Benjamin Obler has collected ten scenes or lines which include coffee, like this one from Muriel Spark’s The Comforters.

“Tell me about the voices,” he said. “I heard nothing myself. From what direction did they come?”

“Over there, beside the fireplace,” she answered.

“Would you like some tea? I think there is tea.”

“Oh, coffee. Could I have some coffee? I don’t think I’m likely to sleep.”

Isn’t it terribly English of the Baron to offer tea to Caroline, who’s just fled a religious centre (not a nunnery, not a retreat), has separated from her husband, and is now suffering delusions – hearing the clacks of typewriter keys and a voice narrating her very thoughts! Take comfort in tea. It is in character of the Baron to think so: he’s a man of affected intellectualism, calling the sections of his bookshop “Histor-ay, Biograph-ay, Theolog-ay,” and addressing everyone as “my dear”. But only coffee is up for the job. This is coffee as antidote to madness. What else to clear her head in this fix? They’ve already had Curaçao – that didn’t help. Coffee as realignment. Coffee to reconnect with your own synapses, to reset the senses and solidify reality in the forefront.