1. One thing I learned this week... caffeine

Most days, as a way of gently easing myself into the morning (before braving my creaking inbox and never-ending to-do list), I like to curl up with a good book and a cup of coffee.?

It’s a tranquil, precious moment of calm that I’ve come to cherish, before diving into the technological clang and clatter that infuses my working life. Yet rarely have I stopped to think about the role that this habitual drink has played in the shaping of our societies.

So this week, as I embark upon this new column, I though I’d share some of the fascinating stories I’ve learned about this tiny little bean, and its voyage to becoming the favoured brew we rely upon so heavily today.

If you’ve followed me over at The Hive Podcast, you’ll know that nature connectedness, psychedelics and the power of ritual are themes that hold a lot of fascination for me. What you might not know, is that many (if not most) of us engage in mind-altering rituals every single day.

How, you might ask?

When we pour ourselves our morning cup of coffee, or tea.

While we like to think of caffeine as a harmless pick-me-up, to a regular drinker, its absence can lead to all manner of symptoms - from fatigue, lethargy and difficulty concentrating, to irritability, distress and even loss of confidence. In fact, withdrawal from caffeine is considered so serious, that it has even made it into the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as a recognised condition.?

So how is it that this Cofea plant and the tiny molecule it carries (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, known to us as caffeine) has so successfully circumnavigated the planet from its ancestral home of southern Arabia and East Africa, to the distant shores it occupies today??

It’s this captivating story (among others) that journalist and author, Michael Pollan, beautifully illustrates in his most recent book - This Is Your Mind On Plants.

From the studies showing that bees retain better memory of (and preference for) flowers with caffeinated nectar, to the enshrining of coffee breaks as an employee right in the workplace (due to their powerful impact on productivity), Pollan's book lifts the veil on the myriad ways in which caffeine has shaped the trajectory of modern life as we know it.

Perhaps most intriguingly, he writes about the rise of the Coffee House in Europe (the first was established in Venice 1629), and how, with their introduction to British society in Oxford in 1650, these became known as “civil places where, if you started an argument, you were expected to buy a round for everyone.”

Cheaper than the local pub, since it would only cost a penny for your coffee, these hotspots soon became known as “penny universities”, where you’d buy your cuppa and then stay for the gossip and information (whether in the exchange of papers, books and magazines, or scintillating conversation and news).?

In London, coffeehouses became so popular, that they eventually came to be distinguishable from one another “by the intellectual or professional interests of their patrons,” which, over time, gave them “institutional identities” (the London Stock Exchange arose from trades taking place at Jonathan’s Coffee-House, for example, whereas Lloyd’s eventually became the insurance brokerage familiar to us today).

These places attracted so much buzz and information that in 1709, one of the UK’s first ever magazines, The Tatler, was actually conceived (at the Grecian coffeehouse) as “an attempt to translate the sheer variety of London’s coffeehouse culture to the page.”

From lowly begins, within the span of a few short decades, this single plant almost single-handedly altered the trajectory of human history to earn its place as one of the most desirable commodities on the earth.

So the next time you’re scrolling through the news, trading your stocks or just enjoying your regular morning brew, spare a thought for this extraordinary little bean.

Its success may have shaped your life a whole lot more than you think.