Caffeine: as Important as Oil

The second most important liquid on which our society runs.

Marjan Krebelj
10 min readSep 24, 2024

My previous article was about quitting caffeine, yet here I am, writing these lines after a cup of mild green tea. I am relapsing and let me explain why.

Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash

You can never know what a drug does to you, until you quit it,” is a quote attributed to Roland Griffiths (by Michael Pollan) on caffeine. True, but quitting it will give you only half the answer. The second half will come once you retake it.

Last Friday I brewed myself a normal cup of Earl Grey, what used to be my standard daily dose. This was my first intake after more than three months of abstinence and boy did I feel it. It was almost psychedelic in the sense that I felt like I was entering a parallel reality that looked the same but felt very different from a normal one. It was another state of consciousness entirely.

A state of consciousness that is normal for most people and which is required for society to function as it does.

Almost immediately after taking that cup, a stream of words rushed through my mind and I could envision entire articles and movie scripts. The inner voice in my head became much louder and began to dominate my psyche. On top of that, I felt an urge to work.

--

--

Marjan Krebelj

Once an architect, now a freelance photographer/filmmaker with passion for words.