Caffeine

Maybe I've not noticed it, but caffeine hasn't been the miracle drug everyone claims it to be for me. What I mean by that is, I'm not sure whether it actually has a genuine effect, or if I can drink a mug of coffee in the morning and feel exactly the same. To be honest, I've never actually thought about it either. 

Although, come to think of it...maybe caffeine does make me more alert. I've always considered myself as someone who's aware of what they're doing, doesn't drift through life on autopilot, maybe startled myself a few times by that. Perhaps caffeine is exactly why I feel that way, even if it won't drag you from a deep slumber almost immediately.  

That's probably because caffeine can do so much for you. The most-advertised benefit of caffeine is that it makes you more awake, but it can do way more than that. Caffeine belongs to eight different drug classes, making it, amongst others, a:

• stimulant (improves attention)
• nootropic (improves various cognitive functions, like attention)
• anxiogenic (increases anxiety)

Obviously I'm being a bit facetious with some of those - drinking tea won't just put you in a blinding panic - but it's interesting to consider nonetheless. However, I also don't want this to be another post where I talk about chemistry, so I'll leave the drug aspects there.

I reckon I've had caffeine for several years now. I guess as someone who's lived all their life in the UK, I'm bound to have picked up on drinking tea from a young age. Hell, as I'm writing this post, I have a cup of tea beside me. And okay, tea doesn't actually have that much caffeine - black tea typically has around 47mg worth - but make that several cups of tea a day, say maybe four at most, and it starts to add up. And yet I'm not sure all the cups of tea have actually boosted me in a way most claim caffeine actually does. 

Coffee came much later - I only started drinking regularly last year - but I've slowly grown to like it. That's probably because most coffee I drink is the kind you find in sachets in the supermarket, packed with enough flavours to keep you hooked. I mostly drink lattes, which contain about 130mg of caffeine, but even then I don't think I've seen a notable effect. Even then, I don't have any at night, because I enjoy sleeping, and I'm not planning to test that anytime soon, either. 

Before you ask, no, I don't drink energy drinks. Maybe I should...perhaps that's where I'll get all the supposed benefits. A 250ml can of Red Bull has about 80mg of caffeine in it, which is a decent amount, but it's nothing compared to Gen Z's favourite drink, the White Monster. No, really, what the hell is a White Monster and why do I see it so often when I'm scrolling online? Apparently, it has 150mg of caffeine in one can, which sounds insane, right? 

So I guess that makes me a caffeine fan, unable to go a few days without at least one warm mugful. Like most people, I suppose, if south London suburbs are anything to go by - you can pass through a high street and find loads of independent outlets cropping up, with lengthy queues of people desperate for a frothy drink. And to be honest, I don't blame them - coffee's great, I love it, even if it's not that potent for me. I'm more annoyed by the cost, because £4 for a latte is ridiculous, and that means whenever I'm tired, I lose more money than I'd want. I know that's a petty complaint, but my student loan's not the largest.

Sure, this whole post is an admission of how much I love caffeine, not much more than that, and you might disagree. But I can't imagine a world without it, and never could.