Coffee, Tea, or… Cola? Day 15 G@KM Blog Challenge

Saturday was my next scheduled day to blog, but life has a way of throwing those curve balls at you sometimes and Saturday was one of those times.  We won’t dwell on that, though.  Instead, I will resume telling you a little more about myself. Why not grab a  cup of coffee or tea as you read along.  Let’s face it, I’m a morning coffee drinker.  Don’t you just love the above picture? I mean, it’s true!  Personally, I make more mistakes first thing in the morning AFTER I have coffee than any other time throughout the day.

I wasn’t always a coffee drinker, though.  In my teen years through my early 20s, I was not a happy camper in the morning, if I didn’t have my Pepsi first thing  Cola doesn’t have near the caffeine as coffee, but that was my morning fix.  I recall many mornings after I got to school dropping my quarter into the soda machine and selecting my beverage of choice.   During my college years, I continued drinking cola for my morning wake-up call.  It’s funny, I loved smelling coffee brew in my younger years, but I didn’t like the bitter taste of coffee.  Eventually, I graduated to java juice for my a.m. jolt soon after entering the workforce.

It’s Monday, so let’s get all nostalgic.  Let’s take a look at a little history of coffee in the US.  As you may know, the Boston Tea Party was the shifting point in America from tea to coffee with the heavy taxation imposed upon the American people by the British.   This pivoting point in history led coffee to be the number one consumed beverage in our country.  Coffee consumption in 2003 worldwide was over 400 billion.  That averages to be 1.4 billion cups per day.  The United States alone is responsible for devouring 400 million of those 1.4 billion cups every day.  That’s an impressive 35% of the coffee drinking pie.  These statistics are out of date.  I can imagine the numbers have risen considerably in the last seven years.

Coffee has been around for centuries, though.  In the 18th century, classical music composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote a cantata about coffee.  Coffee houses were a popular gathering spot in Europe.  So popular in fact, that Bach’s song was an amusing story of coffee addiction and considered a social problem. That seems funny by today’s standards when you think of  “addictions”, does it not?

Did you know that the ‘latte’ is predominantly an American phenomena?  If you ask for a latte in Italy, then you’ll get a glass of warm milk.  To get an equal version in Italy, you’ll need to ask for a café latte which is coffee with milk.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt was served a cup of Maxwell House Coffee and legend is the president was overheard saying, “good to the last drop.” Thus, the coined phrased became the Cheek-Neal Company’s registered trademark saying, “Maxwell House Good to the last drop” in 1926.

We’re all familiar with the term ‘cup of joe’.  During WWII, US Army men (General Infantry) affectionately dubbed as G.I. Joe from a 1940s syndicated comic strip and since coffee was largely favored by the enlisted men then hence the phrase ‘cup of joe’ was born.

In the 1950s the average cup of coffee was 10 cents.  Today, we pay more than 10 times for a regular cup of coffee and 500 times more for specialty coffee drinks such as a latte.  This almost seems like a crime against the American people somehow.  Cost of living determines the price of a cup of coffee, but the saddest thing is, Coffee companies know the American people will pay whatever the price is.  What a hoot this classic ad from the 50s is?  I mean, today many groups would find this offending.  However, I think it’s hilarious!

These are just a few fun facts about coffee.  On a serious note, according to WebMD, coffee has some health benefits to consider.  Coffee drinkers are less likely to  have type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia.  Also, they may have fewer cases of certain cancers, heart rhythm problems, and strokes.  Of course, there is more to this than meets the eyes with these findings and I’d like to encourage you to read Coffee and Your Health at WebMD or Google health benefits of coffee to further educate yourself on coffee’s medicinal properties.

Here are two simple reminders, first if caffeine is what gets your motor purring in the mornings, then stir clear of espresso type drinks as they contain one-third less of the caffeine found in regular brew coffee.  Second, program your coffee maker at night before retiring to bed. The next morning, you’ll wake to the aroma of your favorite coffee brewing.  This will make life easier for a busy mom or career gal, as you grab your stainless steel coffee mug to take a cup of joe on the go.  And, your wallet will thank you for the tiny savings every day at the end of the month.  So…