Yet another study, this time published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's journal JAMA Internal Medicine, is encouraging java lovers to just brew it.

There was a small but statistically significant trend showing that the more coffee people drank, the more likely they were to live longer.

"While this research offers further reassurance to current coffee drinkers, people should not start drinking coffee purely in an attempt to become healthier", he advised.

The lower risk of death held true with both caffeinated and decaf coffee, leading researchers to believe the value of coffee lies in the beans.

"Coffee makes you happy, it gives you something to look forward to in the morning, " said Taylor, a sound engineer from Las Vegas. Coffee drinking was inversely associated with all-cause mortality, that is more coffee a person drank less were the risks of that person dying.

She said: "In this large study of almost 500,000 people in the United Kingdom, coffee drinking was inversely associated with all-cause mortality, with statistically significant inverse associations observed in participants drinking 1 to 8 or more cups per day". Some people are more sensitive to the effects of coffee.

Overall, coffee drinkers were about 10 percent to 15 percent less likely to die than abstainers during a decade of follow-up.

As with any observational study like this though, where people are quizzed on their past and existing habits, we can't definitively say that coffee causes a longer life.

David Spiegelhalter, a University of Cambridge professor, estimates than an extra cup of coffee every day could extend the life of a man by around three months and a woman by around a month on average, as the BBC reported.

"For example, prior studies have suggested that variants in CYP1A2, (a gene) encoding the enzyme responsible for more than 95 percent of caffeine metabolism, may alter associations of coffee drinking with cardiovascular-related outcomes, with slower caffeine metabolizers having higher risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure) or having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) relative to their non-drinking counterparts, whereas faster caffeine metabolizers who drink coffee are at no or lower risk of these outcomes". Researchers noticed an inverse association between drinking coffee and the risk of death, regardless of whether individuals metabolized it quickly or slowly.

Still, some doctors warn against starting a coffee habit.

Whatever it is, there have been multiple studies that point to coffee's health benefits.

The study notes that the results did not vary significantly by factors including age group, sex, and previous history heart disease or cancer.

Is coffee good or bad?

People should also be aware that some people have a physical sensitivity to coffee.