Infusing tea and coffee with drugs: a growing trend?

"Man, I have a headache. I need some coffee."

Imagine if it wasn't just that you were addicted to caffeine, but that your coffee was infused with a painkiller. According to Tetley's Future of Tea report, this could become commonplace by 2026. Even now, we're starting to see companies dabble in pharmaceuticals and coffee infused with vitamins.

Tetley’s “Future of Tea” report focuses only on tea, but several experts believe coffee could experience the same trend. In 2016 , CVS Health launched cold and flu relief capsules, while CannTrust offers cannabis-infused coffee capsules for medical purposes.

So what exactly does Tetley predict? Daily consumption of teas enriched with everything from painkillers to antibiotics. They even have plans to launch hangover teas, anti-aging teas, hair growth teas, and erectile dysfunction teas .

Speaking to The Mirror, the company also said of the contraceptive tea concept : “The benefit is that whatever medicine it is, from birth control pills to antibiotics and painkillers, it can be in a more palatable form than a pill. Plus, you might forget to take your pills, but you’ll never miss your morning tea.”

Vera Roasting Company , a company that has successfully patented Arabica coffee beans infused with resveratrol , a polyphenol found in red wine that is thought to have antioxidant properties.

They use coffee from Colombia to make two blends and Honduran coffee to make decaf. The processing adds neither flavor nor aroma to the red wine, just the health benefits of antioxidants.

If the steeping process affects neither flavor nor aroma, there’s no reason why this trend wouldn’t make its way into the world of specialty coffee. However, it’s hard to imagine that these coffees fortified with drugs and vitamins wouldn’t affect the flavor and chemistry of the beans in some way.

The birth of new things cannot be dismissed out of hand. I just hope that the bosses who develop these products can collect less IQ tax and really do a good job in scientific research and products!

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