It’s back to school time, even if most of us are doing school from the comfort of our living rooms. For the purpose of this article we are going to step back to the Before Time and imagine that this September is a COVID-free September and the most we have to complain about is coffee. Especially since it’s something many people in the United States have in common, since in 2018, 64% of Americans drank coffee every day.
I know I notice coffee more when it’s back to school season. For me, it’s the time of going back to late nights and early mornings and days full of work and stress. However, I’ve never understood the coffee trend, all facets of it, maybe I would if it was something that I thought tasted good. I’ve tried to get on board, but I’ve found it hard to make coffee something enjoyable without loading it with sugars and additives, things that I probably would have been able to consume in a different drink anyways.
Coffee as Caffeine
Everyone talks bad about energy drinks and cigarettes and alcohol, but coffee for some reason escapes the addictive vices, probably because so many partake it’s become more commonplace. But is it really okay?
Everyone that I know that drinks coffee regularly, had told me on days that they don’t get a cup of joe that they have a splitting headache. Even though the American Psychiatric Association (APA) doesn’t classify caffeine as a substance use disorder, they do classify caffeine withdrawal as a clinical condition. This is because the surges of dopamine in the brain that come from caffeine don’t surge enough to unbalance the reward system in the brain like with other drugs.
A little history on how caffeine works in the brain: The structure of caffeine is very similar to a naturally present molecule in the brain called adenosine. This resemblance makes it so that caffeine can fit into the receptors for adenosine and block them off. When adenosine locks into these it makes a feeling of being tired, but when caffeine is there it prevents that from happening and makes you feel more alert and energetic, at least until the caffeine is broken down. In addition, when the adenosine receptors are blocked other natural stimulants are released like dopamine to increase alertness and remove that tired feeling. That’s why the caffeine in coffee works so well to make you less tired.
However, the more you drink regularly the more the brain’s chemistry and physical characteristics change. As the brain grows more adenosine receptors to make equilibrium (because caffeine blocks up the ones it has), the tolerance to coffee develops but also makes you reliant on it for the effect.
There are certain things that show that you have an addiction to it though, rather than just consuming something once in a while to wake you up. The Addiction Center outlines a few of these:
- A persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control use
- Continued use despite knowledge that there might be a problem being exacerbated by caffeine
- Withdrawal, or caffeine use to prevent withdrawal symptoms, and cravings
- Drinking more than was intended or developing a noticeable tolerance
- The need for caffeine makes you unable to fulfil your daily roles or requires you to spent a large amount of time on it
All this to say that not all people who drink coffee are addicted to it, but a reliance on a substance in order to function isn’t necessarily a good thing if you can’t live without it or if your day is ruined without it because you can’t find your groove. Sometimes other things that are a little more healthy can work just as well like exercise, an energy-rich snack, or even changing up your sleeping routine if possible.
Coffee as an Aesthetic
Some people enjoy coffee because it’s boujee. There are all kinds of different people who utilize coffee in their lives. Some people are more hipster-vibing who use coffee as a tool for their social media feeds, some are coffee enthusiasts who enjoy coffee like someone might enjoy creating art out of vegetables, and some people use coffee in a stressful job or it is their job (as a barista) to know a lot about coffee (which you learn a good bit of from drinking it. All of these things are valid.
Just like anything else that’s pretty though, coffee has its own aesthetic that sometimes is what people are looking for with their daily espresso. Hey something pretty to start your day can be a good thing though. Coffee is hip, it’s cool, it’s fun. It also is often a social thing. The action of going to get coffee with a friend (which is something that we are slowly being allowed to do again if desired) can be more of a pick-me up and an aesthetic than the actual cup of coffee, which I think is cool. I wonder if coffee for some people is an aesthetic excuse though, rather than something they actually enjoy the taste of.
A thought I had though was the amount of money that gets spent on coffee. Say you buy a cup of coffee four days out of the seven of every week for a year, that’s 208 days. Say each cup of coffee is $5, which I know is extreme so someone buying coffee probably spends less than this. In one year, you would have spent $1,040 just on coffee. That’s insane, and that’s only for four days a week. If you really like coffee it might be five or six days a week. That’s $1,300 and $1,560 respectively. While often you’re paying for a table at a coffee shop with your in-café purchase, and you’re getting the socialization of a barista, making your coffee at home might be a better way to save money. You could even learn how to do the cool art on your own (a quarantine craft maybe??).
Coffee Doesn’t Even Really Taste Good
The worst part about all this for me is that coffee doesn’t even taste that good. Now this is my opinion because I haven’t tried that hard to force my taste buds into it. It never made sense to me to force myself to consume something that didn’t taste good just to try and learn to like it. They do say your taste buds change every ten years anyways. Coffee is a very acquired taste, like other things like oysters and alcohol.
Fork and Plate says this about the taste of coffee: “Coffee lovers will do anything for their morning cup of joe, but some people can’t even stand the smell of coffee. It all depends on how desperate you are for that added caffeine kick throughout the day.” To me that doesn’t make sense, you can get a morning boost from lots of other things that don’t taste bad, but again that’s me. There are people who make a big deal about wine, wine connoisseurs, and someone might think that’s crazy because they hate the taste of wine. I guess it’s whatever you decide.
In the end though, we live in the COVID-era, not normal times and everyone needs something to make them happy. If that’s an expensive cup of coffee at an outdoor coffee shop with a friend you haven’t seen in 4 months, do whatever makes you happy. I can sit here and rant and complain, but really, if $1,040 a year is all it takes to make each day a little bit better, I guess it’s worth it.
