Did Voltaire's Coffee Drinking Fuel His Prolific Nature?
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Was Voltaire's prolific coffee drinking habit to the likes of which the world has never seen since or before? You might think you're hooked on java because you down a half dozen cups a day, but Voltaire has you beat. Conservative estimates peg the 18th century thinker's coffee consumption at 30 cups a day, but some experts peg his daily total a whole lot higher. Most experts believe Voltaire averaged around 50 cups of coffee a day, while some researchers find evidence the influential writer consumed up to 80 cups of coffee a day! Wow.
The Café, Home to Coffee and Radical Political Thinking
Voltaire's writings on civil liberties and political equality made a bigger impact on the history of Western Civilization than just about any other body of publications produced in the last 300 years, and Voltaire produced the vast majority of his writing in the cafés of 18th century Paris. While we like to think Voltaire was primarily fueled by his passionate idealism, we can't rule out the strong buzz he maintained all day drinking cup after cup of coffee.
In fact, Voltaire mixed all of his coffee with a little bit of chocolate, producing a double-dose of chemically assisted stimulation to keep his quill scratching away all day, every day. Is it any wonder that a man practically living in cafés produced over 2,000 publications over the course of his life?
Voltaire's café of choice was Le Procope, which still stands today as Paris' longest running coffee house. Other famous faces known for frequenting Le Procope during Voltaire's day included Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Le Procope's constantly caffeinated patrons swapped philosophical ideas and offered fertile ground for the revolutionary political ideas which swept through the Americas and Europe through the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Voltaire's Take on Coffee
While Voltaire clearly benefited from a naturally nimble mind, further developed through an exceptional education, it's undeniable the effect an average of 50 cups of coffee a day would have on the famous philosopher's ability to while away the days in a constant, concentrated flurry of writing and debate. I've written about Voltaire and coffee before.
In fact Voltaire, among other 18th century intellectual powerhouses, directly credited the miracle drink of coffee with producing enhanced mental capabilities for its drinkers. Coffee was considered an exotic medicine which produced seemingly magical effects, further emphasized by the Turkish garb worn by Le Procope's waiters.
We may never know the full extent of Voltaire's coffee fixation or the impact it had on his body of work, but we can say with certainty it was more than passionate idealism which drove his pen. Author Notes: They don't call me Midnight Jim for no reason. I really drink coffee anytime of the day and can't remember the last time I haven't been wide awake at midnight. These days, I'm a professional copywriter and web publicist with Drinkware Company. If you’d like to print drinkware for your company or special event, be sure to consider our coffee mugs and travel tumblers when you need quality printing for your next business promotion.
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