White House hosts' Coffee complex the President of the United States has been addicted to it for 500 years

Coffee, as the "patriotic drink" of the United States, is naturally sought after by the vast majority of White House hosts. Successive presidents of the United States have led the national concept of coffee consumption, and the outstanding ones have discovered huge business opportunities, which have promoted the popularization of coffee culture.

"since there was a president in the White House, there has been coffee." This is true. Coffee has always been the darling of American politicians. Since the founding of the people's Republic of China, George Washington, the favorite "thing in the cup" of American presidents is coffee.

The President of the United States is addicted to it for 500 years.

The Boston Globe quoted historical data as saying that in 1770, a businessman in Philadelphia, Washington, who had not yet had a "successful revolution", imported 200 pounds (91 kilograms) of coffee and wrote a special thank-you note. Washington's love of coffee can be described as "till death do us part"-a few weeks before his death, he begged his friend to bring back 150 pounds (68 kilograms) of the best mocha coffee at the time.

Since then, from Lincoln, who is said to have "no interest in good food, but only apples and hot coffee," to Nixon, who never leaves his coffee cup from breakfast to work, to Carter, who has to squeeze out some time for coffee even on the busiest days. This brown drink has played an important role in the work and life of almost every president of the United States.

Why does the President of the United States love coffee so much? The scholar David Courtlett gives such an explanation in his book 500 years of Addiction: "Tea was a symbol of exorbitant taxes and tyranny in Britain in the 1870s, and it was also the goal of the colonies to resist and destroy. As a result, as its opposite, coffee has been transformed into a patriotic drink. "

In this way, it is no wonder that American presidents in the 18th and 19th centuries favored drinking coffee and put it into practice.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Theodore Roosevelt carried forward the historical tradition of "drinking coffee". His children also treat coffee as a business for the first time, making coffee culture take root in the hearts of more ordinary citizens.

Roosevelt Cafe used to be a fashion landmark

Roosevelt senior can be called the "number one barista" of the president of the United States, who destroys as much as a gallon of coffee (nearly 4 liters) every day. This is almost a "killer" dose for a patient with severe asthma and heart disease. The doctor repeatedly advised Lao Luo to give up coffee, but the latter always disagreed. It is rumored that Roosevelt drank coffee more like a cow than a drink. He is good at using an oversized coffee cup, which is jokingly called "bathtub".

Under the influence of their father, the descendants of the Roosevelt family fell in love with coffee as an exotic drink and sprouted the idea of spreading "coffee culture" among the public. As a result, brothers and sisters joined forces to open the first exotic coffee chain in the United States, the Brazilian Cafe, half a century earlier than the Starbucks coffee chain that is now popular all over the world.

In November 1919, the Roosevelt family's Brazilian Cafe officially opened in an elegant stone building on the West side of New York. On the walls of the coffee shop are pictures of famous coffee lovers such as Voltaire (who is said to feast on 50 cups of coffee a day) and Shakespeare. The corner of the room is also dotted with specimens of rare birds and animals such as male camel deer heads, with rich exotic customs.

Just as Starbucks set a precedent for modern cafes to provide Internet space, Brazilian Cafe also set a precedent in history-taking the lead in providing customers with reading and writing space. On the 30 oak tables in the lobby are stationery, envelopes and ink bearing the name "Brazilian Cafe". Dictionaries and encyclopedias are also on display where people can reach them.

Such an idea of "literature and art" has made the "Brazilian Cafe" famous and attracted an endless stream of guests. From entertainers and journalists to writers and musicians. They all gathered here, and soon it became the most fashionable place in New York.

Making a fortune youdao and benefiting the public

"tasting real coffee" was indeed the secret of Roosevelt's success.

In the United States a hundred years ago, restricted by the backward logistics industry, high-quality, fresh coffee on the market is very rare. Most restaurants or families can only make do with pre-ground canned coffee. In the view of the eldest son of Roosevelt, Comet, such a crude coffee drinking habit is stifling the "natural delicacy" of the drink.

At the Brazilian Cafe, guests can take a closer look at how the young manager, A M Salazar, grinds a cup of freshly ground coffee: carefully select, bake and grind coffee beans, carefully wet a special container full of coffee powder with boiling water, and then hold their breath and wait for a small stream of black jelly to slowly flow out.

The popularity of the Brazilian Cafe has something to do with the "right" timing of the Roosevelt family. At that time, prohibition had just been issued, and empty and bored people longed for fresh excitement. The emergence of the cafe filled the vacuum of the decline of the bar.

Of course, there were questions about the Roosevelt family's business. Critics argue that "killing time while drinking coffee" goes against the "simple folklore" of the United States.

In fact, the Brazilian Cafe did run into trouble at the time-the name of the cafe was in dispute because the manager, Salazar, started a new stove. To avoid litigation, the Roosevelt family renamed the cafe "double R Cafe". The two Rs in the new name symbolize the two major shareholders-the Roosevelt family, and Douglas Robinson, the nephew of "Old Roosevelt".

The "double R Cafe" was still booming, opening four branches one after another, until the founder began to get tired of running. By the early 1930s, they had discovered new points of interest. As Comet went to Indochina to continue his adventures, several others went into politics and the already lucrative double R coffee chain had to end in the regrets of regular customers.

Obama is one of the few "alternative"

The Roosevelt family made great contributions to the promotion of American coffee culture. In fact, compared with the "Lao Luo" family, his nephew Franklin Roosevelt was not inferior in this respect. A presidential cookbook published in 1968 revealed that at dawn, the coffee machine and the breakfast tray were presented to Roosevelt's bedroom so that he could mix the right concentration of coffee according to his needs.

After the outbreak of World War II, the price of coffee soared and became a rationing material. As a leader, Roosevelt took the lead in taking the initiative to reduce coffee consumption. At that time, his wife, Eleanor, recalled that the entire White House crew, including the president, had a quota of only one cup of coffee a day. In order to drink more, her self-proclaimed "coffee expert" husband is full of tricks to make delicious coffee with limited ingredients. "he taught me to dry the used coffee grounds and mix a teaspoon of fresh coffee powder so that I could make good coffee." This kind of circularly brewed coffee will be called Roosevelt Coffee.

Another famous political family, the Bush family, has also emerged a lot of "fanatics" who are obsessed with coffee. Bush senior maintained the habit of drinking 10 cups of coffee a day until 1991 when he was hospitalized for thyroid and heart abnormalities and was asked to abstain from coffee altogether. However, only two weeks after he was discharged from the hospital, he couldn't stand the decaffeinated drink and picked up the coffee cup again.

George W. Bush inherited his father's love of coffee. At 05:30 every morning, Bush, with the help of his assistant, would make a cup of coffee, read the morning paper, and start his day's work.

Where there is tradition, there must be exceptions. Despite the popularity of coffee inside and outside the White House, Obama is one of a small number of Americans who "don't like it"-whether in the Oval Office, Air Force one or the war room. Obama always holds a milky gold-encrusted porcelain cup, but no one knows what's inside. However, an unidentified White House aide inadvertently revealed that Obama's mysterious cup is always filled with tea. This has been confirmed by Jon Favreau, a former Obama speechwriter and coffee lover.