Fact check: You should drink Coffee when you are intoxicated.

1. A 19th-century case that sounds persuasive but is limited in relevance

An 1867 report claiming delirium tremens was successfully treated with coffee is often cited as historical support for using coffee during intoxication, but this is an isolated, single-case or anecdotal observation rather than controlled evidence. That older clinical note suggests coffee may have been beneficial in a specific severe withdrawal syndrome context, yet it predates modern clinical trial methods and does not address acute alcohol impairment or typical intoxication scenarios. Relying on this historical report risks overstating applicability to contemporary situations involving acute intoxication and psychomotor safety ^[5].

2. Biological snippets about coffee and metal toxicity don’t prove an antidote to alcohol

Several publications explore coffee’s chemical interactions—most notably its copper-binding ligands—as potentially reducing copper concentrations and mitigating copper toxicity. These findings pertain to environmental or toxicology contexts and do not directly address alcohol intoxication or impairment. Using such studies to argue that coffee counteracts being drunk conflates separate mechanisms: metal chelation and neurobehavioral effects of ethanol are distinct processes, and coffee’s benefits in one toxicological niche do not validate its use as a universal antidote for intoxication ^{[4] [6]}.

3. Mixed modern trial evidence on alertness and performance: partial benefit, persistent risks

Randomized and controlled studies offer mixed results: a 2003 study reported low-dose caffeine could reduce sleepiness and some performance impairments from moderate ethanol, indicating caffeine may temporarily improve alertness. However, a 1982-controlled study found coffee/caffeine did not counteract key psychomotor impairments caused by alcohol. A 2014 randomized trial comparing caffeinated versus non-caffeinated alcoholic beverages reported limited effects on next-day sleepiness or hangover. Together, these findings show caffeine may alter subjective alertness but does not consistently restore safe cognitive or motor function ^{[1] [2] [7]}.

4. Withdrawal severity and coffee: potential mitigation in dependent populations

Research into alcohol withdrawal suggests a different context where coffee consumption might affect outcomes: a European Psychiatry study observed that higher recreational coffee use correlated with less severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome. This points to potential interactions between chronic caffeine exposure and withdrawal physiology, not acute intoxication. The population, setting, and endpoints differ from those relevant to a sober-before-driving decision, so the study supports the idea that coffee can modulate withdrawal severity but does not endorse coffee as a remedy for immediate impairment ^[3].

5. Recent, tangential literature highlights research gaps and potential agendas

More recent technical work on caffeine extraction and environmental uses of spent coffee grounds—such as a 2025 MDPI piece on removing caffeine from water and studies on extraction parameters—illustrate ongoing interest in coffee’s chemical properties but are tangential to intoxication effects. These studies reflect agendas of environmental remediation and industrial processing rather than clinical harm-reduction. Interpreting such literature as clinical endorsement risks conflating industrial chemistry with medical advice ^{[8] [9]}.

6. Weighing the evidence: what is reasonably supported and what is omitted

Reasonable conclusions from the assembled studies are that caffeine can increase subjective alertness and may blunt sleepiness associated with alcohol in some settings, and that chronic coffee use could influence withdrawal severity. The corpus does not show that coffee reduces blood alcohol concentration or reliably restores psychomotor function needed for safety; several controlled trials and older experiments contradict a blanket “coffee fixes intoxication” claim. Importantly, many sources are context-specific, small, or indirect, creating a gap between study endpoints and real-world safety decisions ^{[1] [2] [7] [3]}.

7. Practical synthesis: what the evidence implies for behavior and policy

Given the mixed and context-dependent findings, the prudent interpretation is that drinking coffee may temporarily reduce subjective sleepiness but is not a proven antidote to alcohol impairment, based on the reviewed studies. Messaging or policies that suggest coffee makes intoxicated individuals safe to drive or perform hazardous tasks would overextend the evidence. Future, targeted trials are needed to compare objective impairment metrics after combined alcohol and caffeine exposure; until then, claims recommending coffee as a remedy for intoxication rest on incomplete and heterogeneous evidence ^{[1] [2] [7] [3] [4]}.