Would not drink it if not for the caffeine.
The history of coffee is interesting to me. Although I don’t have a link, coffee was introduced to addict populations to facilitate trade. It’s funny that trading companies were key to the adoption of tea and coffee consumptions so they had a commodity that they could trade across the world. It’s kind of like oil in that the world needs lots of it and there’s money to be made in production and transport.
Or it could be that people just really like tea and coffee and the trading companies just met the unrealized need.
That's a bit of a stretch. You could say that about any popular products - smartphones, soap, ...
Some say the industrial revolution was facilitated by the switch of Western people from alcohol based drinks to caffeine based ones.
> Those who drank coffee instead of alcohol began the day alert and stimulated, rather than relaxed and mildly inebriated, and the quality and quantity of their work improved … Western Europe began to emerge from an alcoholic haze that had lasted for centuries.”
Optimal consumption of caffeine seems to be a decent-sized initial intake, then smaller doses over time to maintain (eg take a few more sips). There's no good way to do that with pills.
But it barely matters, it's not like I'd inject the whole cup into my veins and then see what happens.
If the caffeine was too high (within reasonable variations), you'd notice and slow down consumption before it mattered. If it's too low, you can just drink more. You can do it by feel, which is I think what just about everyone does.
Some of it might be placebo, but if so I'm not sure it changes anything really, since the goal is just to feel a certain way anyway.
I drink it because when I need caffeine, decaf has enough for me. When younger, I drank it to fit in.
With enough sugar and milk, it tastes great, but so would anything. I am sure high-end coffee is great, but it’s never worth the effort to me, so I don’t know about that.
It's not exactly the most delicious drink.