Direct Answer: The answer is François-Marie Arouet, who published under the pen name of Voltaire.
The notorious French Enlightenment p*rnographer and philosopher reportedly drank between 40 and 72 cups of coffee — per day. Even his doctor told him that it would be a slow poison if he continued to indulge in his favorite beverage: Voltaire supposedly replied, “It is so, but I believe it must be very slow, for I have been drinking it these sixty-five years. He lived to be 83 years old.
But in order to fully comprehend how this just happened and what it means for you, we need to do this piece by the individual interests which brought you here.
For Lovers of Coffee: The ”Mocha” Note
It’s tempting to wonder what it looks like for someone to physically consume that much liquid without destroying their stomach lining, but the answer is simple: The recipe and vessel make it easy.
The Historical Reality Check:
It’s not like Voltaire was downing 72 Starbucks Venti dark roasts. In 18th-century Paris, and especially at his favorite hang-out, Le Procope, coffee was typically served in small demitasse cups. What’s even more telling are historical writings that indicate Voltaire drank coffee mixed with chocolate.
The ‘Voltaire Protocol’ for Modern Drinkers:
If you wish to imitate the mood of his consumption without taking on all those health risks, then you should pay attention to this link between cocoa and coffee.
The Slurry: Voltaire probably sipped a proto-mocha. Cocoa also has theobromine, a stimulant that works differently from caffeine. It’s a vasodilator (opens blood vessels) and can counteract the vasoconstriction (blood vessel narrowing) induced by caffeine.
The Bottom Line: This medley can counteract some of the “jitters” from straight espresso, to drink as frequent but not infrequent shots with less immediate drawbacks.
Actionable Tip: Instead of piling on more coffee, consider adding good quality unsweetened cocoa powder to your coffee. That’s 18th-century style and might give you a longer and more even stimulation than just plain caffeine.
History & Literature Buffs: The Tale of Two Addicts
You’re probably confusing Voltaire with one of the other French heavyweights: Honoré de Balzac. And when we tease them apart, they provide a wonderful glimpse of how coffee influences an individual’s lifespan.
Voltaire (The Survivor):
- Habit: 40-72 cups combined with chocolate.
- Outcome: Lived to 83. He was lively, humorous and socially so.
- *Critical Analysis: Voltaire’s intake was probably a social ritual. Coffee houses were nodes for the exchange of ideas during the age of Enlightenment. The number of “72 cups” is probably an exaggeration by his contemporaries to emphasize just how frantic his energy was but half that amount still suggests an enormous tolerance.
Balzac (The Cautionary Tale):
- Routine: 50 strong black cups of pure coffee. He once famously claimed he would eat the ground coffee beans directly on an empty stomach.
- Outcome: Died at 51. He died of heart failure and gangrene, diseases that may have been induced by prolonged caffeine abuse and insomnia.
The Verdict: Voltaire loved the bean; Balzac abused it. For the historian, the moral is that while coffee gave filters to Enlightenment thought, mode of consumption determined writerly destiny.
Trivia: The Doctor’s Forecast
If you’re looking for the best “did you knows” to win a pub quiz, concentrate on the irony of his medical recommendations.
The Anecdote:
As one doctor’s popular warning to Voltaire had it, coffee was a “slow poison.” Voltaire’s riposte is so famous because he lived longer than the doctor.
- The Truth: Voltaire died in 1778.
- The Irony: He attributed the fuel for his output of more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets to coffee.
- The Twist: Though the number that gets passed around most is 72, realistically on many days this number was probably more like 40…and a “cup” no larger than 3 ounces.
For the Productivity Junkies: The Law of Diminishing Returns
You might be looking at Voltaire’s 20,000 letters and imagining, “If I just drink more coffee, then more work is going to emerge.” This is a dangerous trap.
The Physiology of “The Zone”:
Caffeine interferes with adenosine, the substance in your brain that tells you you’re tired. But once all your adenosine receptors are gummed up, drinking more coffee doesn’t make you more awake; it just jacks up the unpleasant side effects (anxiety, trembling, heart racing).
Why You Can’t #BioHack Like Voltaire:
Voltaire, perhaps, had one particular genetic variant (CYP1A2) that enabled his liver to process caffeine at lightning speed.
- Express Metabolizers: Can drink half an espresso and go to sleep in one hour.
- Slow Metabolizers: Have a cup at noon and are still jittery at midnight.
The Optimal Workflow:
Do not aim for 72 cups. Aim for the “Sweet Spot”:
- Step 1: Avoid coffee immediately upon arising or within 90 minutes to let natural cortisol stabilize.
