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.
Jump to:
Artists and creators obsessed with coffee
Coffee’s importance to creative artists has taken on almost mythological status, thanks in part to several stories of creative coffee obsessives. Beethoven famously insisted on 60 coffee beans per cup, forensically counting them every morning. Haruki Murakami similarly insists that coffee rituals are an important part of his creative process. They often appear in his novels.
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.
The importance of cafés for coffee and creativity
Just as important as coffee’s energising effect, café culture has been scientifically proven to enhance focus for many people. Kept at a certain level (70 decibels), background noise can enhance creative thinking, making cosy coffee shops ideal working spaces. Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, J K Rowling and Ernest Hemingway all famously relied on cafés to help them focus on their work.
Dependence on background noise has fuelled the lo-fi music movement in the post-COVID era. For those who can’t make it to a local café, a cornucopia of YouTube channels devoted to hours of café ambience or music kept at a specific tempo has become central to many creative working lives.
The effect of coffee on creativity
Coffee’s central ingredient, caffeine, blocks adenosine, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of exhaustion. It thus increases dopamine and norepinephrine, leading to improved focus, alertness and mood. Importantly, caffeine is linked specifically to convergent thinking, allowing for refining and applying ideas. There is less evidence to suggest it helps with divergent thinking, responsible for brainstorming new ideas.
Importantly, many artists have historically credited sleep and rest as vital to creative life. Caffeine doesn’t eliminate the need for sleep, but delays it. Too much caffeine is linked with anxiety, which can reverse creativity and paralyse creative impulses.
Recommended coffee use for creatives
Science generally recommends up to 400 milligrams of caffeine daily, which can be as many as four or five cups of coffee daily. Drinking coffee immediately upon waking is likely to lessen its impact over time, and it’s generally advised to have your first cup an hour or more after waking. Caffeine has a half-life of up to six hours, so cutting off six to eight hours before bed is ideal.
Coffee drinkers of old did not have to navigate a surplus of sugary additives that now populate many coffee drinks. Caffeine plus sugar heightens energy and focus, but it will likely trigger a blood glucose crash as quickly as an hour later. The body will overcompensate by releasing stress hormones, which can lead to feelings of irritability or anxiety. Replacing sugar with natural sweeteners such as cinnamon, vanilla or honey is recommended.
If you’re sensitive or addicted, you may want to try the quickly expanding market of coffee alternatives. These include green tea, matcha, yerba mate and mushroom coffee, all with caffeine. Green tea and its derivatives have L-theanine, an amino acid that works with caffeine to achieve a smoother, sustained alertness without an anxiety spike. In his later years, Albert Einstein, who slept more than 10 hours a day, developed a habit of drinking green tea.
Coffee has fuelled many of the greatest artists in history, and it can be a powerful tool for anyone seeking focus and energy. When harnessed with healthy habits, it can be an essential part of daily life.
