Will we have to wake up and smell the coffee ... about coffee?

Jim Duffy loves his morning coffee but fears Britain has become a nation of addicts and that can’t be a good thing, right?

Here’s one to wake you up in the morning... Did you know that by 2023 the UK is predicted to have ten times more baristas then barristers? Nearly 200,000 baristas will be employed in the UK dishing up coffee for a nation that is now well and truly hooked.

When I open my eyes in the morning, my thoughts immediately turn to my favourite breakfast. It is a simple affair, but a routine and ritual that fuels me for the first part of the day. That breakfast is coffee via a cafetière and brown bread with pumpkin and chia seeds toasted. First, I boil the kettle and empty the hot water into, what I now know to be my perfect amount of coffee in a two-cup cafetière. I let it brew for about three minutes then pour it into a decent-sized mug. The toast is smeared with salty butter and breakfast is served.

The coffee certainly tastes good. Without it in the morning, I do not feel alive and ready to live the day. I fear I may be addicted. And this is true for millions of us in the UK and billions worldwide.

Coffee shops are growing like wildfire across the UK as we consume millions of cups of coffee a day. Four coffee shops opened each day in Britain in 2018 – up from three a day in 2017 – and 6,517 more are expected to open over the next four years. If that is not an addiction, then I do not know what is.

From mom-and-pop operations to big chains flooding our streets with coffee and beige items to accompany it, we are well and truly in the grip of this wonderful, bedazzling drug.

But, it is not just a UK phenomenon. Italy, Spain and, of course, the US are all avid coffee drinkers, guzzling mountains of it throughout the day. Coffee is a staple for

breakfast but also goes with a midmorning snack, lunch and is a typical after-dinner drink. Cafe con leches are served up from barista machines across Europe as we all need our caffeine hit to stay on the ball. And, of course, there is a whole menu as long as your arm of coffee variations that are available.

This is not a trend, but now part of our culture. But, what does it mean for a nation when its people are addicted to a legal drug?

Alcohol is a particularly nasty drug when abused. But, it is only abused by a small number of us, albeit the Generation X population appear to love a bottle of wine in the evening, almost every evening. But, alcohol is regulated with strict licensing laws. After all, the barristers have to make their living somehow so they have money to employ baristas.

Alcohol is addictive to some people. Whether one has an addictive personality or simply likes a drink, alcohol serves a purpose. But, as we all know, it has a more sinister side. Accident and Emergency departments are rammed every Friday and Saturday night with the aftermath of alcohol-related incidents. It leads to violence and all sorts of crime. Having seen this first hand, I know that.

Coffee is also addictive, but it will not lead us down a slippery slope, where we lose jobs, relationships and lives.

Cigarettes, as we know, are also addictive. Nicotine seems too be one of the hardest drugs to give up, once it has gotten its claws into you. Smoking causes lung cancer and the images on cigarette packets these days should put anyone off. But, alas, new smokers evolve each year, keeping the industry alive. This addiction is expensive and while attempts have been made to