Which drink did the composer Johann Sebastian Bach enjoy so much that he wrote a cantata in its honour?

The Coffee Cantata or Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Be still, stop chattering) is a small, comic cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was written sometime in the early 1730’s that details a young girl’s obsession with the drink. Given our society’s dependence on coffee, the work remains particularly easy to identify with; and it is somewhat comforting to know that our addiction to caffeine is nothing new.

Although Bach never wrote an opera and this cantata was originally simply sung, it is often performed today in full dramatic form. Picander wrote the Libretto, to which Bach supplied the music. The work was first performed, fittingly, at a Coffee house in Leipzig.