Coffee Case

Does coffee run our lives?

What comes to mind when you hear the word “coffee”? Is it the molecule of caffeine pumped into fancy bottles of soda that all of us can’t resist, or is it a freshly brewed cup of Turkish coffee? Whichever it is nobody can deny that caffeine is a major part of our lives. It is the only addictive psychoactive substance that has overcome disapproval by people all over the world. More than 85% of Americans use a substantial amount of caffeine on a daily basis, and it is one of the most widely studied drugs, yet very few of us know anything about it (Weinberg, Bennett, and Bealer xiii).

The oldest traces of caffeine go back to the south of Middle East and tribes in the east side of Africa (Weinberg 4). These cultures drank coffee for ceremonial purposes still held in to the present day. Ethiopians held coffee ceremonies to represent friendship or as respect to the visitor, at times taking up to few hours for the ceremony process to be complete. In the 18th century coffee plants reached the New World, although not popular in America until the Boston Tea Party of 1773 when drinking coffee became a sign of patriotic duty (Adams, Volume 1). Followed by the Civil War and other conflicts coffee helped boost the energy of the soldiers. Which raises the question, do people win wars or the coffee they drink before the battle?

The molecule of caffeine in its original form is a bean inside a bright red berry. Grown in the Tropic of Capricorn, just south of the equator. Coffee may be a luxury for us, but to insects it is a natural pesticide, paralyzing and even killing insects that feed on the plant. At high levels it can even be detrimental to human health. No cases have been registered with traditional coffee, but caffeine pills have been abused to the point of death. With no age limitations on purchasing caffeine pills, they are easily abusable by minors. Coffee is not very different from tea. A single serving or 8oz of black tea averages 50mg of caffeine, whereas coffee comes out to 95mg of caffeine (USDA). Since people technically got the same high ages before coffee came along, does coffee really count as a new discovery? Same theory applies with alcohol, since people have been drinking beer since the Egyptian era. Did discovering the recipe for tequila create a whole new type of drink or is it just alcohol?

In many countries that grow coffee, economic success pivots on the success of their crops. America consuming 1/3rd of the total coffee grown in the world has a straight correlation with the economic system of many countries that grow coffee, giving us the ability to put ruin to thousands of coffee bean farmers in the short term, and the whole country in the long term (Caffeine Consumption). Some of the biggest coffee drinkers live on the coasts of the US. New York, drinking seven times more coffee than any other major cities around the US. This isn't