Creative partners in the arts

By Chit Lijauco
Contributor

HALF the world’s population cannot start the day right without a hot cup of coffee, the brew being the most valuable commodity after oil. And they’re in good company too, as history will attest.

Voltaire, French Enlightenment essayist and philosopher, was renowned not only for his works but also for his appetite for coffee and was said to have consumed up to 50 cups a day.

The composer of sacred liturgical music, Johann Sebastian Bach, composed a cantata in honor of coffee, which was enjoying tremendous popularity in Europe in the 1700s. Titled Coffee Cantata, it is about a girl whose father will not allow her to marry unless she gives up her addiction to the black brew. And the French king, Louis XV, grew his own coffee, handpicked the beans, roasted and ground them.

Fast-forward to the present and on the local front, breakfast coffee is also the staple for many, and those who excel in the creative field have found the perfect cup in Nescafé.

The coffee brand has been around since the 1940s when the GI forces brought the coffee in tin cans as part of their ration. From that time on, Filipinos, like celebrated artist Ramon Orlina and master photographer George Tapan, have found Nescafé as a perfect companion.

Is there something about coffee that causes those artistic juices to flow? These artists may not have the answer, but they sure are keeping Nescafé as their constant creative companion.

Famous glass sculptor Ramon Orlina takes two cups of coffee in the morning. “Drinking coffee and reading the papers perk me up,” he says. “And coffee helps because the concentration of my work is in the morning.”

Researches indeed show that the caffeine in coffee causes a clearer flow of ideas and enables sustained intellectual activity. Likewise, it has been found to awaken the senses and enhance motor activity. Thus, it is not surprising that Orlina’s most creative moments are in the morning.

Orlina, whose works were featured in a group exhibit in Singapore for last year’s Independence Day celebrations of the Filipino community there, says that apart from his two breakfast cups, he takes another cup after lunch. He likes his coffee black.

Again, studies show that after a full work activity in the morning, another cup by lunchtime is guaranteed to perk you up and give you the energy to continue working a few hours more.

Photographer George Tapan also wakes up to coffee then breakfast.

“In the morning, it is a must,” he says. He prefers drinking his coffee from a mug instead of a cup and takes it with a little sugar. He takes it again after lunch and in the afternoon, and consumes an average of four cups a day. Busy with many projects that keep him up working late or that take him out of town quite often, Tapan hangs on to his coffee for familiar company.

Great creative minds share a penchant for coffee; but that being the case before and now can hardly be a coincidence.

The French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac tried to explain that the beverage produced “a sort of restless energy” in him. What he felt was perhaps akin to what caused the goats in ancient Ethiopia to frolic like crazy after grazing on wild coffee beans, leading to their goatherd discovering the first coffee and starting this love affair that has lasted for centuries.

Or it could be more immediate: the irresistible aroma that seduces the sense of smell or the way the hot strong liquid creates a warm path as it flows down.

The secret of coffee’s attraction will continue to baffle or to enamor. Paeans will be sung, verses will be written, songs will be composed in praise of it. And for sure, these artists who will be doing so will be holding a mug of their favorite brew.

(Chit Lijauco is the managing editor of Philippine Tatler.)