Welcome back readers!
First off, I loved reading through all of your tailgating and sports stories! Wearing opposing colors, being blamed for breaking the television, packing into vans like a circus act…all great times. I’m sure you’re all hurriedly planning your next outings, so let’s get down to business! Congratulations to Bessie Louise Burnsed (posted at September 22, 2011 at 4:21 pm), Donna Joyce (posted at September 29, 2011 at 9:03 am), Erin from Long Island (posted at September 26, 2011 at 1:48 am), Ed (posted at September 29, 2011 at 1:30 pm), and Peter S. (posted at September 24, 2011 at 7:45 pm)! Please send your full names and address to me at amariscal@1800flowers.com and I can send over your Tasty Tailgating Gift Baskets!
Starbucks® Break Time Gift Basket $79.99; Product Code:94773
Did anyone else know that today is National Coffee Day? Me neither, but it is! Where would I ever be without coffee? Probably sleeping under my desk right now with one line of typing trailing off into some unintelligible words… I think I’ve already talked your ears off (well…’typed your eyes out’ would be the literal approach) about our two gourmet Starbucks coffee and tea gift baskets, so I thought I’d do something more fun this time. I may have an odd definition of fun, but I like learning random facts about things, which is how I stumbled on this funny graphic from The Oatmeal on the “15(ish) Things Worth Knowing About Coffee.”
Did you know that, according to myth, the first known discovery of coffee started out with dancing goats? Apparently an Ethiopian Shepherd named Kaldi (you may have seen numerous coffee shops by this name…and now you know why!), first noticed the effects of caffeine when his goats appeared to be dancing and getting riled up after eating the berries that coffees come from!
Which brings me to another fact! Coffee beans aren’t really beans. They’re actually seeds from a bright red berry that grows from large (I’m talking up to 30 feet tall) cocoa trees. The berries are picked, dried, and stripped down to a tiny little green seed which is then roasted and expands to a larger size.
Obviously this is all important information.
And have you ever wondered why we have the term “cup of Joe” for coffee? It comes from American servicemen, or G.I. Joes (the non animated kind), in WWII being seen as big coffee drinkers (which I’m pretty sure was due to the rations they were given during wartime by the U.S.).
What's the point?!
And there you have it! Now the FOUR of you who are lucky enough to win one of our Starbucks Break-Time Gift Baskets can tell me if the coffee tastes better with all of this extra knowledge to it 😉
For your chance to win, comment below (1-2 paragraphs) what your favorite coffee drink is! Of course, you all know I love reading your stories as well, so send in any good coffee related stories you have as well 🙂 I’ll announce winners next Thursday after 3pm CST!
