For generations, the morning cup of coffee has carried an unspoken guilt — a small pleasure suspected of quiet harm. A landmark review by the American Heart Association now reframes that anxiety, finding that moderate coffee consumption not only poses little danger to the heart but may actively protect it, while drawing a firm line between the humble cup and the concentrated caffeine of energy drinks, which carry risks cardiologists take seriously. The distinction, it turns out, is less about caffeine itself than about source, dose, and the irreducible complexity of individual human biology.