Yes, from coffee. Apparently, according to Steven Johnson, we must thank the UK for coming up with the coffee house concept in 1650 with the Grand Cafe as the very first coffee house in the western world (http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html).
It’s not that coffee is a magic drink that connects your neurons in a better way or gives you superpowers, it’s just the way you come to drink coffee. What do you usually do (when you have time)? You go into a coffee shop and stay there chatting to someone for a while. It gives you the time to build on hidden ideas now that you’re there exposing them. Even as you talk, ideas come popping out. So coffee houses are like big idea centers where anything goes.