In a satirical commentary, the cantata amusingly tells of an addiction to (or rather dependence on) coffee.

Bach regularly directed a musical ensemble based at Zimmermann's coffee house called a collegium musicum, founded by Georg Philipp Telemann in 1702.

The libretto suggests that some people in eighteenth-century Germany viewed coffee drinking as a bad habit.

The cantata's libretto (written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as Picander), features lines like "If I couldn't, three times a day, be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat".

The work is scored for three vocal soloists in the roles The orchestra consists of flauto traverso, two violins obbligato, viola, cembalo and basso continuo.