The Great Coffee Con : Adenosine, Energy and Happiness

Why your morning coffee isn't making you happy

---

Our fascination with coffee - could this be the reason why our lives are so hollow?

Let’s talk about coffee—the brown nectar of productivity, worshipped more devoutly than most actual deities.

If aliens landed tomorrow and judged humanity based on Instagram, they’d assume coffee was a sacred liquid bestowed upon us by celestial beings to grant eternal happiness, energy, and—most importantly—filter-friendly photo opportunities.

But here’s the inconvenient truth: coffee doesn’t give you energy.

It’s not a miracle potion. It’s a cunning little trickster that sneaks into your brain, blocks adenosine receptors (those are the things that make you feel tired), and whispers, “You’re fine, mate. Keep going.” It’s the biological equivalent of being slapped in the face and told to get on with it.

There’s no actual energy being created. It’s all smoke, mirrors, and a dash of self-deception.

Yet somehow, we’ve decided that this chemically-induced chirpiness is happiness. Not contentment. Not joy. Not that deep, satisfying peace you feel on a quiet walk or during a proper nap. No, we’ve rebranded “temporarily not feeling exhausted” as “living our best life.”

And then we post about it. Oh, the posts.

A person sits in a café—dead-eyed, soul slightly leaking out through their pores—and they post a photo of a latte with a fern drawn in the foam. Caption: “Little moments of joy ☕✨”.

Let’s be honest. That post isn’t about joy. It’s a cry for help with a Valencia filter. It’s someone desperately trying to convince the world (and themselves) that they’re absolutely fine, thank you very much, because they’ve paid Rs. 200 for hot bean juice in a ceramic cup. If you need external validation to justify drinking coffee, you’re not celebrating—you’re coping.

We’ve turned happiness into a performance, and coffee into the warm-up act.

The truly worrying bit is that we’ve come to associate happiness with these artificial highs. Much like social media itself, coffee offers a short-term buzz, followed by an inevitable crash and an overwhelming sense that you should probably lie down. But instead of lying down, you drink more coffee. Then you post about it. It’s a cycle of madness, like putting your head in the oven and wondering why you're sweating.

Look, I’m not saying don’t drink coffee. I’m not a monster. I’m just suggesting that when your entire mood depends on blocking your brain’s natural signals with chemicals and then broadcasting it for internet applause, it might be worth asking if this is happiness—or just the appearance of it.

Real happiness isn’t loud. It doesn’t come with foam art. It doesn’t need hashtags. It’s found in balance, in rest, in meaningful relationships—and, dare I say, in the radical act of being content without needing to prove it.

So tomorrow morning, by all means, drink your coffee. Just don’t pretend it’s a personality.

---