In which I ramble about Coffee…

And its effect on the human civilisation.

Note that the keyword here is “Ramble.” I have no expertise in this field except my own musings and thoughts.

Now that that’s out of the way, I have to ask: Have you ever thought of what would happen to the human civilisation if it had not discovered coffee? Think about it.

This one beverage, together with its “calming” counterpart, tea, have been a staple of many a daily brew for billions around the world. In the East, tea is considered an art form. In the West, tea is revered and coffee indulged.

Without sugar and milk, both are generally bitter, with coffee being the more bitter of the two. Among the Chinese, there is a saying that a tea is of better quality the more bitter it is. This makes sense when you consider that the Chinese believe the more bitter the medicine, the better.

As for coffee, if the old stories are to be believed, it was discovered by a goatherd who noticed his goats were more energetic after eating the fruits of a certain plant. He tried it for himself and it was then that humanity discovered coffee.

I wonder, was that really a good thing? Did it really happen that way or are we missing certain information, because coffee in its bean state is quite bitter, and humankind evolved from our not eating bitter things because they were often poison.

This of course, would explain why some people cannot stand the taste of coffee even if they love the aroma.

Coffee and tea have been said to increase alertness and increase productivity because they give us an energy boost and make us more aware. Getting high or hyper after taking a cup of coffee is not unusual. The more extreme ones are often very fidgety and high-strung after just a cuppa.

But is all this energy really good for us?

In this day and age, we need the energy boost coffee gives us because it keeps us more alert and enables us to do more things with the time that’s been given to us. However, we keep finding more things to fill up that extra time because we don’t want to waste it, to the point that many become pointless and trapped in this never-ending cycle.

Do I blame coffee?

Certainly, though it’s not the only thing to blame. But it’s the idea that we can, and should do more things with the extra energy and time we now have that we keep filling it with meaningless activities and objects. There’s no longer a “let’s just relax for the sake of relaxing” anymore. No real downtime.

Coffee isn’t the cause, but it’s a contributor. Yet for coffee addicts like me, it’s essential because it gives us the wakeup call and boost we need to get started in the morning. So what can we do?

Find a space/time each day, EVERY DAY, without fail, to just simply BE. Relax, shut out distractions, and just let yourself BE. Be inactive, and let your brain process/analyse what’s happen.

You’ll be surprised.