Coffee changes American culture: becoming a symbol of independence and workers' stimulant

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world and one of the most traded goods in the world. I'm currently writing a book about coffee, but I've been hesitant: I don't know how many coffee consumers really want to know all this stuff about coffee.

Many of us like to savor the taste and feel of a piping hot scotch coffee, not to mention the satisfaction of savoring it with a slightly contrived ritual, but how many of us really want to know about the beans behind a cup of coffee?

There has been a long discussion about caffeine, but science still can't fully explain what it does to the body, let alone what the nearly 100 other biological ingredients in that latte you're presented with do to the body when they combine. Much of the debate revolves around coffee's health benefits, and academic reports often contradict each other.

Coffee, culture and environment also have complex and delicate relationships. If we adopt the right planting methods, coffee can help protect the natural environment of most forests or even entire forests, and the value of natural environment is incalculable. Coffee farming provides jobs for rural people, and coffee is a major export for many developing countries.

But if not done correctly, coffee farming can lead directly to the extinction of rainforests, heavy use of pesticides, occupational diseases associated with coffee workers, ruthless exploitation by coffee growers, and degradation of the natural environment. Many certified coffee-growing programmes announce to the world the market value of their products by forcing higher yields. I have written extensively about fair free trade, nature conservation, organic farming, rainforest integration and other similar initiatives in the coffee growing industry.

Coffee addicts tend to stubbornly prefer a particular brand of coffee beans they like, or a particular bean originating in a particular country, or a blend of flavors refined to the point where each ingredient is added or cut in a fixed proportion. The old adage that good coffee has three stresses, one is to pay attention to the planting place, the other is to pay attention to the coffee grower, and the third is to ensure that there are no chemical additives in the coffee planting. Nowadays, such an old adage has not kept up with the trend of the times. It is too expensive for growers to pay attention to completely chemical additives, to ensure pure breeding, fair trade, rainforest integrated planting, etc.

Coffee also has a strong cultural and historical background, both in its place of origin and on a global scale. Valuable coffee seeds were smuggled to remote jungle countries for illegal large-scale garden cultivation, and coffee houses gradually became another center for people to gather and serve as shelters for political debates about globalization, cooperative responsibility, and ownership. Activists picketed the first Starbucks in our college town and once shouted at me,"Did you really pay that much for a cup of coffee?" I told them I was just here for a cup of hot chocolate, but they still looked distrustful, and a week later the front glass of the cafe was smashed.

Even though I have some sensitivity to caffeine, that doesn't stop me from enjoying an occasional cup of decaf coffee. I looked at this chart with interest. Drew Hendricks, a friend of mine who does some social media authority work for the company that produced this graph, asked me if I would be interested in using it, and he described it this way:

Although coffee is native to North Africa, it plays an important role in the United States.

Coffee was first introduced to the United States by the British, when it was considered a second-rate drink, especially when compared to tea, which was popular at the time. However, just after the Boston Tea Party (the Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773) political demonstrations. Because the colonists in North America were dissatisfied with Britain, local residents dumped tea in Boston, Massachusetts, to oppose the British Parliament, which eventually led to the famous American Revolutionary War. It was one of the key points of the American Revolution and one of the important historical events of the founding of the United States. Coffee flourished in America, which was still a colony. After the protests against the British tea tax, drinking tea was widely regarded as an act of treason, while drinking coffee became a symbol of independence.

One of the events in which coffee continued to play an important role in American culture was the "coffee break" during World War II, when factory owners, seeing the magic effects of caffeine on their employees, gave their employees longer breaks and even offered them coffee.

As this infographic by Lumin Interactive and Condor Consulting demonstrates, coffee remains one of the most popular drinks in the United States, with nearly 80% of Americans drinking coffee. As the number and size of coffee houses in the country continue to expand, the popularity of coffee will continue to grow.

(Note: Brian Clark Howard is a writer and editor for National Geographic. He has edited The Daily Green and E/The Environmental Magazine and contributed to TheAtlantic.com, FastCompany.com, MailOnline.com, PopularMechanics.com, Yahoo!, He has contributed to many publications such as MSN, and recently published a new book with Kevin Shea, Build Your Own Small Wind Power System.