If you’re partial to a cup of coffee minus the caffeine, then next time you’ve boiled the kettle you should raise your mug in memory of Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge.

Runge was a 19th-Century German chemist who had come to the attention of Goethe – the poet and statesman who was also a keen science scholar. Goethe had heard of Runge’s groundbreaking investigation into belladonna, otherwise known as nightshade. Runge had isolated the compound that caused eye muscles to dilate if it was ingested.

Goethe had been recently given a case of coffee beans, and so he asked Runge to perform an analysis of the beans. What Runge discovered is arguably the most consumed drug in the modern world – caffeine.

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Caffeine is present in other drinks and foods – notably tea and chocolate – but it is inextricably linked with coffee. It’s a stimulant and an appetite suppressant, a dependable pick-me-up for students cramming for exams, workers on nightshifts and anyone else needing a wake-up.

But caffeine has a darker side, too.

It can cause anxiety, insomnia, diarrhoea, excess sweating, racing heartbeat and muscle tremors. For many people, the pleasure of drinking coffee is outweighed by the caffeine-fuelled negatives.