Whether they take it black, sugary, or pumpkin-spiced, coffee drinkers all over the world start their day with the thick scent of rich, roasted coffee beans and the caffeine fix they crave. What’s better than coffee? Free coffee.
Tuesday, Sept, 9 was National Coffee Day, a day to celebrate one of the most widely championed breakfast beverages in the world. Seizing the opportunity as a marketing event, many Colorado Springs businesses offered discounts or freebies on the day. The Colorado Springs Gazette compiled a list:
• The Perk on Tejon gave free eight-ounce cups of its delicious brew to the first 80 customers of the day, as well as selling large coffees for the price of a medium.
• Both Kangaroo Coffee and Dutch Bros. Coffee offered extra stamps on their frequent buyer cards
• Panera Bread offered free brewed coffee all day, while Bella’s Bakery and the Coffee Exchange offered 12-ounce cups for 50 cents.
• Caribou Coffee donated a cup of coffee to nurses and families in cancer centers nationwide.
• In a shocking show of environmental-consciousness, Starbucks promised to plant coffee trees, beginning in Central America, for every bag of coffee sold through 2016, according to ABC News.
• Whole Foods sold cups of coffee for only 25 cents, and will continue to do so for the rest of the month!
• Even our own Colorado Coffee participated, offering a special of $0.99 for any size coffee, said Randy Kruse, the general manager of Bon Appetit atColorado College.
International Coffee Day also took place on Oct. 1 and according to CNN, Finland is outshining the rest of the world when it comes to coffee drinking. Finns consumed an average of 21.8lbs of coffee per capita in 2014, almost three-and-a-half times what the average American drank. The next seven highest coffee consuming countries on the list were all European, leaving coffee-producing Brazil at number nine and the United States at number 25, according to the study by Euromonitor International.
Coffee, however, might finally be making a comeback into the hearts of health-conscious Americans. According to the Mayo Clinic, rumors of coffee’s negative effects on the body are starting to be overturned. Studies show that coffee might protect against Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver cancer, as well as improving cognitive function and decreasing the risk of depression. The clinic recommends drinking coffee that does not contain cream and sugar, warning that some coffee drinks contain more than 500 calories.
Happy sipping!