About Time It's Coffeetime

Research shows that coffee as a beverage first took root in the Arab world and has been consumed for more than a thousand years. But the promotion of the coffee break concept as an incentive in the work place may have originated in the Americas in the early 50’s. A Pan-American Coffee Bureau promotion in 1952 called on consumers to “Give Yourself a Coffee-Break—and Get What Coffee Gives You.”   It focused on the brew’s energizing properties and the coffee break itself as a quick 15- to 20-minute window to recharge and renew for both labor and management .

In a posting In Café Afficionado, Sarah Harris affirms that coffee is the most popular beverage in the world besides water. While grown worldwide in over 50 countries, the one country that drinks 20 per cent of the world’s coffee does not grow the precious berries (Note: Coffee does not come from beans!).Due to its geography and other unsuitable working conditions (besides expensive labor), the United States, except its island state of Hawaii, does not produce coffee.

The same post informs that coffee comes second only to oil as the most heavily traded commodities in the world. According to Ms. Harris, coffee is so much cheaper because it can be regenerated over and over again while oil is a dwindling resource.

Some food for thought – a coffee thought -in this age of spiralling energy costs!