Caffeine

You see the coffee people in the morning all over Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill. There they are, heading up the street toward the train station and down the street toward the bus stop. You see them edge their Volvos into still-warm parking spots. They leap out. They bustle and hustle. In the morning, they're always in a hurry, and they have a paper cup in their hand. Chestnut Hill has been colonized by coffee. "I used to just make coffee," Teri Kupic said. She was standing at the counter in Starbucks, waiting for her Grande Mocha Valencia.

Robert McClure can still recall those four sublime years in Paris, where he started virtually every day in his favorite coffeehouse. On Saturdays, he might spend hours there, drinking in both the brew and the scene. Now, back in the States, there's a lot he misses. But not his espresso, nor the ambience of the neighborhood coffee shop. That's because McClure lives in West Chester, a town so flush with coffee even the proprietors are shaking their heads in amazement. First thing nearly every morning, McClure strolls down Gay Street to the Hard Bean Cafe, which opened Dec. 15 at the corner of High Street.

Caffeine is king, and its loyal subjects are getting younger and younger. Whether slurping lattes at the ubiquitous Starbucks or chugging one of the "extreme beverages" like Jolt or Surge, caffeine has captured the taste buds of America's youth. "Teens are looking for a turn-on that doesn't put them in jail," said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark LLC, a New York-based beverage consultant. "They want more stimulation. "The time that a mother snaps her fingers and says, 'You can't have that cup of coffee or that cola because it'll stunt your growth' is long gone," Pirko says.

Those who have wondered what the health enforcers would target after tobacco have at least a partial answer: high-calorie food and caffeine. Those of us in the hospitality industry have obvious reasons for concern. Government and its activist allies, including a trial-lawyer industry hugely enriched by its war on silicone and tobacco, are acting in concert to force Americans to change the most basic aspect of their lives: what they eat and drink. Laurence N. Kolonel, who helped develop cancer prevention guidelines for the American Institute for Cancer Research, allows that "lifestyle decisions are up to the individual" but calls for a change in the "environment" in which these choices are made.

Excursions to the shore couldn't do it. Ski trips couldn't do it. Neither could floating down rumbling white water in a raft. So the Rev. Bill McDonald, 27, is placing his faith in coffee and alternative music to bring teenagers back to organized religion. The youth pastor oversaw the recent opening of the Crossroads Cafe in the basement of Newtown United Methodist Church, one of several area coffeehouses started in churches and catering to the changing needs of congregations.

There's no question that caffeine is a drug. Too much of it, and you may experience caffeine intoxication. Miss your daily fix - whether you prefer coffee, tea or soda as the means of delivery - and you could experience withdrawal symptoms. But does it really carry much risk for adults or children? Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system. That can lead, scientists have confirmed, to a variety of changes, many of them positive. Among the benefits: Mood elevation.

One of the wondrous sideshows of modern medical research is the war on coffee, apparently driven by the irksome sight of people finding pleasure in something that's harmless. With fat, sugar, salt, tobacco, alcohol and the sedentary life officially condemned, the list of allowable sensual pleasures is fairly depleted. Coffee is a leading object of scrutiny for inclusion in the ranks of outcasts - except that, unlike the aforementioned, evidence of harmfulness in coffee is either nonexistent or slight and disputed.

Watch out, Dr Pepper: A top caffeine researcher thinks you have the potential to be Joe Camel. With anti-smoking sentiment snowballing behind strict government regulations, caffeine has supplanted nicotine as America's socially accepted drug of choice. But people are forgetting that, like nicotine, caffeine is a physically addictive drug that could be harmful, said Roland Griffiths, a Johns Hopkins pharmacologist. "Thirty years ago, we just socially accepted smoking as a part of our culture," Griffiths said.

Can this relationship be saved? Or is trouble brewing over a steamy . . . hot . . . cup of Starbucks coffee? His story: Whenever it's time to correct term papers, Temple religion prof David Watt parks himself in front of the big window at New World Coffee, where he can see Rittenhouse Square across Walnut Street. He grabs a cup of decaf latte and gets to work. "I bet my students get higher grades because I'm a happy guy," said the associate professor. Weekends, when his girlfriend, Laura Levitt, an assistant religion professor at Temple University, visits, they sit at New World, happy with the view, the coffee and each other.

12-STEP GROUP COAXES JAVA JUNKIES OFF CAFFEINE Marsha Naegeli-Moody was up to 10 cups of coffee a day when she decided it was time to junk the java jitters. So she and a psychiatrist in Portland, Ore., founded a group for caffeine addicts and patterned it after Alcoholics Anonymous. Caffeine is "just like smoking or alcohol," Naegeli-Moody says. "It's addictive. " Meetings begin with members reciting the "serenity prayer" and AA's 12 steps, with the word caffeine substituted for alcohol.