Public appearances, traditional media (newspaper, radio and television) and social networks are the places where society’s most famous people are born and develop.
At the same time, many of these celebrities can be seen sipping a good cup of coffee on the same channels.
Coffee has been the favorite drink of many historical figures and celebrities since the 15th century. Musicians, politicians and writers have relied on coffee as a daily pick-me-up or as a regular drink to fuel their creativity.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach, a German composer of the late 17th and 18th centuries, is famous for his extensive compositions and as the creator of the Brandenburg Concertos.
Bach also created a piece entitled “Coffee Cantata” based on the charm of coffee. The cantata is about a father trying to control his daughter who is addicted to coffee. The father suggests that his daughter should stop drinking coffee if she wants to find a man.
However, she decides that she will find a coffee-drinking husband. The cantata ends on a happy note as father, daughter and narrator sing the praises of coffee.
One theory is that Bach wrote the sonata as satire because women weren’t allowed to drink coffee. Another claims that Bach wrote the piece to poke fun at the public outrage against the advent of Viennese coffee houses, as coffee was seen as the devil’s drink or a vice .
Voltaire
His real name was François-Marie Arouet. He was a celebrated figure of the 18th century French Enlightenment and produced a wide range of works including poems, books, letters on history and philosophy.
He is considered one of the most addicted coffee drinkers in history. Despite repeated warnings from his doctor not to drink too much coffee, he drank 40-50 cups a day. He also paid exorbitant prices to import his luxury coffee.
According to historians, he spent about 18 hours a day writing or dictating his work to his secretaries.
He is said to have had his own coffee brew, which was a mixture of coffee and chocolate and was very similar to mocha.
Ludwig van Beethoven
The German pianist and composer is best known for his musical talent in Western music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His talent is recognized even more for being deaf, as his hearing began to deteriorate by the age of 28 and he was completely deaf by the age of 46.
Beethoven was also known for his precise coffee drinking. He required his coffee to be made with exactly 60 beans in each cup. He ground the beans himself and poured hot water over them to steep the ground beans.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement. He was an African-American activist and pastor who devoted his life to activism for 13 years beginning in 1955 and was assassinated on April 4, 1968. In 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for equality for black people.
He was also a regular coffee drinker and used coffee as a reference in one of his sermons to show how we are all connected. In a speech he stated:
“We are in eternal debt to men and women, known and unknown. We never finish breakfast without being dependent on more than half the world…at the table we drink coffee from a South American, tea from a Chinese or cocoa from a West African. Before we go to work, we owe more than half the world a debt.”
David Lynch
for his dark works like the TV series Twin Peaks and the films Eraserhead (1977) and The Elephant Man (1980), the American filmmaker and artist is a self-confessed coffee lover.
Lynch says he drinks four to seven cups of coffee with sugar every day and has also written about his coffee obsession. In a blog published in the Huffington Post, he says the following:
“I’m quite obsessed with coffee. I’ve been drinking coffee regularly since I was in ninth grade. There may not be an idea in every bean, but to me, coffee hides a lot of good ideas. Even bad coffee is better than none at all Coffee”.
His love of coffee isn’t just limited to enjoying it, he’s even created his own brand, David Lynch Signature Coffee.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio loves coffee so much that he created his own line called Lyon. His company, which works in partnership with “La Colombe Torrefaction “, focuses on producing sustainable coffee, with profits going to his family’s environmental fund.
Britney Spears
Britney Spears is one of the many celebrities photographed with a coffee by her side. But she has also created a coffee-based perfume. The Private Show fragrance was created with iced coffee in mind.
Louis XV
Also known as Louis the Beloved, the king ascended the throne at the age of 5 and held office for 59 years. Louis XV loved to drink coffee and serve it to his guests. He also grew his own coffee beans to ensure his guests had only the finest beans available for them to enjoy this exceptional beverage.
He also had special greenhouses on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles and paid particular attention to the way the coffee beans were grown and treated. The king picked the coffee beans himself to ensure only the highest quality beans were used.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and the youngest person to hold the office.
He is known for being the most coffee- drinking US President, drinking almost a gallon of coffee (nearly 4 liters) every day. By the time he became president, he was drinking nearly 40 cups of coffee a day. One of his sons once said that the President’s coffee mug was “more like a bathtub,” referring to the size of “Teddy’s” mug.
He usually started the day with coffee and hard-boiled eggs and then drank more and more as the day progressed. It is believed that as a child he became accustomed to drinking large amounts of coffee, which was given to help him manage his asthma.
Soren Kierkegaard
He is considered the father of existentialism and had a major impact on the development of 20th-century philosophy. He drank a lot of coffee and even brewed it in a special way.
