Perhaps a sign of how a mind can function in rather peculiar and surprising ways, something I’ve become accustomed to over time, I often wonder what life might be like without coffee. I know, right, weird?
I drink coffee every day without fail – not once a day, not twice, but several times. After the more urgent morning customs, guzzling coffee is next up on the things I do before I get dressed for the day. I have a big mug – yellow, acquired during a trip to Disney World, Florida several years ago. It’s a Minions cup, for those in the know about such matters.
Brown, steaming hard with a singular sharpness: coffee tastes like nothing else I know. Caramel or nutty, its aroma is immediately recognisable, an intimate and safe smell that explodes the synapses. That first coffee of the day, the one where your hair is messy and your eyes sticky with sleep, that’s the best. And what about the other cups, the second, third and fourth? Well, by then, I’m thinking about drinking tea.
Of course, there have been days were there’s been no coffee in the house, or where I’ve had no time, or the milk has gone sour (yes, I don’t do black), or, rarely, I’ve forgotten. But, honestly, these days are infrequent, indeed. As I write this, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a morning coffee, and again several times throughout the day. Drinking coffee is as much a part of my daily life as is breathing. Slightly hyperbolic, I know. But works rather well at emphasising the central point that coffee is very important to me.
And I’m not alone. A quick search online reveals that in the UK, people drink 95 million cups of coffee each day, contributing an estimated £9.1 billion to the economy. And the UK isn’t the biggest coffee drinking nation in the world. According to statista.com, the good folks of the Netherlands consume 8.3kg of coffee each year versus just 3.5kg in the US. The UK doesn’t even feature on the list. According to the British coffee association website, coffee is the most popular drink worldwide with around two billion cups consumed every day. Holy shit, what’s going on? Are we addicted to coffee?
There are reports on line that removing coffee from your diet can be transformative to health and wellbeing, including saving money and time – two very important commodities for the author. I’m not a scientist, but as someone who drinks lots of the stuff and has done throughout much of life, I’m fairly sure I know this to be true, albeit intuitively. I know, for example, that drinking coffee makes me feel a little strung out – especially if I overdo my intake. I can sometimes feel on edge, too – irritable, perhaps, and tetchy, yes. And I get a touch fiery, maybe. Agitated, always. I know this because I drink coffee every day and this is how I feel every day. But how do I know that it’s the drinking coffee that’s causing these things? Maybe they’ve nothing to do with my consumption of coffee. Maybe they are just who I am, my personality, and that drinking coffee actually makes me less susceptible to them, not more!
Even though I might feel this way, that the coffee is giving life to these altered states, that they are symptoms of my drinking coffee, I can’t be sure until I stop drinking coffee. Stop my intake of coffee and note how I feel, seeing if things change. Surely, that’s the only way I can ever be sure it’s the coffee that’s at fault.
But wait, it’s not as easy as that…
I love coffee. Of course I do, that’s why I drink the dam stuff every day, several times a day. It’s bloody great! Like most folks, when I wake the morning I feel lousy. I’m getting on a bit, and sleep is punctuated by one or more trips to the bathroom, a little snoring and extremes of temperature (sorry, this is more detail than I’d hoped to share, yet it’s important context). All of which means I wake in the morning feeling terrible and in need of a little ‘something’ to help kick starts proceeds – a boost, so to speak, or a pick-me-up. And this for me is coffee. I need it. I need it and to be denied it would be bloody awful.
So what to do? I’m stumped and have been now for over 20 years! I know coffee isn’t good for me physically, but mentally and emotionally I think it’s irreplaceable.
Anyway, this was what was on my mind this morning as I sat down to write. I’ve emptied it onto the page for all to see. Don’t judge me, it’s just how the mind works, you see. Now I think I need a coffee!
TippyTappy 