Ah! A rationalization! In I want my coffee to be a poison, not a remedy, it says: "Without alcohol they are (sprinkle another good handful of caveats here) a taciturn people, prone to melancholy introspection - Eeyore without the saving sarcasm. With alcohol, though, they are affectionate, expressive and gregarious." (The passage refers to the noble Finn people - of which group I count myself...)
The article (in The Independent) also suggests that we drink coffee at least in part because we believe it's bad for us.
Then it closes with a section of definition from a 19th-century French Dictionary: "...coffee is particularly indicated for men of letters, soldiers, sailors and all workers who have to stay in hot surroundings; lastly, to all inhabitants of a country where cretinism is rife".

Time to get another cup, I'm thinking, then a beer!