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For those of us who simply cannot face the day without several cups of espresso, Americano, or filter coffee there is some encouraging news. New research from Warwick and Bielefeld Universities suggests not only that coffee can boost concentration, but might make us happier.

The research tracked the mood of more than 200 young adults for up to four weeks reporting on how they were feeling across the day. Apparently, caffeine consumption is linked to an immediate increase in positive emotions like enthusiasm and happiness most especially first thing after waking.

Interest in what makes humans happy is clearly ever popular, and this study only adds fresh evidence to claims that what we consume has an impact on our moods and emotions. While I doubt the Warwick and Bielefeld research is interested in quick solutions to the desire for happiness in a busy, tiring world, it is now tempting to add coffee to my list of short-cuts to an improved mood.

Understanding happiness in terms of our emotional or psychological state of wellbeing is a relatively recent development, however. Aristotle suggested that ‘Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.’ For him, it is a chosen activity in which we seek to cultivate virtuous habits like truthfulness and courageousness rather than achieve a blissful state of mind. If that sounds a little po-faced, Aristotle approved of pleasure in moderation. A drink like coffee, for example, can be part of a happy life when not taken to excess.

For a Christian like St Thomas Aquinas, complete happiness is not possible in this life. Perfect happiness can only be found when a person meets God face to face in heaven. For Aquinas, while we live on earth, happiness is partial and contingent; we can grow in it by developing virtues like love and hope, but our happiness on earth can never be complete whilst we are separated from meeting the God who is Love.

As annual publications like the World Happiness Report reveal, interest in happiness is something of a modern obsession. I certainly want to be happy, and I do not want to dismiss anything that can aid its growth. I welcome any good research which suggests that coffee has a part in fostering happiness. I adore its freshly brewed aroma, and the first cup of the day gives me a cheering hit.

Nonetheless, like Aristotle and Aquinas, I cannot equate happiness with a state of mind, fuelled by coffee or not. Happiness, I sense, is a choice, requiring a repeated commitment to act for the good whilst daring, like Aquinas, to let go of the belief that it is fully achievable in this life.

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