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Get Creative with Coffee

It has been established that the cup that cheers boosts productivity, stimulates the mind - and makes for more interesting conversation

Studies abound - and many coffee lovers would agree - that drinking coffee is a sure way of keeping your creative juices flowing: a highly useful trick, especially in times of looming work deadlines and if you are stuck with nothing but zero ideas. Many coffee aficionados swear by the positive effects of caffeine on their creative thinking process, claiming that a sip clears their mind to give wider room for more inspiration.
One coffee drinker attests that a fresh cup of latte or espresso makes one more focused, confident and driven. It stimulates the brain, helping turn what used to be an abstract idea into a more concrete one. Some of the world's most famous people are said to have gravitated towards caffeine to aid them in their creative cognition. We have French writer Simone de Beauvoir, German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven, Austrian conductor and symphony composer Gustav Mahler, and French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac, who penned 91 novels, essays and stories in his Human Comedy series 1.
Others, meanwhile, affirm that a dose of caffeine pushes them to become even more productive at work. Take, for instance, in the US, where a blog entry citing a CareerBuilder employee survey reveals that nearly half of the American workforce agrees that they are less productive at work if they go without coffee for a day.
It is no surprise then that coffee is a common fixture during meetings and brainstorming sessions, while coffee shops are go-to places for professionals who need to focus on their tasks. Aside from the beverages, a café's ambient sounds seem to give creativity and productivity that much-needed boost. Discussions over coffee have also been observed to be more casual and freewheeling, thus resulting in a more fruitful exchange of creative ideas done in a loose and relaxed environment.

From a scientific perspective, however, does consuming caffeine really increase creativity and productivity? The basic science behind it goes something like this: caffeine, contrary to popular belief, does not act as a stimulant, but, in fact, works by preventing you from falling asleep. Once you drink coffee, caffeine blocks certain receptors in the brain which would otherwise be occupied by adenosine, a chemical that promotes sleep.
Adenosine alerts the brain when an individual is running out of energy, forcing it to recharge by instructing it to take a break. By blocking the adenosine receptors, caffeine effectively tricks the body into thinking that it is still has enough energy to keep going. This makes it impossible for the brain to slow down, enabling other chemicals that stimulate neuron activities to work overtime.
It gives you more time to concentrate on the work at hand, perceive the world in new ways, and make connections among pre-existing ideas that seem unrelated at first. A nutrition study notes that high brain energy levels result in enhanced memory, increased general cognitive function, and improved ability to solve reason-based problems. A coffee-fuelled brain is also found to be effective in grasping and retaining information faster.
Coffee consumption, however, must be done in moderation. For the European Food Information Council, moderation hovers about 300 milligrams (mg) a day for adults. Heavy daily caffeine use, on the other hand, has been estimated at more than 500-600mg daily.
No one can discount the many benefits that coffee brings regardless of other studies that say otherwise. For most coffee lovers out there, a daily intake of caffeine is always equal to improved creative cognition and enhanced work performance. If so, and their deliverables are met, do we really need to further contest?
(The writer is co-owner of and roastmaster at Specialty Batch Coffee, is a licensed instructor at the Specialty Coffee Association of America, and the Coffee Education and Championships Coordinator for the Organisers of the International Coffee and Tea Festival. Organised by the International Conferences & Exhibitions. The festival is the only dedicated trade event for the specialty coffee and tea industry in the Arab World.)