Working on Caffeine: This Much Coffee Can't Be Good For Us

Working in coffee means working on caffeine. This article explores what that means for our mental health, and the responsibility employers have to the people doing the drinking.

People ask me all the time how much coffee I drink. I guess they expect to be blown away by my macho caffeine credentials. They tend to be disappointed. Working with clients, training, or cupping, yeah, I consume loads, but it’s taken its toll. These days I drink less coffee through the day, and when I go on holiday I try to stay away from caffeine entirely. Honestly, I feel a lot better for it.

Changing my relationship with caffeine has helped. I sleep better, feel calmer, and generally feel more like myself. But does that experience actually stand up to the evidence? Is there any meaningful link between caffeine and mental health? More importantly, is there any sensible advice we can give to people working in coffee?

I dunno. Maybe it’s just me getting older, but sometimes I look around our industry and don’t see the happiest, healthiest people. So how can we look after ourselves - and each other a bit better?

Being addicted to anything has negative effects on a person's mental health. But society doesn’t view caffeine addiction as a problem.

Having to consume a stimulant in the morning before you can function normally can’t be good for your confidence or natural energy levels. “You don’t want to see me before my coffee in the morning” is considered acceptable, but what it means is “I’m not functioning properly without a stimulant”. That’s addiction, and I’ve felt it.

400mg of caffeine per day is enough to exacerbate anxiety substantially, and if you work in speciality coffee chances are you’re doubling it. A large batch brew without a good meal can make me feel weird… If me and my colleagues have a meeting after cupping, we get weird. When a barista dials in in the morning, then nails a flat white before lunch… they’ve probably consumed over 600mg already.

I have a fairly active lifestyle; I eat well, and I also have an embarrassing amount of experience with mind-altering substances. I’ve experienced symptoms of addiction with stimulants considered far more harmful than coffee. So why should I be so sensitive to caffeine?

Maybe I'm not. I think I’m just switched on to it. Maybe caffeine is stronger than we're comfortable admitting.

If a substance affects your sleep, appetite, mood and energy levels, it's a psychoactive drug that warrants respect.

All data on coffee consumption is vulnerable to socioeconomic bias. On top of that, there’s an incredibly difficult-to-measure range of health factors that dovetail neatly with regular coffee consumption… lemme explain.

If you’re drinking four coffees every day, it’s unlikely you’re sitting on your sofa for them. It’s more likely that you regularly drink coffee as part of an active routine - one on your way to work, one at your desk, one after lunch, one mid-afternoon. Coffee consumption tends to be either social or part of a motivational habit. An active routine is proven to have a positive impact on mental health.

Researchers try to offset these factors, but it’s incredibly difficult to separate coffee consumption from the lifestyle surrounding it.

So perhaps some of what we're attributing to coffee isn't actually about coffee at all.

My real concern is for the baristas; they get the short end of the stick in regards to all of the above.

A good barista in a shop with multiple offerings can easily consume more caffeine than the recommended daily intake during a shift. Tasting espressos while dialling in, checking filter brews, then grabbing a flat white before lunch soon adds up.

Now expand this sentiment to the wider industry. Some of us are on the road eating shit food and driving stupid distances. Others are up at night freaking out about the fact that barista staff are having breakdowns and not making it to shifts. Some of us are cupping, roasting, sweating, cupping, then shouting at Nick for putting another order on.

Basically what I'm saying is that consuming coffee to help with work motivation can be very healthy, but consuming coffee for work can quickly become very unhealthy.

A lot of the factors that make coffee consumption look healthy in population studies don't necessarily apply here. Coffee is often associated with routine, social interaction, stability and daily structure. Baristas are often consuming it while dealing with shift work, emotional labour, financial insecurity and a lack of control over their schedules. (8)

I mentioned in the open that my experiences with mental health and suicide don’t have much to do with coffee… but after a few hours of writing this, I’m not so sure.

My friend who recently passed wasn’t a barista, he was a DJ. In fact, when I think about it, a lot of my friends are either baristas, hospitality workers, health workers, musicians or DJs. Different industries with different pressures, but a whole heap in common when it comes to sleep disruption, sociability, and the absence of routine. Many rely on caffeine to get through the day, or alcohol to get through the night, and are constantly juggling money, uncertainty, and social expectations.

I’m not saying that caffeine causes depression, and I’m certainly not suggesting it causes suicide. Mental health is way more complicated than that.

We don't always see what these jobs take out of people.

The symptoms are easy to spot, sometimes they are impossible to forget. We probably all need to get better at recognising the factors we can control, and find a way to remunerate the sacrifices we expect our milk jockeys and disc jockeys to make.

Health workers, unfortunately, are a bit beyond the scope of this article.