Bees have a far better memory for plants that offer a slug of caffeine in their nectar. And people aren’t the only ones who seek it out. Distances were routinely measured in cups of tea: a three-cup journey was a trek of five miles. Tea-drinking Tibetans, for example, once fed their horses and mules tea before embarking on strenuous journeys through the mountains. Among others, it perks us up, enhances our mental and physical performance, speeds up our reaction times, boosts our short-term memory, focuses our attention, and makes us feel springy and energetic.Ĭaffeine has supported generations of students through stressful exam weeks and has long been known as a means of upping physical endurance. In human consumers, caffeine has a host of other effects. There’s a lot of caffeine going down our collective pipes.Ībout sixty different plant species produce caffeine, which functions in nature as an insecticide, protecting plants from munching pests. To feed our caffeine habit, the United States imports some 3.5 billion tons of coffee beans and 285 million pounds of tea each year. Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks together sell a mind-boggling 26 million cups of coffee daily – enough to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools and worldwide, we gulp down 20,000 Coca-Cola drinks a second – a whopping 1.7 billion a day. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Ībout 90 percent of Americans consume caffeine every day, variously in the form of chocolate, tea, coffee, sodas, and energy drinks.
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