- Take caffeine in small, regular amounts (e.g., 50mg every two hours) instead of a single dose * Eat or drink some food containing glucose in addition to caffeine when alertness is high. It’s a Voltaire stream that doesn’t poison, all the way down.
- Step 3: Cease consuming 8-10 hours before bed. You are not Voltaire and do you really want to be?
For the Doubters: The Mathematical Toxicity
So, could a human actually drink 72 cups? Let’s crunch the numbers and see whether that’s biologically even plausible, or just a historical myth.
The Math of Survival:
- Standard US cup: A standard US cup is 8 oz (237 ml) with about 95mg of caffeine. 72 cups would come to 6,840mg of caffeine.
- Charges for Taking: The FDA and medical literature say that if you rapidly ingest 1,200mg, it can result in toxic effects, such as seizures. For an average human (about 70kg), the LD50 is around ten grams, which makes it over two thousand times less lethal than cyanide when considered by mass.
The Voltaire Variable:
If Voltaire was downing shots of 18th-century demi-tasses (about 3 ounces) of a coffee-chocolate blend:
- Caffeine approximation per cup: ~30-40mg.
- Approximately 72 x 35mg = 2,520mg of Total Caffeine Count.
The Conclusion:
2,520mg is a lot – more than six times the maximum daily guideline of 400mg. The test is survivable, albeit by someone with a high tolerance developed over 65 years. It seems that the “72 cups” legend only makes sense when we take into consideration that the cup was much smaller and mixed with chocolate. He would have died of a heart attack if he had drunk 72 modern mugs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How could Voltaire live on between 40 and 72 cups of coffee a day?
Voltaire lived due to the portion sizes and his recipe. He drank out of little 18th-century demitasse cups (about 3 ounces), not great big modern coffee mugs, and he often had chocolate in his coffee which brought the total caffeine uptake down to a livable if high level of about 2,520mg per day.
What about “The Voltaire Protocol” with respect to cocoa in coffee?
The “Voltaire Protocol” recommends combining high-quality unsweetened cocoa with coffee. Cocoa has theobromine, which is a vasodilator – it opens up blood vessels, aiding in offsetting the caffeine-induced vasoconstriction. This combination is nice because it has an additional “calming” effect to take the edge off when used in conjunction with caffeine, so you don’t experience a sudden rush of energy followed by a crash.
What was the nature of Voltaire’s coffee habit and how did it compare with Honoré de Balzac’s?
Voltaire consumed his coffee mixed with chocolate; for the philosopher it was a social lubricant drunk 50 cups-a-day until he lived to be 83, while Honoré de Balzac is said to have over-imbibed strong, pure black coffee and even swallowing coffee grounds on an empty stomach. Balzac’s extreme discipline took an enormous toll on his health and led to his early death at 51.
How many cups of coffee can you drink before it kills you?
It is possible only in a historical conjuncture. If you had 72 of those latest generation 8oz cups (about 6,840mg of caffeine) it would probably kill ou, since i believe that the lethal dose is somewhere around 10,000mg. But at Voltaire’s small cup size and ratio of chocolate to the mix, that brought the total to about 2,520mg — medicinally survivable for someone who has a very high tolerance.
Let’s close that gap a bit and have aspirants to modern productivity give Voltaire’s intake of caffeine a run for its money.
That much caffeine generally brings an increase in side-effects (anxiety, tremors) and decreasing returns instead of increased alertness. Additionally, it is probable that Voltaire had a certain genetic mutation (CYP1A2), which was probably responsible for getting rid of caffeine in his liver at an abnormally rapid rate—a characteristic certainly not shared with the average Joe.
References
- US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2018). Spilling the Beans: Just How Much Caffeine is Too Much? This source sets out the safe daily limit for healthy adult at 400mg and indicates that ingestion of 1,200mg rapidly causes toxic symptoms including seizures.
- Fredholm, B. B. (2011). Notes on the Use of Caffeine. In Methylxanthines (pp. 1-24). Springer. This scholarly article accounts for the history of coffee drinking in Europe (including small cup sizes and the popularity of chocolate-coffee combinations) in 18th-century France.
- Nehlig, A. (2018). *Caffeine Metabolism and Individual Differences Factors as Related to Consumption. * Pharmacological Reviews, 70(2), 384-411. Here, we present the CYP1A2 gene and why genetic polymorphism accounts for how some of us (ie Voltaire) won’t be killed by a massive caffeine overdose where as others will.
- Washington University School of Medicine. (2011). Genetic variants predict caffeine intake. This study connects certain genetic traits to strong coffee consumption, tying it back to the concept of biological prejerences in traditional ” heavy users.”
