Crystals of a 1:1 complex of caffeine and 5‐chlorosalicylic acid are orthorhombic with space group P bcn. The unit cell parameters are a = 7.952 Å., b = 16.303 Å., and c = 25.491 Å. The structure was solved by a symbolic addition procedure. The positional and thermal parameters were refined by least squares to an R value of 0.077. The caffeine molecule shows significant deviations from planarity. The molecules are held together in the lattice by O—H…N and C—H…O intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Polarization bonding also seems to play a dominant role in the stacking of the molecules in the lattice. Copyright © 1968 Wiley‐Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company