We developed novel equipment that intermittently illuminates Coffea arabica cell suspensions at a second-scale interval and investigated how intermittent irradiation enhances caffeine biosynthesis by C. arabica cells. The light/dark cycles consisting of 2 s of illumination and 18 s of darkness enhanced caffeine production, reaching the same level as for continuous light. The intermittent illumination increased the production efficiency regarding light consumption by a factor of 10. Caffeine production was determined by light intensity regardless of intermittent or continuous light irradiation. We propose a new concept for designing a photobioreactor that is applicable to secondary metabolite production by plant cell culture.