some pesky errands. Not Andrew. Andrew set what is, as far as we can determine, a world record for the most expensive drink possible at Starbucks. Tamping down the previous known record at $47.30 is the Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino at $54.75. 
 
 Update: on day 5, the drink is gone. 
 
 Andrew didn’t actually hand over that much money for his 128-ounce espresso milkshake. He’s a Gold member of Starbucks’ loyalty program, which entitles him to one free drink after every twelve that he buys. The free drink coupon entitles him to any drink available. Any drink? The only limits, it seems, were his imagination and what the baristas would let him get away with. They were game to let him get away with a lot. 
 
 For Andrew, taste was key. He had recently watched last year’s famous quadringoctuple frap video where another customer used a similar birthday coupon to assemble a 48-shot beverage with a bunch of other pricey substances in order to reach the mind-boggling $47 goal. Andrew’s goal was to break that record, and to produce something that’s drinkable. “The $47.30 guy put in two bananas, strawberry, matcha powder, pumpkin spice, and lots of other things that probably don’t go well together and definitely don’t go well with 40 shots of espresso,” Andrew told Consumerist in an e-mail. “They help raise the price, so I can’t fault him for the strategy, but I didn’t want to go that route.” 
 
 He had a secret weapon: a 128-ounce glass. Well, okay, more like a vase that you would fill with marbles or river rocks and use to decorate your house, but Starbucks considers it a glass for their purposes, unlike the other record-seekers who brought in a giant fishbowl. (We disqualify them from the single-drink record because a bunch of lattes in one fishbowl is not a single drink.) 
 
 The key step for Andrew’s world-record run was getting the baristas on his side. He walked up to the counter and laid out his goals. “So, this might sound a little weird, but I saw a video on youtube where a guy orders the most expensive Starbucks drink. I want to beat the record.” The cashier had seen the video, and through math and teamwork they figured out how to make a record-busting drink that would fit in his cup and break the record. 
 
 “It took a few minutes to figure out all the math, but in the end, it took about 55 shots to get us over the $50 line, and we just rounded it up to 60 to make it easy,” he explained to Consumerist. Everyone behind the counter seemed to be on board with the plan, and they produced the massive confection in about ten minutes. 
 
 “I gotta say, it was delicious,” Andrew declared. He reports that he drank maybe a third of it, then put the drink away for later enjoyment. 
 
 The key question you’re probably asking about this beverage: will it kill me? Well… maybe. Starbucks doesn’t publish information about how much caffeine is in a single espresso shot online, but estimates put it at about 75 milligrams per shot. If that’s the case, Andrew’s beverage would contain 4,500 milligrams (4.5 grams) of caffeine if made correctly. One expert told Popular Science that, not accounting for pre-existing medical conditions, a lethal overdose of caffeine for most adults would be about 10 grams. Large doses of the drug will still make you feel nervous and jumpy, affecting your blood pressure and heart, and you should not drink sixty shots of espresso in one sitting, ever.
– One cafe owner in Adelaide, Australia, is playing around with the world's most popular drug, and experts aren't feeling terribly perky about it. Steve Benington, owner of Viscous Coffee, has created the Asskicker, a drink consisting of four shots of espresso, four 48-hour brewer cold drip ice cubes (each containing a bit more caffeine than is found in two shots of espresso), 120ml of 10-day brewed cold drip, and another four of those cold drip ice cubes to finish it off, reports Adelaide Now. All told, it has 5 grams of caffeine, about 80 times as a typical espresso, and it provides 18 hours of "sustained up time," as Benington puts it. "Some people love it and some are broken by it, but it’s all in the name of fun," he says. Benington developed the drink after an emergency room nurse asked for something that would get her through a long shift. It comes with a warning for people with heart or blood pressure issues, and he has "quite a detailed talk" with anyone who orders it because "if I can talk them out of it, they're not ready," he tells CNN. One area dietitian is not amused. "Caffeine is a drug, not a game or a toy," she says. The author of a book espousing the benefits of caffeine also chimes in that this drink goes too far. "I would be very wary of consuming it." Mashable notes that Benington does suggest people sip the drink over three to four hours to "lift you up and keep you there." It also notes that a fatal dose of caffeine is generally considered to be 18 grams over one or two hours. (There is such a thing as fatal caffeine intoxication.)