Yes even cocaine and heroin had less of an impact on spiders webs than caffeine.

I’ve been drinking low or decaffeinated tea for a long time now. I was advised in the mid 1990s by my doctor to cut out as many stimulants as I can (I wasn’t well at the time, and part of the problem was my mind racing away with me). He said to stop drinking tea, or find a de-caff alternative. So I started on red bush, and later decaff ordinary tea.

I still do this, and when I’m drinking regular full strength tea, I can tell difference, certainly after a couple of cups. My body seems to be buzzing, and I feel keyed up. Whether that’s me being physiologically sensitive to caffeine, or whether it’s me being psychologically sensitive, because I am aware that the tea I have may not be what I am used to, I can’t tell. I can feel the same after drinking a can of coke (same confusion about mind or matter here too as I drink cola fairly rarely).

Back in Ye Olden Days (before I acquired a computer) much of the artwork I did was black and white linework involving the use of Rotring pens. Having a coffee noticeably affected my work as even a light caffeine-induced shake became very obvious. Using Illustrator means I can have what I like to drink up to a point thanks to Cmd-Z. Too much coffee though and I can't concentrate.

I'm now thinking about how much of my life was spent unblocking dried-up 0.25 Rotring nibs.

Oh, man alive! That's brought back memories!

Give my kids a glass of Coke/Pepsi and stand well back.

Within minutes, they're bouncing off the walls and I'm an inch away from murder. Although, that's probably due to E numbers as much as Caffeine.

I don't get a 'buzz' from coffee. It keeps me awake, but I don't feel energised.

It’s a dose of caffeine and sugar. Little wonder. You want to mix some laudanum in to counter the effects.

They still go mental with the diet variety, but not with the caffeine free stuff.

That'll be the artificial sweetener, then. Aspartame...

Nope - diet coke still has caffeine in it. Aspartame is whole other can of worms.

I assume then, they don't use Aspartame in the likes of diet lemonade, or is it just the lack of caffeine that stops the offspring freaking out on Schweppes?

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener. You’ll find it pretty much all of the diet variants of fizzy drinks. It will be in the diet lemonade. You don’t normally find caffeine in lemonade - unless it’s an “energy drink”.

I used to have 1 or 2 cans of Relentless during my shift at work. That's the equivalent of about 8 Pro Plus tablets.

I used to get the shakes and mild palpitations and then a sense of euphoria, usually followed by insomnia during the night. I don't get addicted to stuff though so I don't crave caffeine even though now i'm pretty much immune to a cup of coffee.