Janet Gertress
http://www.ftfcoffee.com
For such a young country, the United States has a rich and
powerful history to offer to the world. Some of the things
that are associated with the attainment of that status,
however, are of a rather unique nature. Coffee, for
instance, has played a role in some of the most well-known
historic events since before the signing of the Declaration
of Independence.
We all know about the Boston Tea Party because we learned
it in our American History courses. This event took place
in 1773. The history books tell us that America was
demanding its freedom from English rule. England was
making way too much money off its American colony to give
her independence, and continued to impose harsh taxes on
tea and other products that came into American ports. The
American revolutionaries used this as a focal point to
destroy all of the tea which was on the ships in Boston
Harbor. This was, of course, Boston Tea Party. What you
probably don't know is that, as an act of rebellion and to
express their desire for freedom from the British,
Americans began drinking coffee instead of tea. Because of
that event, coffee became known as our national beverage.
During the Revolution, America was a hotbed of unrest and
was already experiencing growing pains. The founding
fathers had a great deal to consider when planning and
executing the country's Constitution. As a result, a
number of what we would view today as "power meetings"
needed to take place in order to iron out the specifics of
this historic document. Well in advance of its signing on
September 17, 1787, all of the meetings that were held to
form America's national strategies were done over hot cups
of coffee...in coffeehouses.
Between 1846 and 1848, soldiers who went to the front lines
in the Mexican-American War brought along coffee with
them, which they cherished as their most valuable
commodity. No matter what they might have to face, they
were comforted by the fact that they would either have a
hot cup of coffee to look forward to, or could use the
coffee as a valuable tool for trading.
Civil War afficcionados always seem to have some new bit of
trivia about that war, its complicated battles and the
brave troops who fought them. Historians go on about a
particular battle strategy, or a notable figure. They have
made movies out of the diaries of soldiers that were found
after this war. We often see pictures of tents, with
soldiers sitting around the campfire at night, cleaning
their weapons or writing letters to loved ones at home. We
don't know too much about their food rations, though, do
we? The fact is that the primary ration in the Civil War
Soldier's daily food allowance was coffee beans.
All we talked about in American in 1969 was the successful
moon landing of Apollo 11. We still remember this historic
event and can even still picture Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin landing, walking on the moon, planting the American
flag and even playing a game of golf. What was the first
meal those astronauts had on the moon? You didn't see that
the first meal was accompanied by coffee, thereby making
it the first drink to be drunk the surface of the moon.
Coffee has been given a lot of negative hype recently. Its
high level of caffeine and the other faults it has have not
stopped it from being one of the most popular hot beverages
in the United States. Now, according to American history,
coffee drinkers can know that they are in the very best of
company.
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