According to historians, the Danish philosopher filled the sugar to the brim of the coffee cup and then added the hot coffee until the hot drink dissolved the sugar. Then he would drink the coffee quickly.
He drank about 50 cups of coffee a day. According to some sources, he personally took a long time to select the cup, while others indicate that he asked his secretary not only to choose a cup for each serving, but also to give him a valid philosophical reason for his choice.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The French Emperor was also a famous military general who played a pivotal role in the French Revolution, considered one of the greatest strategists of his time.
Bonaparte’s coffee ritual consisted of drinking two cups, one in the morning at breakfast and one after dinner. Over time, his love for coffee grew and he began drinking more coffee throughout the day , while cutting out wine and other alcoholic beverages.
On his deathbed he is said to have asked for coffee and was granted a few sips. During the subsequent autopsy, residues of coffee were found in his stomach.
Sentences like: “I’d rather suffer with coffee than be meaningless” are also attributed to him.
He is also credited with another lesser-known quote related to coffee: “Strong coffee, lots of strong coffee, is what wakes me up. Coffee gives me warmth, wakes me up, gives me an unusual strength and a… Pain that is still a great pleasure”.
Honore de Balzac
Honore de Balzac is a famous French novelist who is considered the father of realism in European literature.
Balzac drank more than 50 cups of coffee a day, which can be attributed to his evening work schedule. According to historical sources, people close to him said that he got up at 1 am every day and worked eight hours straight. At 9 a.m. he took a 1.5-hour nap and then returned to work until 4 a.m.
Marcel Proust
French writer Marcel Proust drank two cups of black coffee, hot milk and ate some croissants. This was his typical late-afternoon waking meal. After that he hardly ate anything.
Lyman Frank Baum
The author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a morning person. He had a hearty breakfast and also drank five cups of strong coffee with cream and sugar.
Benjamin Franklin
It is said that Franklin liked to go to coffee houses before it became a cliché. He would visit to hold political meetings, play chess, or just have a good chat.
Such was his love of coffee that before leaving for London he instructed his sister to send his mail to his favorite coffee house on Birchin Lane. Franklin was also involved in selling his own coffee beans.
Margaret Atwood
The Canadian poet has also translated her love of coffee into her own brand “Atwood Blend “. It is a “bird-friendly” coffee used to raise funds for Canada’s Pelee Island Bird Observatory.
In everyday life, Atwood drinks coffee with cream or steamed milk for breakfast. In her novel Cat’s Eye, she hints at her fondness for coffee: “I don’t even look at herbal teas, I go straight for the real, nasty coffee. A coffee stick in a cup. It cheers me up to know that I’ll soon going to be so tense”.
Gertrude Stein
The American writer has also transferred her love of coffee to literature. She wrote: “Coffee gives you time to think. It’s much more than a drink; it’s something that happens. Not like on the hip, but as an event, a place to be, but not as a place, but as a place within itself. It gives you time, not hours or minutes, but the opportunity to be yourself and have a second drink”.
Thomas Jefferson
The well-known author of the American Declaration of Independence called coffee “the favorite drink of the civilized world”. This quote also refers to his dislike of tea as a traditional drink in the UK.
Jerry Seinfeld
The American comedian and actor has his own web series called Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Also, in one of his books, he refers to coffee with the following quote: “I think the answer is that we all need a little help, and coffee is a little help for everything”.
David Letterman
The American comedian and presenter admitted his habit of drinking too much coffee in a 1994 interview with Esquire. If there weren’t coffee,” he said, “I wouldn’t have an identifiable personality. So that’s what we have here.”
He even had a chat with Jerry Seinfeld on his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Jackie Chan
In 2006, the popular actor planned to open a chain of coffee shops across Asia.
In a press release he proclaimed: “Coffee, like music and film, knows no borders. Coffee is also a language in itself. When you see my films, you think of Jackie Chan. When you drink coffee, I hope you also think of Jackie Chan “.
Ariana Grande
The popular singer’s fondness for coffee was made clear in a reply during an interview. When asked if she always has a tall drink at Starbucks, she replied, “Some days you need that in your life. I love soy milk lattes. Of course, I don’t drink dairy because I’m vegan, but they taste good to me like out of this world”.
Conclusion
The love of coffee is ingrained in many cultures and is a popular drink that can even be a staple of today’s celebrities. However, before coffee’s popularity spread across the world, many historical figures had a taste for coffee.
Although coffee preparations have changed over the years, coffee remains one of the most popular beverages around the world. Do you think the coffee flavor could have been inspired by the admiration or following of any of these celebrities?
We hope you enjoyed our list of the most famous coffee drinkers.
