I'm 70. The England in which I grew up had tea breaks in the workplace. We were proud of our tea drinking. Americans had coffee, we had tea. There were songs on the radio about the joys of tea drinking. Tea was a prominent part of our national culture. I miss that sense of Britishness which we used to have. That feeling of being united by the jolly cup of tea. We used to call it "the cup that cheers", "the British cuppa", "Rosy Lee". Now I feel that the country has become nothing more than an extension of America. Coffee makes people jittery and nervous. Tea gives a gentle lift to the sensibilities. I remember when MacDonald's hamburger restaurants came to Britain in 1979. I went into the one in Wimbledon and ordered a take-away cup of tea. I was shocked that they didn't have any. They had opened a restaurant in England and they didn't have tea. They only had coffee, cola or "root beer". We had been invaded by people who did not understand us. I will never surrender, I will fight them on the beaches. I'll continue as I am: not only teetotal but also tea total.
I couldn’t 😬 I mean, I guess I have three times when I gave it up during my pregnancies, but that was many years back. It’s one of my simple pleasures and I am sure I write better for it—the caffeine and the ritual itself. ☕️
Interesting, isn't it, how 'drugs' that are mainstream, such as caffeine and alcohol are so widely accepted and tolerated - even part of the writing culture. Jack Kerouac, as Rob True mentioned in the comments, wrote whilst taking drugs. Kerouac wrote 'On The Road' whilst high in three weeks. But then he spent six sober years editing it. Crime writer, Peter James, writes whilst drinking one dry martini every day. Michael Pollan, when writing, How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics', gave up coffee for 3 months, but then went back to it because he said he was a much nicer person when he was caffeinated! I'll be interested so see how your coffee-free writing goes! I'm too addicted to try it!
I was able to concentrate better and wrote longer and more productively when I smoked (ordinary tobacco cigarettes). I smoked until an idea came alive to me and then I lit one cigarette after another but never got beyond the first puff. I became engaged in my writing and the cigarettes, one after another, just burned out in the ashtray beside me. Even now, thought I haven't smoked in more than 20 years, I still smoke in my dreams and I still have fond memories of the best part of smoking. That first puff. And there it is.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Stephen King, and others have written on Cocaine, Hubert Selby Jr, William S Burroughs on Heroin, Coleridge, De Quincey on Opium, Jack Kerouac and Philip K Dick on Amphetamines, and Hunter S Thomson on all sorts.
I regularly write on Heroin (sometimes Methadone) and occasionally on Cannabis (eaten), I also write on Valium, Alcohol. I have used Coffee occasionally, but more often, I use tea. I use tea a lot, with sugar. I'm often on antipsychotic medication, Benzos, etc.
I have recently started to use Blue Lotus Flower, smoked and as a tea. I sometimes smoke it pure, but also mix it with Cannabis at times. I never use Tobacco, and smoke Weed or Hashish pure, or mixed with Blue Lotus Flower. If I smoke Weed or Hashish neat, I can't write well on large doses, so I either use low doses, or wait till the effects wear off a bit. On Heroin, I can write very well, except that I occasionally nod out into a dream reality, which, while it interrupts my writing, can also give fantastic visions to use as inspiration for writing.
My main source of delirium while writing though, is Schizophrenic delirium, a natural state for me, a hallucinatory delirium, which can be good and bad for my writing, beyond any drugs I use. It can provide incredible material, but can also cause cognitive malfunction, avolition (no activity or motivation), so it can interrupt my ability to write at all. I have no control or choice in this delirium and the only way I can change it is by using drugs like antipsychotics, which often shut down my creativity.
But I rarely use Coffee. I suppose tea has enough Caffeine for my needs.
I once flounced from an online writer’s group of people I really admire - then had to slink back in when I realised my ill humour was founded on inadvertent decaff drinking in a holiday let.
Left the apartment, drank real coffee - order restored.
