Why Your Morning Coffee May Boost Your Mood Before You Even Take a Sip

• The aroma of coffee may help improve mood and reduce feelings of stress, according to a small study of healthy young adults.
• Smelling coffee was linked to reductions in tension, fatigue, confusion, and other negative mood measures, although researchers found no significant changes in heart rate.
• The benefits may be linked more to expectations and conditioned responses than to direct physiological changes, and more research is needed to understand the effects.

The rich, tempting aroma of coffee may be benefiting your mood more than you thought.

According to a small study published in Nutrients on September 9, coffee aroma may help you manage stress and boost your mood. 

While the researchers noted that these benefits may be linked more to conditioned responses and expectations than to physiological changes, this research also suggests that smelling coffee may help improve alertness, even without that hit of caffeine. 

Rod Mitchell, registered psychologist with Emotions Therapy Calgary, who was not involved in the study, explained to Healthline that, “smell is wired more directly into the emotional brain than other senses. 

“I think the bigger factor is learning — ordinary conditioning. A regular coffee drinker has paired the coffee aroma with a break, warmth, and relief thousands of times, so the smell alone starts the settling the body has been trained to expect,” he said. 

However, while the new research suggests that the aroma of coffee may offer benefits for stress management, it shouldn’t replace professional treatment for anxiety disorders. 

How does the aroma of coffee affect your mood?

The researchers used a group of 20 healthy adults, ages 20–29, for the study. Psychological and physiological measurements were taken from each participant both before and after a brief exposure to the aroma of coffee. 

Each experiment included freshly brewed coffee placed around 50 cm (19.6 in) from the participants. No additional odor source was purposefully introduced into the room, which was ventilated before each experiment. 

Each participant was exposed to the aroma for five minutes while breathing normally. 

The researchers used the Profile of Mood States (POMS) to assess the participants’ mood immediately before and after exposure to coffee aroma. They also analyzed heart rate using a portable monitor and electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. 

POMS is a 65-item inventory with six different subscales: 

• tension-anxiety 
• depression-dejection 
• anger-hostility 
• fatigue-inertia 
• confusion-bewilderment 
• vigor-activity

They found that total mood disturbance (TMD) decreased. They also observed reductions in tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, fatigue, confusion, and depression-dejection. However, after adjusting for multiple comparisons, the reduction in anger-hostility wasn’t statistically significant.  

These findings are largely consistent with previous research suggesting that the aroma of coffee may have a positive effect on mood.

“The interesting part of this study is what the coffee aroma moved — the smell caused the students’ moods to settle, not perk up,” Mitchell told Healthline. 

“Tension and fatigue decreased while energy stayed flat. What this study can’t say is what [caused] the settling, since the students sat doing nothing for five minutes beside fresh coffee, and nobody sat beside hot water,” he added. 

The EEG-derived relaxation index rose from about 0.74 preexposure to 0.78 postexposure. The change was modest but consistent across all participants. There were no significant changes in heart rate after exposure.

However, the authors noted that these findings can’t be conclusively attributed to the effects of coffee aroma itself.

The study didn’t include a control group, which means that the participants’ change in mood may have been influenced by the calm environment, rest, repeated testing, expectations, or adaptation to the laboratory setting.

How to incorporate coffee aroma into your routine

If you want to incorporate the aroma of coffee into your routine, there are various ways you can do so.

• Morning ritual: Pause to inhale deeply before drinking your morning brew. 
• Work environment: Keep fresh coffee beans at your desk to allow the aroma to help you in stressful situations. 
• Study sessions: Brew coffee during focus-intensive tasks.
• Stress moments: Use the aroma of coffee as a mindful sensory break.

“Let your coffee breaks be actual breaks. The smell already signals a pause, so let it be one. Before the first sip, give the cup a full minute, phone face down,” said Mitchell. 

You should keep in mind that this study was based on the scent of coffee, not drinking it. 

Can artificial coffee scents, like candles, have a similar effect? 

Mitchell told Healthline that, “A candle delivers the smell without the ritual it was learned in. A coffee aroma candle burning while you answer emails is unlikely to have the same effect as five slow minutes beside a real cup.”