10 amazing facts about coffee

1. After coffee beans are
decaffeinated, coffee
manufacturers sell the caffeine
to soft drink makers and
pharmaceutical companies.

2. The average U.S. worker
spends $1,092 on coffee each
year.

3. Starbucks is named for
Captain Ahab’s first mate. The
founders had considered
naming it Pequod's, after
Ahab’s ship.

4. Chock Full O'Nuts coffee
does not contain nuts. It's
named for a chain of nut stores
the founder converted into
coffee shops.

5. According to legend, Honore
de Balzac drank 50 cups of
coffee a day to fuel his writing.

6. In 1932, Brazil couldn't
afford to send its athletes to
the Olympics in Los Angeles.
So they loaded their ship with
coffee and sold it along the
way.

7. In 1674, the "Women's
Petition Against Coffee" said it
was turning British men into
"useless corpses" and
proposed a ban for those under
60.

8. Coffee was banned in Mecca
in 1511. It was believed to
stimulate radical thinking and
hanging out.

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9. The first webcam watched a
coffee pot. It allowed
researchers at Cambridge to
monitor the coffee situation
without leaving their desks.

10. In 2008, Annamarie Ausnes
received a life-saving kidney
from an unlikely source: her
Starbucks barista Sandie
Andersen.