I'm 70. The England in which I grew up had tea breaks in the workplace. We were proud of our tea drinking. Americans had coffee, we had tea. There were songs on the radio about the joys of tea drinking. Tea was a prominent part of our national culture. I miss that sense of Britishness which we used to have. That feeling of being united by the jolly cup of tea. We used to call it "the cup that cheers", "the British cuppa", "Rosy Lee". Now I feel that the country has become nothing more than an extension of America. Coffee makes people jittery and nervous. Tea gives a gentle lift to the sensibilities. I remember when MacDonald's hamburger restaurants came to Britain in 1979. I went into the one in Wimbledon and ordered a take-away cup of tea. I was shocked that they didn't have any. They had opened a restaurant in England and they didn't have tea. They only had coffee, cola or "root beer". We had been invaded by people who did not understand us. I will never surrender, I will fight them on the beaches. I'll continue as I am: not only teetotal but also tea total.
I couldn’t 😬 I mean, I guess I have three times when I gave it up during my pregnancies, but that was many years back. It’s one of my simple pleasures and I am sure I write better for it—the caffeine and the ritual itself. ☕️
Interesting, isn't it, how 'drugs' that are mainstream, such as caffeine and alcohol are so widely accepted and tolerated - even part of the writing culture. Jack Kerouac, as Rob True mentioned in the comments, wrote whilst taking drugs. Kerouac wrote 'On The Road' whilst high in three weeks. But then he spent six sober years editing it. Crime writer, Peter James, writes whilst drinking one dry martini every day. Michael Pollan, when writing, How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics', gave up coffee for 3 months, but then went back to it because he said he was a much nicer person when he was caffeinated! I'll be interested so see how your coffee-free writing goes! I'm too addicted to try it!
I was able to concentrate better and wrote longer and more productively when I smoked (ordinary tobacco cigarettes). I smoked until an idea came alive to me and then I lit one cigarette after another but never got beyond the first puff. I became engaged in my writing and the cigarettes, one after another, just burned out in the ashtray beside me. Even now, thought I haven't smoked in more than 20 years, I still smoke in my dreams and I still have fond memories of the best part of smoking. That first puff. And there it is.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Stephen King, and others have written on Cocaine, Hubert Selby Jr, William S Burroughs on Heroin, Coleridge, De Quincey on Opium, Jack Kerouac and Philip K Dick on Amphetamines, and Hunter S Thomson on all sorts.
I regularly write on Heroin (sometimes Methadone) and occasionally on Cannabis (eaten), I also write on Valium, Alcohol. I have used Coffee occasionally, but more often, I use tea. I use tea a lot, with sugar. I'm often on antipsychotic medication, Benzos, etc.
I have recently started to use Blue Lotus Flower, smoked and as a tea. I sometimes smoke it pure, but also mix it with Cannabis at times. I never use Tobacco, and smoke Weed or Hashish pure, or mixed with Blue Lotus Flower. If I smoke Weed or Hashish neat, I can't write well on large doses, so I either use low doses, or wait till the effects wear off a bit. On Heroin, I can write very well, except that I occasionally nod out into a dream reality, which, while it interrupts my writing, can also give fantastic visions to use as inspiration for writing.
My main source of delirium while writing though, is Schizophrenic delirium, a natural state for me, a hallucinatory delirium, which can be good and bad for my writing, beyond any drugs I use. It can provide incredible material, but can also cause cognitive malfunction, avolition (no activity or motivation), so it can interrupt my ability to write at all. I have no control or choice in this delirium and the only way I can change it is by using drugs like antipsychotics, which often shut down my creativity.
But I rarely use Coffee. I suppose tea has enough Caffeine for my needs.
Just watch out for unexpected side effects.
I once flounced from an online writer’s group of people I really admire - then had to slink back in when I realised my ill humour was founded on inadvertent decaff drinking in a holiday let.
Left the apartment, drank real coffee - order restored.