The importance of coffee to countless artists’ routines throughout history is undeniable and historic. J S Bach composed a comedic opera about coffee addiction, the Coffee Cantata, which depicts a woman refusing to give up the drink. Artists’ celebration of coffee is near ubiquitous, but its specific role in brain function needs to be correctly understood. Too much coffee triggers anxiety, a troubling aspect of many creative lives.
T S Eliot wrote about coffee in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”). Bob Dylan wrote an entire song about it in ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ on his seminal 1976 album Desire. David Lynch (unsurprisingly) would often drink bottomless cups during brainstorming sessions for his surreal films. Voltaire allegedly drank up to 50 cups a day. Balzac was so obsessed that he ate directly from the coffee grounds.
