Raise Your Cup

September 29, 2014 is National Coffee Day and those that love a hot cup of Joe will be happy to celebrate the international beverage. Americans love coffee and that appears to be enough to warrant a national holiday. Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day and the average cup of coffee is around nine ounces. Coffee is big business, with the United States importing more than $4 billion dollars of coffee each year. But, for true coffee lovers, the thrill of that first morning cup is worth more that mere money. A survey of coffee drinkers discovered that 31% denote that first cup of coffee as the most important part of their morning and more than 50% would rather give up their morning shower than coffee. The love affair with coffee doesn’t stop there, as more than half surveyed would rather gain 10 pounds than give up coffee. But, for those keeping score, coffee did lose out to the cell phone in a neck and neck split, with 49% opting to give up cell phones over coffee. Could that mean that a National Cell Phone Day is on the horizon? Perhaps, but September 29^th is reserved for that piping hot brew and coffee lovers across the United States will be raising their cup in honor of their beverage of choice.