Satiate my curiosity, please. I know caffeine is naturally occurring in many plants (coffee and tea being the most notable). But for things like energy drinks, soda, drink flavorings, and whatnot that we add caffeine to, where does it come from?
Do we synthesize it all , is it recovered from the decaffeination process we use for decaf coffee/tea? Something else?
Synthesis as most of all the “added” products. Even vitamin-c is synthesized, we can and do synthesize anything basically (wild guess here).
Its cheaper and doesn’t require to start from any vegetal product which will be vastly wasted.
Also, the molecule of coffee (or vitamin) is identical if synthesized or extracted. Its the same chemical compound which bears no memory of where it domes from.