I love my coffee. Bold and black – no cream or sugar or flavors or whipped topping for me. There is something special for all my five senses… the warm feeling of the cup between my hands, the soothing aroma and the delicious flavor for my palette. I love comfortable coffee shops and collect coffee mugs from around the world. I also have sweet childhood memories of the percolating coffeemaker sounds in the kitchen in the morning. 

My favorite thing about coffee is how it is the catalyst for invigorating and/or vulnerable conversations with friends.

International Coffee Day is celebrated in various countries around the world (Japan, Nepal, Taiwan, Indonesia, and the US to name a few) on September 29. In some places, the day is also used to promote fair trade coffee and to raise awareness for coffee growers around the world.

Here are a few of the great benefits we obtain from coffee:

1. Coffee is a great source of antioxidants! Antioxidants can help protect your body from heart disease, cancer and premature aging!

2. Coffee helps you learn better and stay more alert at work! Studies show that people who drink coffee are relaxed and more interested in their work. The caffeine stimulant in coffee helps restore and maintain alertness and helps improve attention, memory, and wakefulness.

3. Coffee also enhances your physical performance! According to research, caffeine plays a role in providing energy for better athletic performance and can also reduce post-workout muscle pain.

4. Zero calories in every cup! (As long as you don’t add sugar or milk or creamer!)

5. Coffee can help protect your skin! The antioxidant-rich properties of coffee can help your skin fight the damaging effects of the sun and prevent wrinkles as well.

6. Coffee can help ease headaches! Caffeine constricts blood vessels and helps counter the painful effects of blood vessel dilation that cause headaches.

And a few (very important!) points of coffee trivia…

• Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world! (The first is oil.)
• Starbucks is the largest coffee-house company in the world. (No big surprise here.)
• We drink A LOT of coffee. Everyday the world consumes over 1 billion cups of coffee.
• Finland is the #1 coffee drinking country in the world (Would you have guessed that?!) Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland round out the top 7. America, is number 26.

Happy International Coffee Day to you!

Just for fun… how do you like your coffee?