Professorial Coffee as the Keystone of Academic Culture

Why do professors drink so much coffee? And why is there such a cult-like passion for coffee in university settings? For North American academics, coffee is the essential component of academic culture. The passion for this specific hot bean juice often borders on unhealthy and compulsive. Coffee is like oxygen for researchers and scholars.

For many professors, the habit began in graduate school. The stereotype of graduate students is that they have a lot of keys, seem constantly sleep-deprived, and cling to a coffee mug that may be their only valued possession. Coffee-fueled all-nighters in the lab are among the most enduring grad-school rituals. At times, the stress and pressure made us question whether we would survive graduate school. But at some level, we enjoyed these experiences. Or at least we enjoyed the coffee. Thus, the transition from a lovely breakfast beverage to a way of life was underway.

The Basic Explanations

There are basic and simple explanations for widespread professorial coffee consumption. About 60% of North American workers regularly drink coffee. Professors are workers, so they drink a lot of coffee, too. Coffee consumption is valued by many others who are not academics.

Coffee is a socially acceptable caffeine delivery system. Professors tend to not be terrific at sleep and work-life balance, so coffee papers over the lifestyle shortcomings. Or, at the least, coffee is an energy boost during mid-afternoon energy slumps.

Professorial life requires some level of solitude for reading, thinking, and writing. Often this solitude is intense and isolating. There is a real-life, common, social activity surrounding coffee. “Coffee with a professor” is a common university-sponsored activity to encourage student and professor discussions outside of the classroom. Many departments have faculty lounges, where the communal coffee urn is the center of social life in the unit. Coffee is one of the few social experiences of much of academic life.

Coffee is such a keystone that many scholars do much of their thinking and writing in coffee houses. The number of times I have seen Starbucks thanked in dissertation acknowledgments is second only to moms. Coffee houses supply endless caffeine, free Wi-Fi, and enough social noise and ambiance to minimize the isolation of academic work.

Finally, academics write. Truck drivers, medical residents, and police officers may consume even more coffee than academics. But professors seem to write, obsess, consider, analyze, and glorify their coffee consumption more than any other profession.

The Magic

Coffee and chocolate are the magic ingredients of North American academia (and maybe scotch, in some circles). We instill in them magic healing properties to cure everything that ails. Academics love posting links to studies demonstrating that coffee and chocolate are good for physical health, while ignoring all negative or null results. To the degree that scientific skepticism exists, it exits academics in this circumstance. We like the magic and coffee’s importance to our professional culture. And we kind of like our cultural touchstones to be magical.

Most academics run on rituals and habits. As much as I enjoy coffee, I certainly drink far more green tea and water in the course of the day. But coffee is the ritual that starts the day. Heating water, grinding beans, blooming the grounds, watching the brew, pressing down the grounds, favorite mug, the aroma, warming hands, sweet first sip, the bitter round taste, and the soul-warming sensations. Then the day is truly ready to begin. Academics hope that good ideas will come every day. And coffee is a ritualized call to the muses, Minerva, or whichever deity from one derives inspiration.

Conclusion

Coffee may not be so special. In some parts of the world, tea is the academic’s drink of choice. Cocoa, soda, water, or other beverages may serve exactly the same purpose as the beloved coffee bean. But for those of us who enjoy our coffee, it is an indispensable source of comfort, camaraderie, warmth, inspiration, energy, and ritual. Coffee is good.